Fabric Supplying with Jay Arbetman of The Sourcing District

MADE Apparel Services Podcast

Host Heather Zager welcomes Jay Arbetman, owner of The Sourcing District, a fabric and textile products sales agency, to the show to talk in-depth about fabric supply. Jay was, as he says, born into the industry. He started working in the family business - coat manufacturing in the Chicago area - at age 14 and has been in the fabric business ever since. Jay shares a wealth of experience and knowledge about fabric with Heather.

Fabric sourcing is a key component in the manufacturing process and Jay is a sales agent for wholesale fabric companies like KenDor Textiles, Sextet Fabrics, and Oriole Textile, among others. He explains the benefits of working with a sales agent like him as he breaks down the differences between being an importer, converter, or US-based mill and how fabrics are purchased and sold. It can be a bewildering step to tackle for first-time designers but Jay and Heather’s conversation demystifies a lot of the process.

Heather and Jay talk about what jobbers are, the benefits and limitations of deadstock fabric, why product development must start with fabric, and the limitations in retail store purchasing. Jay’s many years in the business have given him a wealth of contacts and industry knowledge that he is happy to share with first-time designers and beginners. This episode is the first step in breaking down a key component of manufacturing and a must-listen for understanding fabric supply.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• KenDor Textiles Limited
• Sextet Fabrics
• Oriole Textile
• Blue Desert Co.
• Tuscarora Mills

__

About Jay Arbetman:

Jay is the owner of The Sourcing District, a sales agency that sells fabric, textile products, and garment production necessities to companies in industries like apparel, hospitality, event planning, and uniforms.

—

Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

• Website: MADEApparelServices.com
• Facebook: MADEApparelServices
• Instagram: MADEApparelServices
• Linkedin: MADEApparelServices

Contact Jay Arbetman | The Sourcing District:

• Website: TheSourcingDistrict.com
• Website: InterfacingAndMuslin.com
• Phone: [phone]
• Text: [phone]
• Email: [e-mail]
  
  

—

Transcript

Heather Zager: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to today's podcast. My name is Heather Zager. I am the host of this podcast series and founder of Made Apparel Services. Our guest today is Jay Arbetman of The Sourcing District. He represents some of today's best suppliers such as KenDor, Sextet, Oriole Mills and Blue Desert Co, and even Made In USA Mills. He can also give us guidance on labels, hang tags and other findings such as elastics, interfacing and the list goes on. And he can add to that more here in a minute. But Jay, let's start off by having you tell us a little bit about who you are, how long you've been doing this, and how you got to where you are today.

Jay Arbetman: [00:00:39] Well, I was born into the business. That's the best way to put it. My dad and my uncles were coat manufacturers, actually, my grandfather was and they manufactured coats in Chicago and then in the western suburbs of Chicago and then in the western suburbs of Chicago and overseas. And the business was active from 1902 when my grandfather started it, until 1999, when my brother and I, who were the survivors of the business, put the key in the door. So I had a long career. I started working for them full-time in 1971, and so I had close to 30 years in the apparel manufacturing end of the business and actually worked for them as a teenager and, you know, picking orders on Saturdays or, you know, whatever I could do. And so I've been doing this for a long time. In the early 2000s, about 2003, a friend of mine in New York who was in the zipper and button business called me up and asked me to reach out to a local dress manufacturer who I knew, and I did, and I wrote an order, and a couple of weeks later, I got a check in the mail and I thought, wow, this is something I should explore.

Jay Arbetman: [00:02:02] And so over the years, I developed a business, at first kind of did it on the side, I was working for a jacket company and and then in about 2009, I started doing this full-time. Took me several years to kind of get going with it. But the last 11, 12 years I've done pretty well doing this.

Heather Zager: [00:02:22] Great.

Jay Arbetman: [00:02:22] And have had a really good group of suppliers. And I have a pretty substantial online presence, I do shows, I do some traveling, and I'm not an unknown commodity among independent designers. So that's how I got here. And I've been basically in and around the business, I'm 73, and I've been in and around the business since I was 14. So I'm moving in on 60 years. And it was part of our discussion at the dinner table sometimes. I remember knowing that really good coating wools came from Forstmann Mills when I was, you know, 14, 15 years old. And that I remember hearing one of my uncles say that a certain manufacturer had a 33 inch yardstick, which I always thought was really funny. And so I've been around this my whole life.

Heather Zager: [00:03:19] So how does somebody that isn't in the industry but, well, and we're speaking to my clients specifically because they are just new designers or people with a concept in mind and they just don't even know how to start. So a lot of times they think, well, I need material. So what are they putting into a Google search to find somebody like you? Like what are the key words would you recommend that they do? Does that make sense?

Jay Arbetman: [00:03:41] Yeah. So that's a good question. So if you put in wholesale fabric sourcing I believe I come up on the first page.

Heather Zager: [00:03:49] Okay.

Jay Arbetman: [00:03:50] So not at the top. At the top is going to be Amazon.

Heather Zager: [00:03:53] Right. Right.

Jay Arbetman: [00:03:54] Which will do you about as, not a great thing to buy from.

Heather Zager: [00:03:59] Yeah. Yeah.

Jay Arbetman: [00:04:00] And then there are a lot of jobbers and people who, so you know my concept, and I think it's the right one, is that the fabric's got to have a United States FOB point. It has to be stocked in North America and it has to have continuity and real wholesale pricing. So if those things are, those things are not available, you know, then it's a problem. And continuity is really important because if some...