One brisk Saturday in October, I received a call at my home in Pennsylvania from my friend Joe. He was talking anxiously about a shirt factory in Mohnton that had just closed its doors after 100 years. "They’re sending the entire team home next Friday,” Joe explained. “Erik, these folks know how to make t-shirts. It’s in the water out there. Would you and Sasha have any interest in buying the place?”

The next morning I was on the turnpike, heading east. I walked the hardwood floors, shaking hands with the sewing professionals and technicians. I heard the story of this factory, the continuous downsizing, and the jobs shipped overseas. Here was a factory that had lived through both World Wars, the Great Depression, and 28 of our 46 presidents and was still fully operational. Joe was pulling on my heartstrings, but he didn’t have to. I saw the opportunity. Opportunity to rebuild; opportunity for rebirth. I also saw a sound business opportunity.

I did some quick math, and then I called Sasha. A few months prior, we had decided to build a new t-shirt factory in Dallas, Texas, next to our vertical distribution center. But here was an existing, fully functional version of what we aimed to build. Even better, the Mohnton mill came with knitting machines allowing us to develop our proprietary fabrics from scratch.

A few months later, after everyone had been sent home with their last paycheck, we fired up the Singers and brought the team back to work.