Spiewak Turns 100 and Charges Into Another Century of Innovation

Founded in 1904, Spiewak is a fourth generation family business dedicated to providing functional, innovative protective apparel for workers and businesses. Spiewaks VizGuard, WeatherTech, Titan and Golden Fleece apparel protect major airlines, rent-a-car companies, delivery carriers, law enforcement/public safety, fire and EMS responders around the world.

The company also sells apparel in many categories to the fashion and retail markets.

As the company celebrates its 100th anniversary, we asked Michael Spiewak, CEO of Spiewak, to share his thoughts on the company, trends and uniform industry.

What do you see as the direction for Spiewak for the next 10 years?

Even as a long-term company, I dont think we look 10 years down the road. We may try to identify trends that we feel will be important 10 years from now. The advantage of a fashion perspective is the chance to see what is happening in the general apparel arena, rather than the more narrow uniform one.

Basic trends for us specifically, however, include: a) an increase in brand building reaching our core customer, the end-user, in each market, b) customer diversification increasing the types of customers we supply to broaden our distribution, c) niche product saturationexpanding the products that we offer for each identifiable niche to build brand awareness and strengthen our ties to those customers, and d) improving our sourcing and logistics to allow us to source from the best, low-cost, high-value vendors anywhere in the world.

Can you imagine the company being around another 100 years?

Why not? We ran across a diary written by one of my grandfathers brothers in the mid-1930s describing business conditions and discussions on a daily basis. What concerned them back then? How tough it was to get orders. Deadlines on important government contracts. New materials and how to get exclusive use of those materials. Basic family issues whos doing what, where. Hmmmsort of exactly the same concerns our meetings cover now. Products change, methods change, technologies change but, for better or worse, people generally dont change.

I also discovered that it takes a long time for each generation in a multi-generational business to get its own rhythm, build its own teams. At Spiewak, weve been lucky enough to do this for four generations. My cousin Roy and I are building our own culture, as opposed to my fathers and uncles. This has changed our business somewhat but I think, at least for Roy and me, for the better. Roy has so much talent in so many areas that its taken me 15 years just to learn what he can do. Our children will have to find this atmosphere enabling also. If they do, then we can continue for another 100 years or longer.

I still believe that without constant change, the only thing longevity guarantees is that youll be an old company when you die.

Long-term companies change their traditions all the time. Its their values that dont change. 100-year-old companies are only successful when they concentrate on looking towards the future and reinventing themselves over and over.

Reinvention means change, and embracing change is critical for a business to move forward. But at Spiewak, certain elements dont change, such as the values by which we run the company. We are a family business, and for us, family and all that family represents is a major part of who we are. Being a family business means that people who join our company become, in many respects, part of our family. We are privileged to be able to chose the people we work with, and because of that, we get to enjoy having their talents move our company forward.

Functional workwear is very popular in the urban fashion and music scenes, and Spiewak has benefited greatly from this. What do you attribute this trend to?

Functional workwear functions. Clothes designed for a purpose tend to last longer, be a better value, be more comfortable to wear for extended periods of time, be less out-of-date, though not necessarily off trend, over an extended period.

The big push in music (how to live in a world of downloads) would be a lot more interesting if we could download apparel. While online programs may be interesting, they havent suplanted traditional methods of distribution for the uniform industry.

Changes in fashion that are very relevant include sourcing, textile technology (where lately there have been some incredible developments), logistics (think Wal-Mart meets EZ pass), and individual distribution (online tracking through UPS and FedEx).

The most exciting part of this for us is the way we have rethought our product development process. Taking a product management approach, we now do parallel design, merchandising, production, marketing and sales, stripping weeks many times months off new product introductions. While there have been some snafus getting this up and running sometimes one section areas enthusiasm outdistances the others the number of customer-driven, high-value, products we can bring to market has grown exponentially. We find this very exciting.

And because were developing fashion and uniform lines using part of the same teams, we get to combine resources that we wouldnt use ordinarily, leading to some very interesting new products, like our EMS pants and Hi-Visibility rainwear.

In this issue of Made To Measure, we feature a number of new technologies, such as advancements in nanotechnology related to civilian and military uniforms. How do we as an industry address the end-users interest in authentic, classic uniforms and their craving for the newest technology?

Authentic and new-technology dont have to work against each other. Examples are everywhere. We put a plasma TV into an antique cabinet. High-tech showers with multiple shower heads, steam and sauna, etc. mix into luxurious baths with very traditional sinks and faucets.

We want the comfort and craftsmanship of the old with the performance improvement of the new. Why do we like real wood trim in BMWs and Mercedes? Or need nanotechnology stain release on cotton garments as opposed to stain resistant, breathable polyester pants that look like cotton?

There are hundreds of products where this is true. An example is our Snorkel Parka, which is made essentially the way it was in the mid-1940s except that the insulation is no longer composed of reprocessed wool and animal hair batting, and they dont weigh 30 pounds anymore either.

Are fashion trends in general important for your company, or do you go your own way of styles?

Long term trends are important, especially as they relate to new technology and potential. For instance, communication trends mobile phones, Blackberry devices, instant messages and the convergence of communication appliances. Is a blackberry a phone or an email device? Protocol has changed because of this device when is it ok to receive calls? In a theater? Or restaurant? Or class? What kind of access do we need to these devices?

Besides police and fire personnel, how many people carried such communication devices on their belts before the popularity of the mobile phone? We watch and consider these types of trends carefully.

Other types of fashion trends, such as fit (urban, club, oversize, slender), color (____ will be the new black this year), lengths, etc. are less evolutionary and more spontaneous. While we dont watch these like long-term trends, we, as apparel designers, often end up acting like consumers and respond to them anyway without realizing it. One style weve made for many years without changing sold in the U.S. for workwear in the early 1990s with a fairly narrow fit. In Europe, our customers bought the same jacket with an oversized drop shoulder. Ten years later, we sell the same item to the urban market in the U.S. with an oversized, big mans fit and in the European fashion market with a slender fit.

Where would you say the right mix between modernity and tradition lies?

Hopefully the dynamic energy between the two keeps moving the center point, so were never sure where it is. The lack of balance is what fuels creative change.