Manufacturing in San Francisco

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

Manufacturing in San Francisco is doing surprisingly well:

Like most of the rest of the country’s, San Francisco’s manufacturing peaked in the 1970′s. Honeycutt says, “When I started in ’89, there was a lot of sewing in San Francisco. I remember as a bike messenger seeing all the sewing factories letting out South of Market.” He adds that with the exception of a handful of companies like Timbuk2, “All the sewing left San Francisco during the 90′s.” But today, San Francisco manufacturing is on the rise again.

How do San Francisco businesses make it work? Kate Sofis of SFMade – a non-profit dedicated to supporting and growing manufacturing in San Francisco – explains, “Companies here share a few very noteworthy traits. They are almost all consumer-products companies [that are] design-driven, intensely customer focused, increasingly sell direct, and often marry technology in their business model.”

Technology is a key ingredient. Over the last five years, there has been tremendous growth in custom or DIY product sales online. Companies like Nike and Converse build product configurators online and customers select what materials and colors they want on their products. Larger companies, specifically Nike and Converse, manufacture their products in Asia and FedEx them directly to the customer. The model works well for everyone but the customer who has to wait 3 – 6 weeks to receive a product. But because Timbuk2 is local (i.e. in the USA), we manufacture and ship custom bags in 2 – 3 business days. And if the customer is in San Francisco, we can do same-day manufacturing and delivery. This is more in-line with what online shoppers have learned to expect. Amazon Prime has both ruined it for everyone and made our lives better. Free overnight shipping? Yes please.