Ok! Diving back in to the meaty issues at hand regarding the proposed Portland Apparel Lab (PAL). We've looked at the memberships and costs, which have understandably been the focus of most prospective members I've spoken to. But part of PAL's launch strategy brings up a crucial that hasn't been brought to the fore perhaps as much it should be. Other regional industries, like brewing, that have seen institutional support and achieved widespread recognition as being part of—for lack of a less gauche term—"the Portland brand" have something the apparel industry lacks: economic data.

To again quote heavily from PAL's conveniently verbose co-founder, Crispin Argento:

Once we get enough interest and applications, our first order of business is to put together an economic report to demonstrate to outside investors and the local business community that Portland has the entrepreneurial talent, drive, potential to create the apparel companies of tomorrow. We need to better understand, qualify and quantify the Portland market, its short and long-term viability and growth potential. The $75.00 application fees go toward underwriting the Economic State of the Industry Report (we have to hire an economic consulting firm) and ongoing short-term PAL development. The final report and finding will be presented to the Portland apparel community, business community, City of Portland, State of Oregon and the PDC at a luncheon late this year or early next year. This report will be similar to economic feasibility studies that have been done for [athletic and outdoor], tech, food, beer industries, etc.

Here's one for the athletic and outdoor-specific apparel industry in Portland (its pals just refer to it as A&O).

Incidentally, Friday evening ADX is hosting a "State of the Collective" party for its Portland Made affiliate to reveal the results of a survey conducted by Portland State University that, as ADX's Kelley Roy puts it, "shows [the local manufacturing community's] collective economic impact is a force to be reckoned with." Which again reminds me—special apparel-related headaches aside—that it's probably in everyone involved's best interest to stick close to the movement to re-home/localize manufacturing in general. Friday's National Manufacturing Day, in fact, and an amazing place to experience that will be ADX from 6-8 pm.

Back to Argento:

Portland does not have a track record for apparel entrepreneurism or detailed economic data to pull to show its viability. We need a headcount plus present economic figures and future growth projections. How many designers? What are industry sales figures, brand types, etc? How many fashion photographers? MUAHs? The report will not detail everyone, but will serve as base sample for qualifying and quantifiy the entire industry. Getting all the figures will take a lot more work, time and money.

Hypothetically... what if this conversation had begun simply as a drive to have such an economic assessment undertaken? What if it wasn't funded by PAL application fees? What if it was just a fundraising effort to find out what's what, and what if people hadn't started talking about something like PAL until the results were in? Why does contributing to a study like this have to be contingent on a bigger commitment before we know what the study is ultimately going to tell us? Is the leap PAL's asking too much too soon?

Two weeks ago, PAL sent out and email to its subscriber list. It read, in part:

In the weeks and months prior to the launch, meetings were held with institutional investors in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and here in Portland. Many saw PAL’s value and potential to address the systemic problems inherent in the apparel industry. Some even helped shape the existing business model. However, they questioned whether “Portlandia’” has the drive to make it happen.

The PAL team believes in Portland and recognizes that this city has the talent, ethos, drive and vision to support PAL and create a culture of entrepreneurialism in apparel—just as Portland has done for traditional tech start-ups, food, beer, wine and many other emerging industries.

I think the underlying implication here is that in order to attract investor dollars, the industry has to invest in itself. Also that we're working against an unfortunate reputation.

As Argento puts it:

PAL is going to take a lot of money to get off the ground (well north of $1M). It is a tech start-up and is very scalable if successful. To quell speculation whether or not Portland is the best place for PAL, we will be able to demonstrate shared-risk and shared-investment through Membership initiation fee commitments.

There are no guarantees that we will secure funding, stuff happens, warms get cold, etc. but it puts us in a much better position if we can show that Portland has "skin in the game.” The $75.00 application fees are non-refundable, but 70% ($402.50/member) of the initiation fees for accepted members will be put into a secure account and be returned to prospective members after 360 Days (or otherwise negotiated) if we are unable to secure additional financing and support. 30% ($172.50) will be used for ongoing PAL development, insurance, attorneys fees, travel expenses, investor engagement, etc.

All told, risk money is about $247.00 ($75 + $172) for members if PAL does not get off the ground.

I worry that the apparel industry is being set up to be called lazy if PAL doesn't get enough applicants, when it might just be too broke to afford it. We won't know until we have the numbers, and until we have some knowledge of the things people tend not to be forthcoming about, like how many designers are able to get by on their businesses alone, and how many have additional sources of income/monetary support.

Membership applications are due to be available for download any day now. If anyone wants to weigh in on their consideration of it—first of all, talk to PAL. If you still want to talk about it, I'm interested in hearing more about how all this is sitting with prospective members. Drop me a line.