mo' food

ate chinese this afternoon -- tonight it was taiwanese. I'm going to need a bit to collect myself after this last one (no pictures of the evening feed... ) in the mean time here's the afternoon fare which was kind of light weight but interesting :

perhaps it will change

There is an arrogance here.

I really enjoy Shanghai, I like this city a lot. On par with Cities that i’ll record as my favorite. It’s lacking in a couple of areas.... but so significantly makes up in others that the lack of things to see is offset by the things to do and for the time being my choice level of cultural clumsiness.

the blush of being new in China hasn’t worn off. I wake up with a grin and eat with first date anxiety. I haven’t gotten tired of not understanding anything and have picked up ‘thank you’ and ‘hello’. Got them backwards for a whole day. Learned that people like to teach me chinese if I ask. And my ear feels like it’s stuffed with marshmallows when they talk-- spelling things is the only way.

in this mess of newness and business i’ve also see one nasty consequence of the economic success that defines shanghai --

and that’s hubris. Maybe it was just surprising, and i'm sure it isn't the Rule (this is a big place after all...) But it's also not hard to find.

Someone may read this and damn the jingoist . But i’m not, don’t really care. and I genuinely like the place.

the businesses here have exploded. 5MM three years ago, 50MM this year. Again and again you hear the same story. For eons as economies ebb and flow as the fates of success roll up somewhere new-- And in China a cosmic scale lottery ticket has been cashed.

The cynical head of an old American brand? yeah. i am.

But the circumstantial success of a shanghai. did you grow the billion and pay them nothing sir? no. you happened to be in a place where you could well exploit a population, and were an able enough skipper to navigate through some chop to end with a successful business. no bitterness -- a lot of respect. respect.

But to mistake the scaled production of cheap goods with genius, or worse with brand integrity is arrogant. Of course this economy will mature and I know that some of the great brands in the 21st century -- a la GE, Coke, Apple, Ferrari, will be Chinese.

But if you’re knocking off thousands of sewing machines and think for a moment that you’ve nailed the integrity factor that builds a worldwide consumer base who trusts and invests in your product for generations. no. ain’t happening.

why? well my reaction probably sounds a little ham handed-- but is it? Name some great brands that have developed and lasted building a business on knocking things off. Brands. Not behind the scenes ‘shaws’ brand pepper. If you can, name them in the comments.

I rattled off a pile of 50 and couldn’t tag one as fitting the bill. The closest i got was Walmart. And actually this category has a couple, so maybe the whole boxstore enchilada can be assessed.

But is driving across state lines to buy cheap teeshirts and chachkis to sell cheap back home the same thing? I’ll help here. No it’s not. Because your business is predicated on customer service and low costs. People liked Sam Walton, they liked shopping at his store.... and his prices were better.

So what’s the bottom line. Shanghai has a good thing going and I'd bet there are a handful of Sam Waltons as well. But the business leaders here should be aware that good fortune is often chairman of the board. Careful to whom you lift your nose. massive economic good fortune has a tendency to not give a whole lot of warning before taking a walk.

distractions

sculpture, shot through the window of the car.



a jazz bar with a creepy drawing of black america

taxi take 2

am in the taxi back. long day, it’s 11:30PM.

I’m pleased with the day. This was an important one. Not momentous, in fact not even a step forward. But a lot of debris was blown out of the system.

I’ll be working with folks tomorrow to test todays production. If all goes well i’ll fly to hong kong and then maybe taiwan. If not, I come home saturday.

highlight was an impromtu dinner at a factory I was visiting. We were concluding the visit when Susie asks wether i’ll take a light meal? Odd this, I thought.


Best,it was served with chinese budwiser. Not only does it taste better but it has the coolest pull-off tab, like V8 in the states. Chinese Bud.



I also went DVD shopping. First thing in this country that I found a deal on. 5RMB for a DVD. This is like .80. I don’t buy DVDs generally, but at .80 I did. At .80 i’ll buy almost anything....

_____
the riviting taxi update: a 1 and 1/2 hr. ride back to the hotel is now sidelined. We’re stopped dead on a highway, have been for 15 minutes or so. Driver is out smoking on the overpass. In fact as i’m writing there’s a small army of people rolling up through the cars. Now the optomist in me makes the following assesment: we’re on a long elevated road, a small army of chinese are marching toward whatever isn’t moving ahead of us, no one is moving or has for 20 min. or so (incidently the taxi meter continues to tick.... ) perhpas they’ll just chuck the offending blockage over the overpass and get this show on the road.

Remember in China we’re all a drop of water in a fast rushing river....

taxi

i’m in the taxi now--



we’re headed out of shanghai. He speaks no english, which is fine generally. but by the by I pissed him off. When you’re in a taxi heading somewhere unknown (no idea how far, 1hr.? 5hr.? 1/2hr?) with a hostile taxi driver it’s fun to toy with the idea that neither you nor he really knows what’s going on. Or worse he does -- and might just let me off on a corner somewhere....

In India this happened. For more than a half hr. the driver drove. When pressed with pen and paper ‘do you KNOW where your going’ -- ‘we’re going HERE....scribble scribble’ he vigorously shakes his head and says ‘no, no!). So I get out and wait befuddled, for another taxi.

This time I’m armed with three destinations. Hotels and a business. If I get the improbable but possible ‘no, no! I’ll whip out my back up ammo-- chinese written hotels! . And then pay him more money.....

____
After a 1/2hr. or so we crossed a big bridge! landmark and cookie crumbs for the trip back....

___

construction in shanghai

somewhere in this city there is apparently a scale model of what shanghai is anticipated to look like in 5 years.

it would be worth finding. The poor guy who has to work on this thing, for him every day must suck. ‘kim chi you have not updated model, what happened?’ ‘sir, i went to sleep’, ‘you do not sleep! this is shanghai, model out of date!’



the long highway that i’m driving is curbed with new skyscrapers. the height is generally not outlandish -- if you look i suppose that the average is 30 to 40 floors. But by volume it’s almost impossible to imagine how there is enough stuff to occupy, nevertheless pay for rent in all of this space.

Residential? was the population homeless yesterday?

The count is 25 million in Shanghai, I assume they live somewhere to be counted. Is the residential construction meeting the demand of people immigrating to shanghai? Or are there a lot of abandoned crap shanty housing somewhere as a middle class develops?

Either way a lot of people have new digs, and by the looks of it a lot of realestate developers will be investing in tums if the markets show so much as a whisper of slacking.

some walking around the city

Today was kind of a mess -- was a half a day off-- but I did get to walk some around the old temple downtown. Caught a movie tonight in Chinese --

Here are some of the pics. Didn't get anything real decent other than this one:


Which I think captures the contrast well, of this ancient and bleeding edge.

It was a sleeting rain all day

delicate inaccessible subjects

-----
a quick update to the post below. turns out that it was even easier to get at the blog, after googling 'blogspot proxy china' the first link is here. allowing simple access via way of proxy to the banned website.

With all the technical muscle the banning of information seems trivial. So what's the deal?
-----
a perfect follow up to the last post.

can't get at my own blog. or wikipedia. or a host of other sites

chinese won't let me.

links die. these things simply aren't available.

the weird thing -- when I click on this link -- it loaded! for an eighth of second and then shut down. This means that somewhere a chinese black box was actively, not preemptively, filtering. So they are watching what i'm looking at....do they know my hotel room #?

so is it sinister, or childish? As the link describes a simple script in firefox circumvents the government firewall-- that's not exactly a whole hearted effort to stop information transfer.

I'm sure if I hunt around there is a lot written on this-- and after a quick look it seems like a smaller and smaller deal. but it was a touch disconcerting to not be able to just go to a website...

so after writing a quick and sincere post about how darn capitalistic shanghai is -- i butt heads against the System that somehow is nurturing this and keeping a finger on the button. As one of these posts mentions 1984 meets 1989 -- throw a little 1999 to the mix and we'll bake cake.

communsim of different stripes

For someone that likes to focus on work, Shanghai is (to really hack up a metaphor) a Shangri La. This is evidently the one of the best places on earth to do nothing but work.

Erm. Correction. This is the best place on earth to do a lot, and while this lot is being done to not lose track of work or deal making.

I’m in the lobby of the hotel, each of the tables taken has a small group of people laptops tipped open most leaning in closely to listen

It feels like san jose with more chinese. Note though that the composition of white faces is even young wearing hip glasses. The Chinese are generally older.

shiny new city please

Last night driving through shanghai the size of the city was impossible to ignore. As LA has several ‘cities’ within the metro, so does Shanghai. Except that they are not connected by relatively low rise buildings. The place is dotted with skyscrapers

On the River (which to this point has been the most visually striking) the buildings are lit up like Tokyo? or Las Vegas. The citibank building’s entire and considerable facade is a billboard.

And there is old architecture, I think. I’m not sure how much of the ‘this is 500 years old’ i buy. Most looked awfully 18th century to me... Nonetheless the contrast isn’t even significant. This is a new city, it makes NYC feel staid and formal.

Fish Eyes

Kindy and I ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant (in Shanghai).

1st. I never heard or saw Kindy order. I was watching the waitress scribble frantically as he was reading the menu, but figured she was practicing or something-- he was certainly not saying or discernibly pointing to what he wanted to eat. Obviously I’m wrong as we got food -- but still it seems cryptic to me.

And he ordered 22 plates of food. Like tapas. They started with 5 and as we ate more appeared.

And 50% was new to me. scallop concoctions (served in the big shell), exotic sashimi, large sardines, egg soup, a good kim chi... Fish heads

So we’re half way through when the first fish head comes. The first one was tuna head. It comes with two pieces, the whole head and then a chunk from the shoulders (fish shoulders?). Kindy advises me to go for the head.

I did with commitment. This whole eating thing is my bag. The stranger it looks the happier I get. The hotter, the mo’ bitter whatever. I love eating food -- challenging food. The fish head wasn’t necessarily this....

But then I got to the eye. Big grin on my face. Was having fun and thinking ahha! my first chinese challenge! Not going to even ask -- going to savor the eye, I think I read it’s a delicacy..... do i pop the whole thing in? or bite it? whole thing! aha--hmm ,round, slippery rolled around on tongue, it popped, salty, thicker than I thought, woah meaty, viscous, mouth is very full, need to chew, it’s a two swallower.

I still can’t figure out what the chalky white thing in the center was, but I’ve never eaten anything quite like tuna eye.

A couple of plates later we got salmon head. I asked Kindy to take it. When he got to the end all that was left was the eye....

i pointed chop stick; said saving this for last eh? He laughed; said you eat eye? i never have, ok ok i’ll try.

He had a nibble and spit it out.
I assume because he’s taiwanese and not chinese he must not know....

C

Next Leg

The next leg begins.

A day in this new Merrow office...


Flight leaves for Shanghai at 2 this afternoon. In the mean time i'm going to try and hunt down a little food.

India -- Ludhiana

No bandwith to upload pictures until today.

so here some shots from Ludhiana.



I'm in now in Heathrow. Waiting for the next leg to start. In email i've described some of the detail of this trip. The blog isn't the place for details with respect to business.... so I'm just going to stick to to the travel.

There is a lot of it.

A: In Ludhiana there is a factory in almost every home.
B: The city has no drug issues, no bars (to speak of), no theatres -- they just work.
C: It is largely Seik. The Seiks wear turbans, all colors. Green, pink, black, blue.... and all of the color is amazing
D: Ludhiana is a 6, 7 or 8 hr. drive to Delhi. If your driver doesnt' know where the airport is, it's longer.

D....the traffic was so bad that we drove, at the end of the day, 12 hrs. to get to the Delhi airport (followed by a 9hr. flight ... yeah i'm a little tired)

Imagine this-- this is like driving the Washington DC to take a plane. And then my driver had to drive back!

I'll log back in an hr. to add more.... in the mean time here some more pics.

India Day 5

Where I'm headed this morning, and what a sunrise in India looks like:


(that's 60 miles from pakistan...)

Pats//Giants. A small world, I watched a live blog of the green bay giants game-- and nearly jumped out of my chair when the field goal went in -- too bad that.

Off to the north now.

India Day 4

In India there are a lot of one word historical epochs

1947 was ‘Independence’
1974-1976?? was ‘Emergency’
Jan. 19th 2008 ‘Adjustment’

adjustment. this is what they call delhi belly. for me the 36 hrs. was more like what i’d imagine the best and worst of an absinthe hangover in a sadistic weight loss clinic. i was pretty sick (delirious...fwiw)

lesson -- don’t drink the water in India. no -- seriously, don’t. they don’t even drink it (if they have a choice).

After a rough outing on the first day of the show and an effective withdrawal on the 2nd, Merrow did well on the third.

I met one of the largest garment factories in the world (employee base, 50,000-75,000.... people) We talked shop about buttseaming (they have 60 -- can someone please get me an accurate idea of the # of machines a company should have at a given size--it appears that if you're big you have 60-80. end of story. what??), and scheduled a visit in Bangalore

With many more customers we talked about blanket stitching, emblem edging and butt seaming.

We also found out how little people know of Merrow. They know 'Merrow' (high quality xyz machine) -- but no one knew what we did in entirety. And almost everyone we spoke to had a supply issue.

We need more machines & parts-- we need to get our act together and shorten our delivery times. Customers need a lot of different machines, lots of different parts, this is their challenge. Now we figure it out -- this is our mandate.

This means getting them machines, parts, support. A new website, new stitch samples, marketing material-- this means blocking and tackling. It's easy to talk about in the office -- a lot harder to see how much energy companies with hundreds of sales people will dedicate to Merrow if we can give them something to work with....

that said, the people at HCA were fantastic -- I took video of the party after the show tonight, like nothing i’ve ever seen.

India is growing roughly 10%GDP per year (this year will be a little less). You can feel change in the air, and smell it and hear it. And yet there is always the relative measure of how things are ‘it’s not as good as last year...’ They have no idea how good they have it...which is an almost impossible thing to really believe when you see how far India is from approximating US infrastructure. Yet their growth is something the US has not seen in 40 years.

So empowered with perspective and cunning, we will adopt their GDP growth, and China's and Brazil's and reap the rewards.

It is a good time to work for Merrow -- this is exciting.

I’ll be traveling north tomorrow, saying goodbye to delhi. We should return soon however.

Best
Charlie

Indian Evening

This will be quick -- am exhausted. Pics from the show. Took mostly video. A Good day generally.

Indian Morning

I took a pre-dawn hike. With considerable disapproval from the hotel staff-- but this is India and I was determined to see the sun rise from a hill.

Not great luck with the pics of a sunrise, bad vantage. (shots are of the hotel, my view from a hill, a laborer and the doorman)

and the food! This morning the requisite porridge, fried tomatoes and steamed vegetable root. Olives and chicken sausage added on for pizazz.

and the Language! this AM in the Times of India several instances of "upgradation". A useful word, I think (Tata Motors knows that the brands, that operate in developed markets and compete with some of the best in world, need constant upgradation, on engines, model facelifts. )

We leave for the tradeshow at 10AM -- i'll work to add updates as the day goes on.

Hr. 7 in India

We're in Delhi --

Delhi, Just another poor city? No. the sweaters and clean cardigans & clothes made this impossible. Clouds of dirt and cars and noise and everyone somehow appears dressed well.

Yet Unmistakably poor. Poor on the roadside, filthy slums and bi-level concrete shell housing farther out as you look. For 20 minutes or so I was deceived into thinking Mexico, or name your place.

And then, cows in the road!

Not being herded, harassed, harangued or otherwise. not being owned by anyone apparent. Just loitering... The Indian Cow, everything started to make sense.

Then there were monkeys. And I looked closer and the poverty felt different. More like the stories i’ve read, not kipling the Other stories. Beggars and desperation that was harder, larger, tougher.

But the color and the clean clothes and the smiling kids in the back window of a bus waving at the stopped car behind was very familiar. Even the smiles on the dirty street kids were recognizable. So this was the contrast --

And now at the hotel i’m sitting in the dining room. Indian band just stopped playing and the cook at the buffet named guptarathi really likes making me spicy food-- got this grin on his face when he hands my plate back ( because I keep returning my plate asking for spicier food...)

Me and India, we're going to have a great time it would seem

Couple of hr.s prepping for the show tomorrow -- and it's gametime.

I'll wear a cardigan

Pictures from last week's Merrow Innovation Article

Additional picture from last week's Merrow Innovation Article:

Ahead of the curve: Company using microsites to sell sewing machines

Merrow Innovation Makes Local News!

On Nov. 1 2007 Merrow made local headlines:

According to the Patriot Ledger, Merrow is leveraging an innovative marketing campaign based on microsites.

Here is a snipit of the article:

BUSINESS

ONLINE MARKETING - AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Company using microsites to sell sewing machines

Brothers Charlie, left, and Owen Merrow of Merrow Sewing Machine Co. look over the latest Web video for customers. (GREG DERR/The Patriot Ledger)

By A.J. BAUER
The Patriot Ledger

WAREHAM - Merrow Sewing Machine Co.’s customers range from lingerie designers to fishing net manufacturers and hail from 85 countries.

Founded in 1838, the longtime Connecticut company moved to Wareham in 2004 when it was purchased by Charlie and Owen Merrow, descendents of the company’s founder. Since then Charlie Merrow, the company’s CEO, has focused on developing new ways to sell its sewing machines, which are capable of producing more than 6,000 different stitches.

Marketing to such a diverse constituency calls for a strategy just as nuanced as the myriad industries to which the company sells. Merrow believes he has found just such a strategy in what are known as microsites.

A microsite is a Web site, with a separate URL address than a corporation’s main Web site, that is geared toward marketing a particular product or service. They are generally simple to navigate and some try to be entertaining.

‘‘What microsites allow us to do is communicate very specific solutions to very specific customers within the industry,’’ Merrow said.

Merrow launched its first microsite in June and now has six unique English sites, four of which also have been translated into Spanish. Their content features close-up photos of stitches, videos, blogs, podcasts and, of course, basic information on how to buy the machine that makes the featured stitch.

While microsites have grown in popularity since their inception in the late 1990s, experts say companies engaged in business-to-business marketing have been generally slow to embrace it.

‘‘They forget they’re still marketing to people who still like to be entertained,’’ Bill Hanekamp, CEO of Chicago ad agency The Well, said of the typical business-to-business marketing strategy. ‘‘Even though a person may wear a suit, that doesn’t mean they don’t like to laugh or drink a beer, so treat them as such.’’

Hanekamp is a fervent advocate of microsites, so much that he blogs about them on his Web site Microsite.com. While he said he was unfamiliar with Merrow’s sites, he called its use of microsites ‘‘an exception’’ in the business-to-business marketing industry and said he expects more companies to follow suit.

‘‘The trends are clear, people are moving online and online presence is more important than ever before,’’ Hanekamp said.

William Rice, president of the Hartford, Conn., Web Marketing Association, which annually hosts a competition recognizing the Internet’s most effective Web sites, said he had not heard of Merrow. But Rice said the marketing tool is a natural fit for multi-niche manufacturers like Merrow.

‘‘When a salesman goes to see any prospective customer, the first thing the customer does is go online,’’ Rice said. ‘‘By giving them a Web site that fills all their needs, you can get them targeted and through the sales cycle that much quicker.’’

Merrow said the microsite strategy has already begun to deliver - as much as doubling sales for some of the machines featured on the sites. Encouraged, the company has set up a department devoted to creating new sites.

‘‘It lets us be nimble,’’ Merrow said. ‘‘We can get a phone call from a customer, have a sales meeting and within three days have a microsite that speaks to that application.’’

Merrow Stitch Pictures

We are constantly adding things to our internal archives -- i'm going to begin to use the blog to publish some of this data. Starting with stitch pics.

From emblems to blankets to everything in between -- we've got some interesting stitch pics. as we scan 'em i'll post 'em.

test for mobile blogging

pic. of dave on boat coming back from new york. windswept & glam.

Trip to the midwest

I flew out to harrisburg, PA and Evansville, IN (and owensboro, KY). Other than breaking my new macbook pro -- the trip was productive.

The thing about a small town airport are that the lines are hit or miss. In this case I hit it just right. (note the car in the lobby???) The picture below is of the lines in the harrisburg airport at 5:30PM on a monday.

The auto emblem machine (or AEM) as it was known in a prior life was in residence at one of the facilities. Even though it's ugly it was a sight to behold. One operator using 4 machines and sewing dozens of thousands of patches a day. Impressive

Fashion Institute of Technology

This past Friday, Charlie and I had a number of exciting, forward looking meetings again in New York in the Fashion District, one of which was at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), home to such notable design students as Calvin Klein, David Chu, President and Founder of Nautica International, Chloe Dao, winner of Project Runway 2, Nina Garcia, Fashion Director at Elle, among many others.


We were excited to see over 80 Merrow machines in use by FIT's talented students and it was a great to know such notable designers (listed above) had honed their craft on Merrow machines, and that many more will do the same in the years to come!



The FIT students we spoke with were using a number of Merrow machines in a variety of ways for their fashion projects. The Pearl Stitch Machine was genereally utilized for the light luxe fabrics, as was the 3DW overedge. At one point in our visit, a FIT professor came up to us and asked that we assist her in configuring a specific Merrow machine for one of her senior students to develop a specific effect desired on an undergarment, as she hadn't been able to find the right machine. Lucky we stopped by!

We're looking forward to working with the FIT academic staff to help expand FIT student's understanding of stitching and their creative edging options as Merrow helps today's students develop tomorrow's fashions!

SampleRoom Machines on the way!

I just ran into our manufacturing facility downstairs and took a quick picture on my cell phone of the new SampleRoom machines. They look great and we're excited to start rolling these out in the next month. The pictured machines are about 90% complete, pending specific configurations for SampleRoom designers.

More detailed "glamour" shots are coming soon but I thought you all would enjoy a quick preview of what's to come this fall!

Great Looking Press Coverage

In some cases the blog entry should be abbreviated; this is one of those cases.

Here is the cover & the story about Merrow. Enjoy.

American Made

Earlier in the week I got a text message around 7PM. It said "'npr reported that there are no sewing machines made in USA' am clng NPR tomorrow"

Later in the week (in an entirely separate context) an employee asked whether the fact that some of our parts were sourced abroad compromised our 'Made in the USA' tag.

I think it's a healthy and exciting discussion. Merrow is a remarkable company, and our machines are made in the US.

Simply put:

१.we build all Merrow sewing machines in Wareham, MA. Our machines are built from scratch in Wareham, MA USA. We sweat and labour to make each machine great. And the world benefits from the effort.

२. Our parts come from all over the world-(which includes the US...) - some percentage come from the US, and the balance from places you need a passport to visit. We have excellent partners worldwide-- and who wouldn't want that to exist? Our business model requires us to find the best partners, the best employees to build the strongest company in the industry.... there are no borders that intimidate us, nor do we create artificial constraints that would prevent us from working with the best.

We are an American Sewing Machine Company; and this has nothing to do with why Merrow is a great company. It wouldn't matter if we made the machines on the Moon. It is the team, the business model, and the company that makes us unique. We believe that we can impact our customers more significantly than anyone else-- and we'll prove it machine by hand-built machine.

So NPR: I listen everyday, and I hope the next time you tackle sewing machines you get the story straight.

Merrow Press Release: Wet-Environment, Nickel-Plated Solution

9/7/07- Merrow Launches Wet-Environment Nickel-Plated Solution for the Merrow Butted-Seam Machine

Wareham, MA – September 7, 2007 – Merrow, Inc.® today introduced its Merrow Wet-Environment Nickel-Plated Solution for the end-to-end continuous loop butt-seaming process.

The 70-D3B2-CNP (Nickel-Plated) Merrow Butt-Seaming machine is engineered exclusively for wet, corrosive environments. Nickel-Plating is a modification to the Merrow Butt-seaming product line which has been a trusted tool for the continuous processing industry since 1964.

“Many of our customers operate the machines in tough environments,” said Merrow CEO Charlie Merrow. “We saw the Nickel-Plated machine as a way to best serve our customers by preserving the longevity of the Merrow Butt-Seaming machine.”

The Nickel-Coating is applied evenly throughout the surface of the frame as well as each individual part to ensure uniform protection against corrosive substances. It is the ideal solution for Dye and Bleach-houses, which expose the Merrow machine to various chemicals on a daily basis.

The Nickel-Plating itself has a bright, attractive finish, responding well to the grinding and polishing administered in the production process.

“Even a high-quality alloy such as a Merrow frame can corrode under certain toxic conditions,” said Director of Production, William Condon. “Nickel-Plating provides a solution for those customers operating in these specific, harsh conditions.”

President of Operations, Owen Merrow commented, “Nickel-Plating’s resistance to corrosion and staining, low maintenance, and attractive luster make it an ideal base material for Merrow’s high-end applications.”

The Nickel-Plated option is available for all Merrow Butted-Seam machinery variations, including the Gap Seam Machine, Rolled Seam Machine, Wide Butted-Seam Machine, the Stitch Multiplier, and the newly released High Pile machine.

WHAT IS A BUTTED SEAM?
The butted seam is the seam of choice for the endwise joining of piece goods. The Merrow line of butted seam machines includes models that will produce butted, gap, and overlap seams to achieve the optimum results, according to the fabrics and manufacturing processes used. Processing advantages include minimal material waste, reduced shrinkage and wrinkling, low bulk, and wet or dry fabric processing.

WHY USE A BUTTED SEAM?
In the processing of piece goods in continuous processing, it is often beneficial to join one or more pieces end-to-end. The overedge seam, or “Butted Seam” has been adapted to this work, as it attaches pieces end-to-end so that they may lie flat through processes including, but not limited to shearing, dyeing, and bleaching. The ends of the material are confined within the tight seam to reduce bulk, producing a flat, butted seam appropriate for many types of processing.

In a rolled piece of fabric, after finishing inefficient butted seams produce a “raised edge” which increased the area of the roll when the fabric is rolled together. It causes a substantial amount of wasted space and material. With the Merrow Butted Seam, the fabric remains flat no matter how large the roll becomes. An average savings of one quarter of a yard is achieved by using a Merrow Butted Seam.

WHERE IS A BUTTED SEAM USED?

RAYON/SILK FINISHING
The uniform drying qualities and the elasticity of the Merrow Butted Seam are of particular value in the processing of rayon fabrics through drying and tentering operations. With silk, the flatness of the saem aids in the processing and subsequent washing and drying processes. The seam will dry in the same length of time and under the same conditions as the rest of the goods.

WOOLENS AND WORSTEDS
The Merrow Butted Seam for Woolens and Worsteds allows processes such as dyeing, scouring, drying, shearing, and pressing to be made continuous by joining bolts of fabric with a thin, unobtrusive seam. The final product is uniform, with no shading or wrinkling at the seams.

COTTON FINISHING
The Merrow Butted Seam for the processing of cotton fabrics eliminates damage fo the fabrics due to wrinkling, shading of the goods by slow-drying seams, and “marking off” on the goods, which frequently occurs when bulky seams are processed through printing machines or calendars. The Butted Seam is valuable for such processes as bleaching, printing, napping, shearing, or singeing.

SPECIALTY/SYNTHETICS
Merrow has adapted their products to newly developed fabrics. Recently, Merrow has developed machines that are capable of sewing through extremely heavy and coated material such as leather, fur, airbag cloth, and ballistic Kevlar.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
The Merrow 70-D3B-2_CNP machine is currently available at a starting price of $3,899. The Nickel-Plated series is sold in the US direct and through certified Merrow distributors.

Merrow machines are covered by 30-year warranties on cam, shafts, and housing frame.

ABOUT MERROW
Merrow has a proud heritage of installing innovation and precision engineering on every machine. Ease of use, clean operation, and refined components reflect more than 167 years of leadership in the textile industry.

For more information on the 70 Class Nickel-Plated series, please visit:

www.merrow.com
(800) 431-6677

email:
info@merrow.com

Recent Merrow Press Releases

Recent Merrow Press Releases:

8/4/07 - Merrow Launches Advanced Web-based Live Help and Technical Support






7/11/07 - Merrow Launches High Pile Stitch Solution
Also see: High-Pile Microsite

New Hampshire

New Hampshire. Skiing, Hiking, Mt Washington --sure, but textiles? Not the first place that comes to mind as a hotbed for American Textile manufacturing.

On Thursday, David Rosenberg and I drove north. Our mission was SampleRoom partnerships-- and we got more than we signed up for.

First stop was to a new butted seam customer. A company who is working on a project that would replace steel with composites in the defense industries. After an hour or so, we came to an agreement and Merrow is now partnering to help develop the next generation of reinforced composites for the military.

Second stop, Velcro USA. A Merrow customer and a huge company.

Third stop, Ragged Mountain. Meeting with Rob Nadler, president of RM. In three hours Rob taught us a lot about the industry. His business is, in our very humble opinion, awesome. RM makes great stuff, partners with competitors who make great stuff, and manages to sell it all out of a shop in North Conway.

Ragged Mountain is a company that we would be proud to partner with-- and after a long discussion of SampleRoom and our business plan, we think that our trip to North Conway was likely the first of many.

Ragged Mountain, in so many words, gets it. They get that being competitive means being flexible, efficient, clever and enterprising. That a company can be competitive and not be a difficult place to work (contrary to that, RM is a disarmingly comfortable facility). They faced the same challenges that killed off most, if not all, of similar sized manufacturers-- and they're running on all cylinders from the looks of it.

After visiting with Rob, David and I both bought some Ragged Mountain gear and headed back to MA, surprised and encouraged by what we discovered in New Hampshire. Moreover we made a HUGE step forward with respect to SampleRoom. The concept is almost complete and and the details will be forthcoming over the next three months.