Clevelanders can buy made-in-America suits at the Keystone Tailored Manufacturing's factory store in Brooklyn, where the company produces 50,000 suits a year.
BROOKLYN, Ohio - At Keystone Tailored Manufacturing, inside the former Joseph & Feiss factory on Tiedemann Road, 100-plus workers are still making designer men's suits, sport coats and trousers with an old-world attention to detail.
Now employees of the W Diamond Group Corp., in Des Plaines, Illinois, the men and women still proudly and painstakingly stitch together, assemble and steam-press about 50,000 Hart Schaffner Marx and Hickey Freeman suits a year. Each one will eventually retail for $795 to $995 at stores like Dillard's and Nordstrom.
Clevelanders can buy some of those made-in-America suits at the company's adjacent factory store, at 4600 Tiedeman Road. The store is planning a grand opening this May, but is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
The store carries Hart Schaffner Marx and Hickey Freeman men's suits sizes 38 to 50, with a few 54s and 60s, for $299, as well as Hickey Freeman and Bobby Jones sportswear and Austen Heller shoes. It also carries some Misook women's clothing, and some boys suits, jackets and pants, sizes 6 to 20.
"Everything is first-quality, first-run," said Kenneth Ragland, chief operating and financial officer for W Diamond Group. Some suits were made from leftover fabric, or for retail customers who didn't end up buying. A few suits are irregulars.
Everything except for the sweaters and neckties is made in the U.S. Most of the suits were sewn in the factory upstairs, and an in-house tailor alters clothes to fit. That's important, because "you could have 20 people who are 42R, and the suits are going to fit them each a little bit differently," he said.
Keystone Tailored Manufacturing doesn't have as many employees as when it bought the business, property and equipment from Hugo Boss AG for $8.5 million nearly two years ago. The company received a $150,000 job retention and creation grant from the City of Brooklyn, and a $425,000 JobsOhio grant for saving 172 jobs and promising to add more. The purchase preserved a piece of Cleveland's garment-making history that dates back to 1897.
Total employment is down in part because the bolts of cloth that used to be shipped here and cut into patterns in Brooklyn now stay in suburban Chicago. The materials now come to Cleveland cut and ready to be assembled, saving time and shipping.
To further cut costs, Ragland said the company is exploring leasing or selling about 60 percent of the building, about 100,000 square foot of warehouse and distribution facilities it acquired from Hugo Boss but never used. "We are paying a lot of cost for space we don't use, and will never use," but must still maintain, he said.
"When Joseph & Feiss was there, that building was packed to the gills." But now, "we're spending $30,000 a year on machines that aren't being utilized."
"We are looking at ways to lease the back half out, or possibly selling the building for the right deal. If we find a buyer, the factory and the employees will still continue to work for us, but it would be at a different location," Ragland said. "We are not going anywhere. That is a absolute definitive statement.
"If we move to another location, ideally it would be in the City of Brooklyn or one of the adjacent suburbs. We want to stay in Brooklyn. We would not move more than four to six miles from the current location," because the company does not want to abandon its workers. "There would be no job loss because of the move," and a good chance that more jobs would be created in another location.
Mark Milko, president of Workers United Local 10, which represents about 80 workers, said he understands that the business has changed and that the company has had to adapt to changing demand.
"The company can save money because of all the wasted space that creates large utility bills at the plant," he said. He added that he and his fellow union members throughout the city have been purchasing American-made suits from Cleveland, Chicago, or Rochester to support the industry.
At Keystone Tailored Manufacturing, it takes about two weeks from the time the components arrive at the factory to the time they leave as a finished, pressed suit.
In between, the pieces will be assembled in parts, one jacket or leg panel at a time, by workers, some of whom worked for Joseph & Feiss. People like Sieu Tang, a 36-year employee who stitches buttonholes, checks seams, and presses jacket arms.
"As long as we're open, I'm happy," said Arminda Kalaja, a 19-year employee who supervises one of the jacket lines and makes sure every stitch is perfect before it leaves her station.
"By the grace of God, we're still here," agreed Barbara Newman, a 26-year employee, as she assembled suit jackets. "You've got to just walk in faith."
Ragland said they were optimistic when the presidential candidates emphasized the need to make more things in America in ways that created more jobs. But that hasn't yet translated into more customers looking for American-made clothing.
Nevertheless, he is hoping to hire about 20 more workers, particularly qualified and experienced sewing, pressing, and apparel finishing specialists.
"Between salary and benefits, our people are making about $18 to $20 an hour," Ragland said.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who worked to help save the former Hugo Boss jobs, is not only a fan of the company but a customer who has bought several Hart Schaffner Marx suits.
"I'm proud to wear Ohio-made, union-made suits produced 10 miles from my house," he said via email. "The workers at this plant are the best at what they do, and it's been great to get to know folks at the plant over the years - when it was Hugo Boss and now as Keystone Tailored Manufacturing. a