Conversations with Rebecca Wyckoff

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Wyckoff.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My husband and I moved back to Duluth a few years ago and found ourselves working together doing seasonal jobs like maple syruping, commercial fishing and log home construction, and we often had time between seasons that left us looking for something flexible to fill the gaps. So, in one of the breaks between maple syruping and fishing we decided to start making patterns for a hoodie. I grew up sewing (poorly) on my mother’s old sewing machine and had taken advantage of that skill when I modified my clothes throughout my twenties. So, I sat down at our sewing machines and started turning out samples. We worked through dozens of patterns and after LOTS of trials we had a product that fit well and looked pretty good, so, we bought a few rolls of fleece and started making hoodies. It was slow at first as we had a lot to learn about how to manufacture efficiently, but soon we had a pile of fleeces and nowhere to sell them.

Fortunately, we were already selling maple syrup at the local farmers market and decided to throw up a rack of hoodies next to the syrup. We owe those first brave customers a debt for taking a chance and buying our first hoodies off the farmers market rack, because they got us excited and encouraged us to continue investing time and energy into the business. It wasn’t long before we were generating sales by word-of-mouth and it was clear that an online platform would be necessary to reach more customers. So, we setup a website and started selling online. Now, we sell almost exclusively online, and our hoodies are going all over the country and a few even make it overseas. Demand now vastly exceeds our production capability, so the hoodie business has become a much bigger time commitment, though we still take time out of the year to do some of our original seasonal jobs. We are still a very small company, but considering how it started it is hard to believe how far along the business has come.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest struggle has been a personal one. Soon after we developed our first website, I was diagnosed with colon cancer, which was very unexpected as a 34-year-old that has always taken exercise and healthy eating pretty seriously. Due to the nature of my particular cancer diagnosis, I had my whole colon removed and went through a full sequence of chemotherapy, which laid me low for the better part of a year. We were forced to put the fleece business on the back burner after months of building momentum and there is no doubt that the business suffered due to the time that I spent healing and not sewing. Of course, that is not important relative to the success of my cancer treatment – I am now two years out and have been able to get back to a relatively normal life, with a few adaptations for life without a colon. Fortunately, when I was able to sew again the business more or less picked up where we had left off and continued to grow as our online presence was noticed.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Superior Fleece makes fleece hoodies and hats in Duluth, MN and though some of the materials that we use are unique, the thing that sets us apart from most other garment manufacturers is that we design, sew and market our own product in-house, here in Duluth. After the materials arrive, everything happens here. We started with a couple of simple options but because there are so many cool materials out there, we are always expanding our lineup. We use mostly Polartec® fleece and they continue to develop designs that have a particular performance benefit like wicking sweat, moving air next to the skin, or providing loft under a jacket shell. Integrating these materials into our products has been fun and has improved the performance of our gear.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I am not much of a risk taker. Except for the first few rolls of fleece, we have always used profit from the business to fund the growth of Superior Fleece. This has probably slowed us down, but it has also made it possible to take long breaks without worrying about how to keep up with loan payments. It probably isn’t the best way to make money, but it has kept us flexible.

Contact Info:

• Email: superiorfleece@gmail.com
• Website: superiorfleece.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/superior_fleece/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/superiorfleece/ 

Image Credits
Superior Fleece