Southwest Creations was honored to stand with other family-friendly businesses on March 1, 2017 as the New Mexico Senate memorialized its support of the New Mexico Family-Friendly Business Award program.
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Eat, Drink & Be Giving!
Join us for Southwest Creations' holiday silent auction, wine pull and marketplace to support Hacia: Toward the University, our college-readiness program.
Saturday, November 19th, 2016
5 - 8pm
Southwest Creations Collaborative
1308 4th Street NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Southwest Creations at the Etsy Reimagine Manufacturing Summit
Via Etsy News Blog:
Last month was an exciting one for manufacturing at Etsy. Not only did we announce the launch of the new Etsy Manufacturing marketplace, but we also hosted our second annual Reimagine Manufacturing Summit in Brooklyn, bringing together nearly 150 Etsy sellers, manufacturers, producers, retailers and policy and government officials from around the globe to reimagine manufacturing for today’s makers.
Etsy Manufacturing Advisory Board member Susan Matteucci from Southwest Creations Collaborative, whose mission is to create jobs with a living wage for local women, talked about the importance of customer relationships. “Partnership really matters to us. You’re entering a relationship. We don’t make our own product, so we get absorbed in the customer’s products, helping make their dream come true.”
Southwest Creations in the Hechinger Report
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In a nondescript one-story industrial building surrounded by a neighborhood of engine repair and body shops, rows of seamstresses lean into their industrial sewing machines and cut and stitch fabrics for West Elm, New York’s Canvas Home, and other retailers.
This little factory, called Southwest Creations Collaborative, provides not only stable employment in a state where nearly a third of jobs pay at or below the poverty level. It’s also helping its workers’ children overcome the longer-than-average odds in Albuquerque that they will graduate from high school and go on to college.
“We joke that the people who work here are simultaneously grateful and that they’re also thinking, ‘Wow, you guys are really in our business,’” said Jessica Aranda, director of the collaborative’s Hacia la Universidad, or “To the University,” program. “What other employer asks you to bring in your children’s grades?” READ MORE>>
Etsy Welcomes Manufacturers to Artisanal Fold
Via the New York Times:
Southwest Creations is an Etsy-approved manufacturing partner. Read more about Etsy's newly introduced Etsy Manufacturing, a new service in the United States and Canada that matches sellers with small manufacturers. It is a bid by the company, which went public in April, to help its small sellers expand their businesses.
By the Numbers: Southwest Creations in the Albuquerque Journal
By the Numbers: Southwest Creations in the Albuquerque Journal
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Southwest Creations Discusses Family-Friendly Policies on PBS's Public Square
Southwest Creations’ Program Director and Leadership Development Manager, Jessica Aranda and Flor Lopez, were panelists on New Mexico PBS’s Public Square episode that explored family-friendly workplace policies with local leaders and advocates.
Read MoreFactory45 Features Southwest Creations in Sew Shop Talk
Via Factory45 Sew Shop Talk
“We believe when a woman is given an opportunity to earn income, she will invest in her children first – a strategy shared by organizations around the world. We also understand that women from low-income communities face major barriers to economic success for themselves and their children.”
This is the philosophy behind Southwest Creations, a cut and sew facility in Albuquerque, NM that proves a sustainable business can be driven by a social vision. I spoke with executive director Susan Matteucci on the phone a few weeks ago about how Southwest Creations was started, how it has grown and where the opportunities lie in U.S. manufacturing.
Susan was also gracious enough to offer her own advice to designers looking for a domestic production partner. Read her interview below:
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Susan Matteucci Joins Etsy Manufacturing Advisory Board
Via Etsy News Blog:
After hearing directly from our sellers about their need for greater support, we’re excited to announce the creation of the Etsy Manufacturing Advisory Board, which met for the first time during the Re-Imagine Manufacturing summit. Composed of eight experts with diverse experience from the non-profit, academic, and business worlds, the board will advise us as we process the ideas from the summit and work to create an Etsy Economy. They’ll help us understand best practices without being limited by existing solutions and push us to have the biggest influence possible. Each expert was chosen because they align with our values, has a proven track record of innovating in the manufacturing space, and has a genuine desire to help our seller community thrive.
Meet the Board:
Susan Matteucci — Executive Director, Southwest Creations
Susan leads Southwest Creations, a social venture that does contract manufacturing out of Albuquerque, NM, and is setting an industry standard on small-batch, responsible production.
Albuquerque Women Craft a Business from Hobby: Kei and Molly in the Albuquerque Journal
Two Albuquerque women, who met at their kids’ school, have turned their part-time hobby into Kei & Molly Textiles, a national wholesale and online business.
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