About five dozen people lost jobs when a clothing company called Stitch Fix stopped operations at its factory and mill in November, according to Mr. Ford. Some of these employees had been working at these sites for many years.
Mr. Ford stated, “All those skills would have been lost.”
In March, these facilities reopened under the name Buck Mason Knitting Mills, and some of the former Stitch Fix employees were rehired.
The cloth mill in Shillington now produces fabrics for Buck Mason’s T-shirts and other tops, using cotton grown in California, Georgia, and Texas. Mr. Bareika, who was hired by Buck Mason as the mill’s knitting lead in January, mentioned plans to create a limited-edition T-shirt made with fabric produced at the facility using a Singer Supreme machine from the 1940s. He said that this machine is one of the few still in operation. Prior to joining Buck Mason, Mr. Bareika worked for Stitch Fix at the mill and currently resides in Leesport, Pennsylvania.
At the factory in Mohnton, some employees are responsible for cutting and sewing T-shirts, while others iron them by hand or package them for shipping. Mr. Ford reported that about 10,000 T-shirts are produced there each month, and the goal is to double or even quadruple this capacity by the fall.
Before transitioning to T-shirts, the factory in Mohnton, located in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was involved in the production of hats and military uniforms. During its peak in the late 1970s, the factory and mill employed around 100 workers and produced about 22,000 T-shirts per week using fabrics from the mill, according to Mr. Pleam, a borough resident.
