Hartford Business Journal

12 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | NOVEMBER 25 2024 American Woolen owner Jacob Long inside his Stafford Springs wool textile mill. HBJ PHOTOS | STEVE LASCHEVER Apparel Appeal CT is home to one of U.S.' last remaining wool textile mills; American Woolen's CEO wants to build a garment industry cluster in Hartford He has scored some notable successes in the last five years by becoming a supplier to the U.S. military, winning several contracts to provide woolen textiles for uniform embellishments and worsted textiles for service dress uniforms. The latest $20 million contract, signed in November, is by far the largest and positions American Woolen as a viable second source supplier to the government. American Woolen is also a fabric supplier to other prime contractors that make bridge coats, peacoats and blankets for the military. Alongside that, Long has been busy building a commercial customer base that now includes fashion brand Ralph Lauren and outerwear special- ists Stormy Kromer. An eight-month closure during the pandemic brought the company to the brink financially. But it also provided Long time to consider a business strategy pivot that he's now selling with a passion. "Working with brands to achieve their aims as opposed to making the stock and trying to sell from our inventory," is the way he describes it. "Between pre-COVID to today, I would say 90% of our clients are different." That means the mill, which currently employs 49 workers, is creating short runs of pre-sold fabric to specifications from designers and garment companies, and prioritizing companies that market their goods as entirely made in America. Long says in 2018, a majority of the company's wool textiles were sent By Harriet Jones hjones@hartfordbusiness.com "T he fiber pool in America is bigger than you think," says Jacob Long, gesturing to the enormous wool bales filling one of American Woolen Co.'s Stafford Springs mill buildings. In fact, he tells his tour group, the U.S. has 5 million sheep generating 22 million pounds of wool fiber each year. And the resources don't stop at sheep — there are bales of alpaca wool from Pennsylvania here, and other fibers from further west. "We had the largest bison producer here last week," Long says during a mid-November tour, while handing around a ball of dark brown wool that originated in Idaho. "Bison is the softest fiber you've ever seen." Long ushered around guests from the MetroHartford Alliance and Advan- ceCT, on an hour-long tour of his three mill buildings scattered around the small northeast Connecticut town. He showcased the spinning operation where yarn is created from those bales, the looms that create a variety of fabrics, and the fulling, finishing, packing and shipping areas. Long's American Woolen Co. is one of just four surviving wool textile mills in the United States. It makes fine worsted cloth for suitings and sport coats, as well as heavier woolen textiles for outerwear, blankets and home furnishings. Long said he provides tours on a regular basis, but not just to show- case his company's capabilities. He's also looking for buy-in on a grand vision to restore New England's textile industry. And he thinks Connecticut offers fertile ground to make it happen. "I think we've kind of gotten used to this idea that everything is global. And yet, not so long ago, textiles and apparel and footwear were regional," said Long. "It's not about nostalgia. It's about people taking pride in tradition. A textile should represent climate and culture." Strategy shift A former financier who had spent many years in Europe, Long bought the historic Warren Stafford mill in 2014 from its Italian owners, Loro Piana, who had shuttered production just months before. Some of the buildings date back to the 1840s. "I bought the mill for a very good price," Long said. Back then, he calcu- lated that he could compete on price with European luxury fabric produc- tion, but says he underestimated the difficulty of persuading clients to turn away from overseas suppliers. "It's been a 10-year struggle," he says. AT A GLANCE American Woolen Co. Industry: Textile mill and design lab Top Executive: Jacob Long, Owner HQ: 8 Furnace Ave., Stafford Springs Employees: 49 Website: americanwoolen.com Contact: 860-684-2766

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