About six years ago, serial entrepreneur Taylor Shupe founded San Clemente, Cal-based Future Stitch making knitwear using a circular, zero-waste system. Now he’s introducing a program to recruit and employ formerly incarcerated women at a new factory in Oceanside, Cal. Working with non-profit organizations San Diego Workforce Partnershiphe also offers a curriculum, coaching and accommodation support.
“We can foster an entrepreneurial mindset and confidence, along with soft and hard skills that can lead to better employment opportunities,” he says.
Hiring justice-influenced women
Shupe founded FutureStich in 2017 to create knitwear based on a highly automated process he calls “circular knit.” This provides a zero-waste system that also allows him to hire less workers and run a factory in the US. He is also aware of the conundrum of how to operate facilities with fewer employees while running a company with a social mission. That’s one reason why he recently introduced an equity component to his 10,000-square-foot Oceanside plant and plans to do so in future U.S. plants.
About six months ago, Shupe launched its justice program. There are now 14 justice-affected employees with a goal of reaching 50 by next summer. (The company has about 500 employees in total). Two have already been promoted to management positions.
The goal is to “empower individuals who have been left out—or even pushed out of the system,” Shupe says. The result for the company, he says, is increased retention, the ability to attract better talent and increased productivity.
How he came up with the idea
Shupe says that as a teenager he “did some things that could have landed me in juvenile detention.” But his dad was a lawyer and he’s white, so he could avoid getting in trouble. About six years after starting his first company, Stance, he and his wife began looking for ways to give back. They learned about a group called Lifeline Prison Ministry in Detroit that takes children to visit their incarcerated parents. In the end, they bought a bus to transport the children to and from the prison.
That emotional connection, along with the opportunity to combine profit with a social mission, led him to think about starting a program for formerly incarcerated women at his current company. According to Taylor, there are about 3 million inmates and 20 million people affected by justice and there is also a high recidivism rate. “You have a huge workforce that has been abandoned. We knew we could create something that would make them stronger,” he says.
A new platform and curriculum
The Oceanside factory will not only make products for major brands, but also for a direct-to-consumer platform, Socki, which will be launched early next year. It allows customers to upload their own artwork and logos and create their own custom socks within two days. The platform’s target audience includes small brands, artists and musicians. Workers will learn a wide variety of skills such as operations, sales and marketing and other jobs that will ultimately pay more than production work.
The curriculum rests on what Shupe calls “an entrepreneurial mindset.” To that end, it starts with an examination of each woman’s aspirations – number one for everyone so far has been owning a home – and the skills they want to develop. (When they achieve their goals, the company will contribute to their top goal). The company then provides the women with Chrome Books, which provide access to learning programs aimed at teaching basic computer skills, such as using Google Docs and writing emails. It also maps out the skills they need to learn to enter the career path of their choice. Employees learn how to build their own websites, which are used to track progress.
At the end of a course, such as public speaking or a certain number of community service, women earn merit badges. That earns them awards, such as gift certificates. Part of the curriculum is drawn from online resources such as TED talks or other public speakers. There are also meetings with psychologists and life coaches. Eventually Shupe wants to introduce the system to other companies.
The effort has also had a major impact on company culture, he says. In the San Clemente office, the employees have not been penalized, as they were hired before Shupe introduced the program. But, he says, their involvement has skyrocketed. In addition, he has attracted managers to the Oceanside factory who otherwise would not have thought of working there.
Next steps
Next in the US: Plans to open more factories in California. According to Shupe, California has a particularly high recidivism rate. That’s thanks to the state’s process, with multiple visits with probation officers, mandatory drug testing and other requirements, making it difficult to find a full-time job.
He also plans to open a larger factory in Dallas, in partnership with the non-profit organization Envision, aimed at giving jobs to the visually impaired. With more space, he expects to be able to hire many more employees than at Oceanside.
The company’s other factories include a LEED Platinum-certified knitting factory in Shanghai. It also runs a joint venture in Ankara to serve the European market.
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