February 12, 2013

Native Threads at Walmart

Native Threads: Coming to a Wal-Mart Near You

By Jacelle Ramon-SauberanOne of Indian Country’s only Native-owned and operated clothing companies has partnered with Wal-Mart to sell its Native-themed clothing line.

Native Threads merchandise can now be purchased at nearly 130 Wal-Mart locations.

“I’ll be honest it is still very surreal,” said Chris Rubio, Wholesale manager for Native Threads. “Every time I see our stuff in Wal-Mart I get that good feeling inside and can’t believe it's really happened.”
And:“We started off with 96 Wal-Mart locations that sold our merchandise and we recently added about 30 more stores,” Bardwell said. “In total we have about 125 stores that now sell Native Threads merchandise.”

Many of the additional stores are located in the Northwest, but Oklahoma has the most stores of any state.

Rubio said Wal-Mart has expressed interest in selling Native Threads merchandise on Walmart.com and Walmart.ca (Wal-Mart's Canadian online store). Native Threads is also designing a spring line for Walmart.
Comment:  For some t-shirts not made by Native Threads, see Gap Removes "Manifest Destiny" T-Shirt and Ecko's "Weekend Warrior" Line.

1 comment:

Rob said...

For more on the subject, see:

http://www.navajotimes.com/business/2013/0313/030713nat.php

Native T-shirt company cracks the Walmart barrier

A process that usually takes three to four years was swept through as a Native American T-shirt company got its product on the shelves of America's largest retailer in less than one year.

Native Threads President Randy Bardwell, Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, said his company basically "busted the door down at Walmart" because a process he was told that takes years took Native Threads only six months.

"We did it really fast, and the reason it happened so fast is because we were able to put good information together for Walmart," he said.