At Western Rise, we focus a lot on the performance fabrics to make sure our pieces are the perfect blend of performance and comfort, but the truly amazing part of each piece comes in its production. Our pieces are all hand-made by highly skilled sewers that pay attention to every detail. It takes over 55 steps, 50 people, and 43 different parts to create a Western Rise long sleeve performance shirt.
Pre-Production:
After the piece has been designed, tech packs and patterns have been completed, samples are created, measured, fitted, adjusted, and graded. The shirt is finally ready to be field tested by our team in Telluride, Colorado and adjusted one last time. Once the style and size set samples are finally approved it is finally time for production.
Production:
Our custom designed fabric is shipped to the factory. When received, the fabric is again quality controlled to ensure no damages occurred during transport. It is then relaxed and laid out for cutting.
All patterns are adjusted individually to account for predictive shrinkage and printed on 45 individual paper rolls. They are then placed on the corresponding material of each piece and cut into their parts, spare components, and fusings. These pieces are layered, placed, and quality assured under ultraviolet light to detect impurities.
Sewing:
Once all of the parts have been cut and compiled it’s time to start sewing. Stitch density, as well as consistency, are a good way to judge the workmanship of a shirt. Tightly woven fabric should have a very high density of stitches preferably (16-22 stitches per inch), which results in increased durability and a clean look. Seeing at this level takes years of experience and precision. Each Western Rise shirt is hand assembled and sewn by a team of experienced and skilled sewers.
First, the collar is pressed, sewn, and points are punched out in this deadly looking contraption.
Next, collar and cuffs are sewn by hand, trimmed, marked and ready for attachment. Main labels are aligned and attached and care and content labels are sewn in. Back panels are sewn together and the piece is passed on the next seamstress who connects the back to the yoke.
Finally, the shirt is ready to come together. The back, left chest, right chest, right sleeves and left sleeves come together. In a single draw from the bottom, all the way to the cuff the shirt is closed on the sides.
Buttonholes are marked out by hand and sewn and opened at the same time with a single needle. The performance buttons are inspected, placed and attached in the same maneuver. Finally, the pocket is sewn on, the plackets are attached and the collar is placed. The bottom hem is folded and sewn with a delicate single needle stitch before it’s trimmed and passed on to finishing.
Finishing:
Finished shirts are washed to be shrunk back to the correct proportions to be pressed and quality controlled. 10% of production is randomly picked out for quality control, and measured along the 28 main measurements. At last, it is buttoned up, folded and packed, placed in boxes and put on a truck to travel over 4,000 miles to our warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky.
I took over 10 months of development, 55 steps, 50 people, and 120 minutes to sew. A performance shirt designed to go wherever you do.
** Western Rise currently produces the majority of its product in the United States and Portugal**
