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Northwest Embroidery was founded back in 1977 by Jim
Mickelson. Mickelson entered the embroidery business like many others
serendipitously. Jim was traveling from Washington to Alaska every other week
to work as an administration manager for the Alaska Pipeline. Jim then came up
with the idea to sell embroidered caps to all the pipeline employees. When his
trial run of 300 sold out in 3 days, he knew he was on to something.
"I had two careers until the pipeline was finished," Mickelson says. "We flew
back and forth between Washington and Alaska by charter. I had all this room in
the plane, so I filled it with hats. I just kept hauling hats up there and
selling them until I started making more money selling hats than working for
Atlantic Richfield.
The business grew quickly and Mickelson rented a facility back home in Milton,
Washington. Because of the poor service he received from his embroidery
contractor, he purchased an 11 head machine to do production himself. "Within
two weeks, we knew an 11 head wasn't enough," says Mickelson. Since those early
days, the owner estimates he has spent more than $2 million on embroidery
equipment.
Once the pipeline was finished, Mickelson turned his full-time attention to
Northwest Embroidery, which was officially started in 1977. One of its earliest
niches was construction companies. But it didn't take long for the entrepreneur
to identify which market held the most profit and potential.
In 1978, he was approached by an emerging apparel company called Blue Ribbon
Sports. For a full year, Mickelson got $2.50 a garment for embroidering a
little swoosh logo. If you haven't guessed by now, the brand name of that
company was Nike. At its peak during this period, Northwest Embroidery was
running 160 heads, seven days a week, 24 hours per day.
Today, Northwest Embroidery employees 4 of the Mickelsons. Jim Mickelson is
still President followed by his 3 children; Erik, Scott and Gale. All of the
Mickelson siblings have individual departments and responsibilities. "It is
great working with my dad, brother and sister. We have our own responsibilities
and never step on each other's toes" says Erik Mickelson. Northwest Embroidery
will continue its success for another 30 years!
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