High-end apparel business sets up shop in C-Falls

A new business has set up shop on Nucleus Avenue, and owner Bob Upton says Columbia Falls is the perfect fit for Corporate Image Outfitters.

Upton grew up in Connecticut where he learned to hunt and fish. He was studying economics at a college in New Hampshire when he took off for five years, traveling around the U.S. and Europe and getting into climbing and backcountry skiing. Eventually he ended up in Seattle where he attended an apparel design school.

“I taught myself how to sew as I traveled and needed to make things for myself,” he said.

A lot was going on in the outdoor equipment world at that time, including new breathable products like Gore-Tex. As Upton learned how to repair increasingly complex outdoor apparel, the idea of Rainy Pass Repair emerged.

“I was working at REI at the time and lined up a deal to do all their repairs,” he said. “I eventually landed all the repair work at the REI and Eddie Bauer stores.”

He turned down an offer to work for REI and turned Rainy Pass Repair into a full-time business in May 1986. The company’s reputation and share of the market grew over time — Rainy Pass is one of the few repair companies recommended by W.L. Gore.

“We’re really good at what we do,” Upton said. “I see nine positive comments for each negative comment.”

He recalled a case where a person complained about a zipper repair for a tent.

“It turned out our stitching was better than the manufacturer’s, so the complaint was about the zipper we didn’t work on,” he said.

Rainy Pass doesn’t do footwear and they no longer repair camp stoves, but they repair and clean outdoor clothing, sleeping bags, tents, backpacks, wet suits, waders and lots of ski apparel. Their busiest time is the fall.

“When we’re asked to shorten the legs on ski pants, we take the whole leg apart and put it back together again to preserve the articulated knee,” Upton said.

The secret to Rainy Pass Repair’s success was the training. Upton said he learned how to train workers and how to train a person to train workers.

The Rainy Pass operation is still in Seattle, and customers need to ship items there for repair. Upton moved to Whitefish in 1995 and worked on developing his next business, Corporate Image Outfitters, which was up and running in 2000.

Corporate Image is mostly a business-to-business operation, he explained. They typically purchase high-end outdoor apparel, such as Patagonia and North Face, use computer-controlled sewing machines to embroider corporate logos on the apparel, and then sell the apparel to the business that requested the logo. Businesses can also provide apparel for embroidering.

“Our biggest market is financial institutions who need gifts,” he said. “This was especially true in the dot-com days. Outdoor apparel is considered quite fashionable in urban places like New York. One thing I learned is that fashion in the U.S. moves from west to east.”

The embroidery work is not as simple as it sounds. The sewing must not damage the apparel, which must maintain its fashionable look, fit and water resistance. In some cases, apparel is taken apart and then reassembled. A photograph of a sample logo is e-mailed every time back to customers for their approval.

The digital file Corporate Image receives for a logo is converted to a sewing machine program. Embroidery is three-dimensional, Upton explained, and fabrics have special properties that affect the process. A completed logo may have 5,000 to 7,000 stitches.

“Embroidery is meant to be seen at arm’s length, and each one is unique,” Upton said.

Upton closed on the Old City Hall building on Nucleus Avenue in August and moved his Corporate Image equipment into place. He has six employees now but the business could grow as the company promotes the logo business regionally and as a new division handling a line of flame-resistant outerware for oilfield workers expands.

Upton has also returned to his childhood pursuits of hunting and fishing. He says he gets out on the river 30 or more times a year, and he went antelope hunting in Eastern Montana with his wife and son last week.