h+h Connect

Welcome to another exciting episode of h+h Connect. I'm Darrin Stern, the show director for h+h Americas and a Vice President at Koelnmesse Inc., based in Chicago. Our podcast series brings you valuable insights and inspiration to enhance your business, creativity, and overall inspiration.

In today's episode, we have a fascinating State of the Industry panel discussion from h+h americas 2024 featuring a diverse group of experts from the craft industry. Joining us are Tony Lipsy from TL Yarn Crafts, Gina Pantastico from Cloud9 Fabrics, Scott Stone from Genporia Craft, and Virginia Johnson from Gather Here. We'll be discussing the current state of craft retail, trends, challenges, and the future of independent retail. So, let's dive in and hear what our panelists have to say!

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  As we thought about putting together this panel, we wanted to include a diversity of viewpoints and vantage points. And I think that we have got that here in spades.

I'll call our panelists to come on up.

So we have Tony Lipsy, Gina Pantastico, Scott Stone, and Virginia Johnson, and I will let them introduce themselves. So if you all want to take just a 30 seconds or so, tell us a little bit about your business and who you are, and Tony, we'll start with you. Oh, my goodness. Of course,

you're

gonna start with me.

Hello and good morning, everyone. My name is Tony Lipsy. I'm the crochet designer and educator behind Teal Yarn Crafts. I focus on inspiring and encouraging makers at the beginning or intermediate levels of their practice. And I really focus on fostering community. That's one thing that this space did for me.

So I want to do it for other people as well. Thanks, Tony,

and Tina. Good morning, everyone. I share Tony's sentiment. This is quite overwhelming But my name is Gina Pantastico. I am one of the founders of Cloud9 Fabrics and Felicity Fabrics We've been doing this for about 15 years now I currently serve as the Director of Operations, and under that umbrella I handle everything from production, sourcing, customer service, sales, and essentially everything numbers related, and Very happy to be here.

Thank you for having me, Abby. Of course. Thank you, Gina. And Scott?

Hello hello, everybody. As you can maybe tell by the accent, I'm from the UK. My name's Scott Stone. I'm managing director of Genporia Craft, which is a company which owns a selection of brands. One in soft craft, which is called Sewing Street, hobby maker jewelry maker, and visible image.

We are a shopping TV channel by probably But we also work with influencers and content creators to just create great products that people like. And it's all about community, really, and partnership. So we love what we do. I've been working there for about seven years now. Thank you.

Thank you. And Virginia Johnson. Hi so my name is Virginia. I own a brick and mortar in Cambridge, Massachusetts called Gather Here and I run that business with my partner, Noah, who makes it possible for us to do all the things plus 20 other incredibly talented and caring people. Humans that all call, gather here, not just their job, but their third place.

I, we also have an online space, we have a robust social media presence, and I actually hosted a workshop with Abby when I first opened 13 years ago in my first location in greater Boston.

Thank you.

All right, we are in for a great discussion, so thank you. So we're going to start big.

What is the state of craft retail right now? What is working for our brick and mortar shops and our e commerce shops? What is no longer working? What should we be thinking about when it comes to independent retail? So actually jean, I think we'll start with you on that one if that's okay

From my perspective I think that we really need to start focusing on Younger crafters.

I think it's really quite important to bring them into the fold Have them be part of this community and feel that they are Welcome into this community whether they knit So quilts, crochet, we really need to be looking to the future and to me that's the biggest thing I'm trying to do at our company is encourage young people to get involved in this industry, in this community.

Would you have thoughts that sure? I

think I think the state of the industry is growing. Obviously coming out of the pandemic, we had this massive influx of people joining us in our crafty crusades, and I think it's important to continue to embrace those folks, who are early in their practice, who might not know that there's such a massive community of us out there who are just as enthusiastic and just as creative.

So I think there's a great opportunity to embrace people who are so early on in their Maybe don't know where to turn and just need a little bit of guidance. What about you,

Scott? What do you think?

The biggest thing that we try and do, and I think help support that, is to try and break down some of the harder things to enter.

So it feels quite tough to enter a certain craft. There's a lot of words that are said, there's a lot of acronyms for things, and breaking it down to people that it's It's just try something, and you might not be great the first time, you might be good the second time, you might not be good the hundredth time, but feel more comfortable with trying things, and then try and support people by, the community is huge, and once you do it, you love it, so try, and then try and help people try more.

What are you saying, Virginia?

I'm just hopping off of what Scott just said.

Repeat, process over perfection to everyone who enters our space because we have made sure that there are spaces within our brick and mortar where people can learn. So we break down that first barrier to entry of we have the tools you need to take up sewing. We have the instructors you need to make that fit.

And we really. As a value driven business to embody what we believe craft can be yeah, I made a point of making my set today so that people saw me as I am. I have always worn handmade. I get a little teary thinking about. It's not just. The fact that my grandmother instilled in me a deep love of handcraft, but through my store, I continue her legacy.

And I'm always looking for ways for intergenerational. Sharing of skills and knowledge because I get riled up when people say not your grandma's. My grandma was a bad ass. She could run circles around anything I made and I am proud to continue her crafts and her legacy.

A little bit about B2B shoppers, so these are our retailers who are shopping for their stores, and I'm wondering how B2B shoppers are buying from you as suppliers right now.

Wholesale e commerce shops, are they buying through online, are they buying through raps? Are they buying here at a trade show? And so where and how are B2B shoppers shopping? And since you're a retail, we'll start with you.

Okay so a variety of different ways. Last year I attended H& H mostly because it's it was so easy for me to get here from Boston.

Like as soon as something's on the West coast, it's like a thing. I'm like, Oh, and then I got to go and then I got to see my parents, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But going to Chicago, I was like, I'll just hop in. It's like an hour and a half flight, super chill. And I met a bunch of people. One of those people I met was Allie road trip sock yarn and started collaboration with her.

And I'm so proud that we did that and that we got to meet face to face. Congratulations, Allie. But I also love a wholesale B2B website because being the owner of a brick and mortar, we have so much on our plate. We have so many things to do from the in person interaction, from training people, from educating the public about what we do and why what we do matters.

So being able to hop on my phone, even as I say I have all these boundaries and I'm not going to check at 11 p. m. at night, I'm still on there. Being able to order and do a reorder and getting a notice, like I love when Wooble sends a little notice that says we've restocked and I'm like put it in my cart.

It's The other thing that I've really loved that is post pandemic is RJR started this program where to Cut down on in person meetings. They send a small travel suitcase called Roli and in Roli has all of the upcoming lines in paper and fabric and things you might consider and just having the option of having that suitcase come.

And I can open it up on my own time, be that at 11 o'clock at night, take a look, gestate for 24 hours, and then place my order has been very helpful. Because sometimes doing these in person meetings can be incredibly overwhelming. And I'm like, did I already get that? Do I know I would need that? And being able to talk it through with my team is really helpful.

That's great.

Gina, do you have thoughts about how, Folks are buying B to B.

To Virginia's point, Virginia carries our fabrics. We're very proud that she's one of our stockists and We have a very robust user friendly wholesale web shop, but I really we there's a litany of ways that you can find our fabrics and I think every shop is an individual and there's a few other things that are come up today in our discussions where I am a big proponent of self sufficiency.

stay in your lane and do what works for you. I very much understand where Virginia is coming from because even on my end, I have to manage my time a lot. And oftentimes I'm doing things after hours. But there are shops that really love the rep to come in. They enjoy that one on one human contact.

So That's an important element to this industry. I think distributors are also another element. Some woman I spoke to today carries our fabric. She buys it through a distributor. She has a great relationship with them. So I think that every shop has their own personality, their own community, and their own way that kind of works for them.

But I do think wholesale web shops are becoming increasingly important and more and more people are using them. But you have to stay in your lane and just do what works for you.

Let's talk a little bit about trends and Scott we'll start with you on this one. How do you discover what it is consumers want?

It's a tough one. It's that. That's the million dollar question, isn't it? It's how do you find out what somebody wants before they know they want it? We do. We do a lot of trying to lead it, and that sounds silly, but you can Build something by showing somebody how to do something in a different way to what's been done before.

So not all products are brand new. Not everything that you bring to your stores or to TV is completely new at the same moment. But there's other ways you can show things that you're using or ways that you use it to to make it seem new. Because new is a thing that people chase. As humans, we chase something that's new all the time.

But there's other ways of doing that. The other thing is that social media, you can't get away from it. The trends are there. You can see them before they've even happened there as well. It's a difficult thing to try and stay on top of them all. But there's a lot out there. And then also, I think we talk about this or a few of the panelists within a bit going back in time, things that were for popular 2030 40 years ago.

Bringing those back are quite a big thing as well.

Yeah, absolutely. And what about you, Tony? What are you, how are you spotting

trends? Yeah, I think one of the unique opportunities I have is that I have access to like things like this that my audience doesn't. So being able to take back the things that I learned at San Diego State.

An H& H or from a craft show or from, I don't know, a teaching event that I go to and sharing the things that I've seen is a level of access that they might not have already. So I'm able to share like, hey, this is something that I saw that maybe we're not talking about yet. So we can start that conversation.

I think too, when it comes to trends, I'm. I'm a bit averse, because I feel like we do live in a, in an industry that there's a lot of information, there's a lot of opportunity and inspiration already, and I think if we mine some of the some of the great ideas and some of the information that we have access to already, we don't have to necessarily chase trends.

I feel like sometimes chasing trends distracts from the amazing people the speakers, the teachers, the businesses that we have already, so if we can connect those people I think it can transcend the trends to a degree. How I feel about it. I think at least with TL Yarn Crafts, what I found is like, staying true to myself, the things that I'm interested in, the things that I love to do, and sharing that with my audience, and encourage them to do the same.

Whatever it is that you're into, all of your quirks, all of your weird little interests, that you maybe only talk to your best of friends with share a little bit more of that. I think there's a level of information, a level of passion that we have, that sometimes we're a little nervous to share, and I think that is.

I think that's almost more important than the trend, pulling that out.

Absolutely. Oh, I love that so much. Okay. When it comes to brands I also see a shift. In direct to consumer, and I'm wondering whether you all are seeing this, and if so, what the impact of that might be, so I'm not sure who wants to start on that one, but Gina, yeah.

I will start

on that. We had a brief co

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