Sourcing Archipelago

"We spent a few months trying to source a manufacturer online that met our ethical and quality standards but this approach became frustrating pretty quickly..."

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Last year, after few months of casual discussions in the surf and on our long drive from Noosa to Perth, it was decided that we would give Seafarer a go.

We spent a few months trying to source a manufacturer online that met our ethical and quality standards but this approach became frustrating pretty quickly because of the lack of transparency we were receiving. We concluded that the only approach for us was to head overseas and get it done ourselves in person.

It made sense for us to start sourcing as close to home as possible so we headed to Bali. It was only a short flight from home compared to other options like Vietnam and India, our research suggested that the general quality and ethics of their apparel manufacturing industry was good, Josh had lived there previously and a few friends were also manufacturing over there.

We spent the first few months in Indo hooking around on our rental scooter looking at fabric options and meeting with manufacturers to tour facilities, meet their tailors, experience factory working conditions, discuss pricing, sustainability practices, packaging options, shipping stock to Australia, the list goes on. There was a lot of questions to ask and we asked them all.

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After repeating this process over and over for a few months we found a good fit and got stuck in to the sampling phase of the Archipelago collection, which took another few months. Neither of us are trained fashion designers so our tech drawings took a bit of deciphering but with the help of our amazing manufacturing team we were able to produce and test samples of our swimwear designs. During the sampling process we made plenty of improvements to our initial designs, like double stitching the shoulders on the Abrolhos Balconette Top to stop them rolling off in the surf, or adding a wider waist band to the Surf Short to stop them rolling down when ducking under a wave.

We are so grateful for, and extend a huge thank you to our talented manufacturing team. The Archipelago collection wouldn’t be possible without them. Emma, owner and production manager, was patient and encouraging, as she guided us through the whole process with extensive knowledge and experience. Alana, for her business structure guidance and assistance throughout the production process. Kadek, Emma’s head tailor, seemed to intuitively understand our vision and flawlessly interpret our design drawings. Emma’s friendly team of seamstresses, who did an amazing job of the cut and sew process and the quality control team who ensured every piece was made to meet our high quality standard.

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Producing the Archipelago collection was a hugely challenging and rewarding experience for us, and we are so proud of the result. We plan to go into more depth about each stage of this process so if this aspect of Seafarer interests you please consider subscribing to our email list to be notified about future blog posts.

- Josh & Maddie

Seafarer Co-founders