PRINTWEAR: Susan, I’m always intrigued by how people find their way to our industry—especially women in this male-oriented field. Tell us how you came to be a, quote, woman in production.

 

SUSAN ESTEP: I started in the industry in 1992. Actually, by accident! I was working in a production sewing facility while I was going to college, but a lot of those jobs were being moved overseas. I applied for jobs at several factories, which is when I came across a company called Wil-Pak. I had no idea what they did and, at the time, it didn’t matter. I was desperate. It was there that I absolutely fell in love with the process of printing—I was amazed by it. I had no idea what it took.

 

 

I started printing socks and progressed into garment printing. My first print on a tank top was a Nike design and that’s when I got really excited. I was given the opportunity to train and learn by, in my opinion, the best in the industry and took full advantage of that opportunity.

I still finished college and got my degree in computerized accounting, but there was no way I could leave the printing industry because I was hooked! Here to stay. Since then, I have had the chance to run a production floor and looked at every design that came through. So I got to learn all aspects of the industry from art, inks, screens and actually printing the designs on the press. 

 

PW: Happens to the best of us I guess. It’s good to love what you do. It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly it is that we love, but what do you think it is?

 

SE: To me, there is nothing better than the feeling you get when you see a design that comes in, and to take that from paper to garment in a production aspect. The atmosphere of a well-controlled production floor, the sounds of each press (they all sound different when running), the teamwork, the efficiency… there are no words to explain. Well, maybe one: FUN! That is why I have stayed in the industry, the excitement, fun and the challenges. Each customer, each print and of course, the team—it doesn’t get any better than this to me.

 

PW: I’m sure you see a lot of all of those—challenges, customers, prints—at New Buffalo. What has your experience entailed with the legacy print house?

 

SE: I started with NBSF as a printer. We set up a lab in Greensboro, N.C. so that we could test new products in the industry; namely phthalate-free inks. We wanted to ensure the products could be used in a production-friendly environment.

 

Took us a little while to test, but we figured it out. And, when the new facility was opened in Honduras—our NBCA office—we opened it as an “all green” facility. After helping setup the production floor and training key people to run that floor, my position changed to print specialist. I take care of samples. I test all of the new products on the market. We’re in the process of going all PVC-free—I love the challenge.

 

I also help in all areas that need my help, from customer service, ink and screens to art… whatever needs to be done, I am more than happy to help my team. I also have the luxury—to me it is a luxury, anyway—of coming up with new, innovative techniques that we make our own at New Buffalo. There is no better feeling to me than having an idea and that rush of excitement that goes through you when an idea comes to life and works in a productive way! It is one of the driving forces behind the passion I have for this industry.

 

 

PW: Switching gears a little, and I hate to go all nineteen-fifties on you, but is it fair to say that you’re a bit of an anomaly; that we work in a very male-dominated industry?

 

SE: Yes, very male-driven! I don’t know why that is. I haven’t had any problems with it, even though I’ve learned from the toughest of them all, Dale Scott, and now in the process of learning from Jon Weiss, the CEO of New Buffalo. To me, I am with the elite of the elite with these two! I have found that if you deal in facts and prove those facts over and over again, you gain the respect of all parties. 

 

Working with these guys, you have to be on your A-game at all times. I don’t let my guard down, don’t back down and stand my ground with confidence. That is key. Be confident in yourself and, in turn, you will gain others’ confidence in you. 

 

PW: Well said. What other advice do you have for women in the trade? 

 

SE: One thing about it is you have to be a strong-willed woman to do what I do. And, over the years, I have gotten even stronger. When you grow up in a coal mining town in the wonderful state of West Virginia like I did, in a male-oriented state, as a woman, you have to be tough.

I learned my biggest lesson when my mother, who had six kids, decided to go into the coal mines herself, even though my dad was already there. I have never been so proud! She showed me how to stand on my own two feet and take control of the direction in my life.

 

PW: Oh, wow. What a lucky and amazing influence. Here’s where I start to flash back to Sissy Spacek’s portrayal of another coal dust to star dust woman in Coal Miner’s Daughter. 

 

SE: So you can call me a double coal miner’s daughter, then! Get this: I grew up in Bartley Hollow—or, as we say, holler. Can you believe that? (laughs) My daddy was a strip miner who worked on top of the mines and drove the coal trucks and my mom went underground, coal mining, after the kids were all in school and when she finally got her driver’s license. She worked the night owl shift.

 

Funny huh? This day and age people forget the good times. They may have been the toughest of my life, but I have to say they were also the best. People have said I’m tough… I’ve even heard mean before. But I consider myself honest and passionate about what I am doing. It doesn’t matter to me, male or female. I can hold my own when I have to. 

 

 

PW: So from Bartley Holler to Central America… tell us a little about what it’s like working in Honduras. 

 

SE: I travel to Honduras every other week. Yes, it does get to me sometimes, but I have the support of my family and that makes it somewhat easier. My husband has to take care of the dogs, the horses, the bird when I’m gone while he’s there [in the States] working. And you have to adjust to the culture, too. 

 

Most of that is about adapting to the education levels of the workers there. Most of the population has a third or fourth grade education. That’s it! No higher. But they’re also more motivated to learn. Our training is huge. Our trainers are the best.

 

PW: This also gives you a unique perspective on the trend of our industry “going offshore.” What do you have to say to those critics of overseas expansion?

 

SE: Textiles are now worldwide. They’re global. That’s just the way it is. So we have no control over that, over the industry going global. What we have to do is, we have to follow the trend and go global with it.

 

PW: That’s a really valid point. You also have perspective in terms of experience. What do you think about the evolution that the trade has seen? What has made your life easier?

 

SE: What has made my life easier? The technology that’s actually in the machinery now—in the presses and in the screen room. If I had these technologies when I was printing with the classic inks… Oh man!

 

PW: I love that reference to “classic” inks. I assume you’re talking the traditional plastisols?

 

SE: Yeah, the stuff that was easy to print! Big corporations want to go with PVC-free so we’ve had to print with the non-phthalates. But not just to print with them, we also had to learn to do specialty prints. Spent a lot of time working on samples in Greensboro, so we could open this [Honduras] plant as green. And the specialties… were tough, I’ll tell you. But in my world, there ain’t no can’t. We always figure something out. They call me the mad scientist!

 

PW: You are too funny! Just one more question: What insight do you have for industry peers about persisting and prevailing in this industry?

 

SE: You have to be innovative, research and develop, offer new ideas. Be committed to what you love to do and the customers you provide a service to.