how we make our clothes
We make our clothes in our own factory in Oshawa, Ontario. From the way we sew each garment, to the fabric we use and the size of our production runs, we control every aspect of how our clothes are made for you.
How we sew
At FDN, we sew one garment at a time. All of our clothing is cut & sewn in our Oshawa, Ontario factory. There are no assembly lines here. One person is responsible for the entire garment, and moves from machine to machine sewing each step. This method is called Single Piece Flow, and it's a principle of Lean Manufacturing.
Single Piece Flow significantly improves the quality of each piece over mass-production, reduces waste to zero, is faster, and most importantly, it eliminates repetitive stress injuries for Sewing Operators.
We believe that the best and most direct way we can ensure the health and safety of the people that make our clothes is to employ them ourselves, under our roof. This is what "Made in Canada" means to us.
OUR FABRIC
All of our fabric, without exception, is knitted and dyed right here in Ontario. This means we get our fabric directly from a knitting mill. All of our colours are exclusive to us, and specially developed with the dye house.
Additionally, we take care that all of our inputs, such as labels, threads, cloth tapes, elastics & drawcords are all manufactured in Canada. The only things in our factory that aren't made in Canada are our Riri zippers, which are made in Lugano, Switzerland. Riri zippers are some of the best in the world, and the YKK zippers that are made in Canada just do not come close in quality.
Small batch cutting
Because we own our factory, we cut small, efficient batches of styles and sizes based on demand. This allows us to have low inventory levels and never over-produce. It also allows us to cut different styles together to optimize fabric consumption, eliminating a large source of waste in traditional factories.
Having our own factory also allows us to make custom clothing for anyone that is outside of our production sizing range.
