Paula C. Squires// May 29, 2013//
People don’t usually associate textiles with Northern Virginia, Virgina’s hub for technology and IT companies. Yet one of its businesses, Sundog Productions, is the only textile factory of its kind on the East Coast that can go from fabric to hanger, and it has located to a new and larger facility.
Sundog is celebrating the grand opening Saturday, June 1, of a 40,000-square-foot-plant at 3850 Jermantown Road that used to provide office and parking space for Verizon.
Sundog said in a press release that it’s the only manufacturing plant in the city of Fairfax and in the surrounding region that uses green energy to power its production process and an eco-friendly dye used in the production of t-shirts.
Elected officials, local businesses and civic leaders are expected to gather at 11 a.m. for a ribbon cutting, followed by tours of the facility.
“As part of our commitment to the environment, focusing on green and sustainable solutions, our new facility in the city of Fairfax will reduce its carbon footprint through the use of geo-thermal and solar energy systems and eco-friendly dyes,” Sundog’s founder, CAS Shiver, said in a statement.
According to the company, the plant provides sewing, screen printing, embroidery and custom dyeing capabilities, all under one roof.
The production floor is located behind 7,500 square feet of office space, occupying the lower level of a parking garage that has been enclosed.
The new facility will allow Sundog to increase capacity to more than 3 million garments annually and accommodate any size order. Sundog employs 55 workers, including three in-house designers, creating made-to-order or one-off designs for such clients as Disney, Universal Studios, Fortune 500 companies and bands including the Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones.
Additionally, its core business supports independent t-shirt shops, music stores, sports leagues and schools, where Sundog partners with the business community to provide a “Made in America” product.
t