Focus on Small Business:

Scott the Seamstress1

Scott Jones was a junior at the University of Oregon when he discovered that he had a problem. Eugene,

Oregon, is cold and wet much of the year and Jones wanted a fleece jacket like those he saw popping

up all over campus, but he couldn't afford one. So Jones went to the campus Craft Center, bought a pattern

and two yards of fleece, and sewed his own. At that time, Jones said, "I didn't know the seams had

to line up. . . . The whole thing was pretty mismatched, but everybody seemed to like it. All my friends

were saying, 'Hey, I want one, too.' So I kept making them."

With that, Beyond Fleece was born. Beyond Fleece began in 1996 in Jones's room where he would

sew every morning from 5:00 A.M. until 8:00 A.M. before his morning classes. Jones experimented with

various patterns from the Craft Center, and each jacket was custom-made for his individual customer.

At first, pricing was pretty easy. Scott needed to cover the costs of his materials plus a little extra for

mistakes and enough profit to be worth the time he put in.

After graduation in 1998, Beyond Fleece's first website (www.beyondfleece.com) went live, and

Jones began to sew full time while he coached in the University of Oregon's rowing program. The website

began generating hundreds of orders, each one still individually customized, and Jones became a

busy man. After he finished 20-40 jackets, Jones would load them into a large backpack and set off on

his bike to ride the five miles to the embroidery shop.

Now Beyond Fleece offers dozens of basic pants, jackets, vests, and pullovers in fleece for both

male and female weekend warriors. Jones allows customers to customize the product by offering several

options. For example, the Classic Women's Jacket offers 5 colors and 16 feature options including

armpit zippers, internal and external pockets, a hood, reinforced elbows, and thumb loops. Jones puts

his target market between the ages of 25 and 45, estimates that about 70 percent are male, and says

that they have to be comfortable buying online. Most orders come from the colder climates of the East

Coast, although, ironically, he has noticed many from Texas and Georgia.

An effort with Navy SEALs in 2001 to design a new cold-weather coat morphed into another line of

The company began to regularly do over $1 million in sales, and pricing the product now meant

covering overhead, including equipment such as laser cutting tables and computerized sewing machines.

Also, as the popularity of his product has grown and customer loyalty has increased, Scott

found that he did not have to be the cheapest product around. In fact, from March to June 2007 Scott

was able to cease sales while the company retooled into a full-line cold-weather clothing company,

adding items like custom-designed long underwear. In order to accommodate these expanded lines, he

renamed the company Beyond Clothing, or simply, Beyond, at its new website (www.beyondclothing

.com). Almost immediately, it received a contract to be the sole supplier of cold-weather layer system

garments to the U.S. Special Operations Command. Building off this contract and referrals within the

military, today Beyond provides tactical gear to the FBI, Secret Service, and Air Force Para-Rescue

groups as well.

1. What directions do you see Beyond moving as a provider of custom clothing and how will the business's

prices be affected?