The Masks Weren't the Business, The People Sewing Them Were
In March 2020, John Pryor was standing in a furniture studio he'd just spent a year renovating, watching his business teeter. He launched a face-mask line before he knew how to sew, and sold 15,000 masks in eight weeks. Then the real story walked through his door: dozens of refugee and immigrant stitchers from Burma and Afghanistan, carrying generational craft skills the labor market had never learned to see.
Pryor rebuilt his company around them, launching a handbag brand where designs carry their makers' names, royalties flow back to the designers, and there are no investors or bank debt to…
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