An anniversary for SF Made.
Nonprofit marks 5 years of promoting local industry, confronts challenges of finding space, keeping workers
As SFMade marks its fifth anniversary this week, spotlighting locally made products and the people who make them, there is much to celebrate.
The San Francisco nonprofit, which seeks to build and support a vibrant manufacturing sector in San Francisco and create employment opportunities for a diverse local workforce, has made great strides in creating a cohesive, supportive community of San Francisco manufacturers.
Thanks to the booming economy, demand for the type of highly designed, custom products that tend to fuel San Francisco’s manufacturing economy is up, enabling more businesses to make and hire locally.
But with that success comes new challenges: availability and affordability of manufacturing space, and the opportunities for employees — even those being paid relatively high manufacturing wages — to live in the city where they work.
Elevating city’s economy
From a purely economic standpoint, SFMade can point to huge gains since the organization started in 2010. Janet Lees, senior director at SFMade, says, “Of the 565 companies manufacturing in the city, 226 of them were founded within the past five years.”
The organization’s annual “State of Local Manufacturing Report” found that local manufacturers drove $585 million into the local economy in 2014, an increase of 32 percent from 2013. Apparel manufacturing remains the largest sector at 31 percent of SFMade member companies, with food and beverage and home/garden/ furniture manufacturers following close behind.
Job growth looks equally rosy. According to Todd Rufo, director of the San Francisco Office of Economic and Work- force Development, the local manufacturing economy has added 1,200 jobs since 2011.
“These are good, stable jobs that give workers a way to stay in San Francisco,” Rufo says. “And they’re really good job opportunities for those without a four-year degree.”
Lees sees a positive impact from SFMade far beyond the purely economic. “There are the facts, and then there is an equally powerful feeling of a tightly knit and active community of manufacturers that didn’t exist before,” Lees says. By SFMade’s reckoning, 90 percent of the manufacturing companies in the city are engaged with the organization, taking advantage of industryspecific education, networking opportunities, and resources like help with local hiring, job training, and finding space.
SFMade threw open its doors during the recession, and it faced different challenges in 2010 than it does today, in large part because of the type of products that tend to be manufactured in San Francisco.
“Back then the big question was, ‘How do you sustain sales for high end, custom, artisanal products when the economy is so tough?’ ” Lees recalls. “And how were new companies supposed to find a market for their products?”
Fast-forward five years: Affordable manufacturing space and the ability to hire well-trained workers locally are critical concerns that SFMade, together with the city, is working to address.
“It’s hitting established companies that want to expand, as well as new companies,” Lees says of rising rents that put the squeeze on manufacturers. SFMade has begun offering a “Places to Make” suite of services, which helps locate space and identify clusters of manufacturers that could logically co-locate.
Sister nonprofit for space
Aaron Jones, founder of heated outdoor furniture manufacturer Galanter and Jones, says, “SFMade found us our first office space, subletting from Capital Eyewear in SoMa. Then when we wanted to expand and moved to the Bayview, Capital Eyewear moved with us.”
Additionally, SFMade has launched a sister nonprofit called PlaceMade that works like an affordable housing developer, only for manufacturing space. Its first big project, stemming directly from a 2014 city planning code amendment designed to create more industrial space in San Francisco, is a 56,000-squarefoot multi-tenant spot at 100 Hooper St. on Portrero Hill. “This will be permanently affordable industrial space,” Rufo says.
Workforce development is another priority. Beyond a job board and training programs, SFMade has started YouthMade, an internship program designed to expose high school students to career opportunities in local manufacturing. Robin Petravic, managing director at Heath Ceramics, says, “The current educational system really doesn’t educate people how to manufacture products. SFMade has stepped in to fill that gap.”
Where will San Francisco manufacturing be in another five years? “I’m bullish,” Rufo says. “We’ll compete by going small and hyper-customized, with highly designed and highly curated products. We’re not trying to be known as the place for making $3 T-shirts.”