Made-in-USA jeans a good fit
One Detroiter’s denim dream is now a reality cut from whole cloth
People tend to form a special connection with their blue jeans. The timeless garment is a staple in American fashion and is worn by people of all ages regardless of their individual style.
Detroit Denim owner Eric Yelsma has a deeper attachment to jeans than the average Joe.
“When I was a teenager, I was 6 feet and weighed about 130 pounds. Jeans looked horrible on me – they were so loose and baggy,” Yelsma said. “With some guidance from my mother, who was a Home EC teacher, I would alter my jeans so they would fit better. How jeans fit has always been important to me.”
As an adult, Yelsma worked in the chemical industry. After 15 years, he was let go during the Great Recession.
“It sucked at the time, but I was given a huge favor (by) being pushed out of an industry that I really didn’t care for,” said Yelsma, who is in his late 40s.
Yelsma said his yearning to make jeans intensified when he asked his tailor to make a new pair of jeans.
“He told me it couldn’t be done,” Yelsma said. “It seemed like a challenge to me, so I set off on a quest to make my own pair of jeans. I always had an itch to do that.”
As Yelsma began to study the U.S. jeans-making market, he discovered only 1 percent of jeans worn by Americans are manufactured domestically.
“It blew me away that this uniquely American product isn’t American anymore,” Yelsma said.
Yelsma went without a job for a year, learning the craft of jeans manufacturing and writing business plans “that didn’t make much sense because (most American companies) outsource since it’s cheaper.”
He found only a handful of small American companies that successfully produce and sell jeans in the USA. But that meant it could be done. Yelsma was headstrong on doing it in Detroit. He ultimately founded Detroit Denim in 2010.
“It wasn’t about a savvy biz guy who found an opportunity,” Yelsma said. “It was about a guy that loves denim so much and couldn’t help himself.”
Yelsma couldn’t help but chuckle when asked where he first started creating jeans once he established his company.
“I started making them in my garage and my basement, and that lasted about a week,” he said. “It’s a pretty humble story.”
After realizing the complex process of making jeans – which Yelsma said takes 13 machines to accomplish – couldn’t be done in his home, the new business owner said he set off on a new quest: finding a space to manufacture and sell his high-end jeans.
Yelsma began renting space in Detroit’s Ponyride creative incubator in 2010. Eventually the brand grew and he began renting a property in the Rivertown area in 2016, where the business remains today.
Although Detroit Denim was able to obtain a brick-and-mortar store, Yelsma faced plenty of other obstacles common to startups.
He didn’t hire any employees until a year after he founded the company, making all the jeans himself.
“Finding people that knew how to sew was a huge challenge,” Yelsma said. “We had to train and prepare people for skilled trade.”
The balance of sustaining a business and life at home also can be a challenge that Yelsma said often is paid for in lack of sleep.
“Maintaining a growing business can be all-consuming,” he said. “You have to choose your battles and learn when to say no.”
Despite the daily pressure and stress, Yelsma said, “There’s just something special about being a small business owner.”
The product line
Detroit Denim’s product line consists of jeans, jackets, bags, aprons and leather goods.
“Our foundation product is jeans. We’re very particular that they’re entirely U.S.-sourced,” he said.
Men’s jeans run $250 and women’s jeans cost $200 a pair.
Yelsma said he receives emails from people upset at Detroit Denim’s prices. But he said there are numerous reasons his company’s jeans are more expensive than most pairs found at department stores.
“We as a society are conditioned to get cheap products,” Yelsma said. “It’s not uncommon for someone to say ‘I can get jeans for $20 to $40,’ but I can guarantee there were human rights abuse and environmental abuse in the process of manufacturing that product.
“You may not be paying for those jeans, but someone is.”
In addition to using domestically sourced materials, Yelsma said he hires and trains Detroiters and pays his employees a living wage. And he said purchasing jeans from Detroit Denim makes mathematical sense.
“We offer free repairs and you get a lot more wear from our jeans than just a mall pair,” he said.
Beating the odds
The failure rate of startup companies in the U.S. is more than 50 percent after five years of business, according to the Statistic Brain Research Institute.
Detroit Denim is on pace to earn $1 million in revenue this year, Yelsma said. Sixty-five percent of those sales come from Detroit Denim’s physical store and 35 percent come from its online shop.
“Nothing beats coming in and trying on a pair,” said Yelsma. “We will hem them in the appropriate way, and the idea is you leave the store with a perfectly fitting pair of jeans. It’s harder to do that online, however, we are working on ways to make it easier.”
Yelsma said he was in the red the first couple of years.
“I was self-supporting and just figuring things out,” he said.
Currently, the company produces 20 pairs of jeans a day. Yelsma’s goal is to increase production numbers.
“There are opportunities we are exploring that will help us grow and that involves finding a partner that we can work with,” he said. “There are no other cities we are targeting. Our values and business plan involves manufacturing in Detroit, but we would love to sell to people everywhere.”
For more information, visit detroitdenim.com.