The State of Sailmaking and the Last of the Independents

A letter from Andy Camarda, owner of 180 Sails

There was a time when buying a sail meant walking into a loft down the street. The cloth got cut on the floor in front of you, the person who measured your boat was the person who built your sail, and if something wasn’t right, you knew exactly whose door to knock on. Sails were made locally, by sailors, for the water they’d be used on.

That’s the kind of loft I always wanted to run, and it’s exactly what we’ve built at 180 Sails, powered by Evolution Sails. It’s also getting very hard to find. The only other independent sailmaker in town just got gobbled up by a larger conglomerate, which leaves Chicago with three lofts: two owned by the same company, and us. We’re the last independent loft standing.

I’m not saying this as an outsider throwing rocks. I grew up sailing, I’ve spent 30+ years on the water and more than a decade building sails, and I spent years working in other lofts here before I started 180 Sails out of my living room. (I also left a perfectly respectable corporate job to do this, which my accountant still brings up.) I know those buildings, and I like a lot of the people in them. They’re good sailmakers and good sailors. But I also know what it means when the logos keep changing and the owner doesn’t.

What we lost

Twenty or thirty years ago, that loft down the street was the norm. Most lofts were independent. Every sailing town had one, and the name on the door was usually the name of the guy running it.

That guy built sails Monday through Friday and raced them Saturday and Sunday. He was on the start line next to you. He saw your genoa tear at the windward mark, and by Monday morning it was on his loft floor getting fixed. His customers weren’t accounts; they were his competition, his crew, and the people he had a beer with after the race.

That loft is mostly gone now. One by one, the independents became franchises, and the franchises became corporate owned. Today the three biggest names in sailmaking share one owner, the same group that owns the spar builders, the rigging company, and even YachtScoring. Officially, they all still “compete for market share.” Nothing says fierce rivalry like sharing an owner.

That’s why this latest buyout stings. Chicago didn’t gain a new option; it lost one. What’s left of that old model here is us.

Built here, by sailors

Here’s the other thing that changed. Most sails today aren’t built anywhere near the water they’ll sail on. A huge share of the industry’s production now runs through a couple of big factories in Sri Lanka, built assembly-line style by crews who have likely never trimmed the sail on their table. It’s efficient. It’s also how a craft turns into a commodity.

Sailmaking is something you learn on the loft floor, from people who learned it the same way. When the work leaves town, that knowledge leaves with it, and it doesn’t come back with a press release. We’re doing everything we can to keep the art of sailmaking alive in Chicago: building every sail we can right here, by people who sail, and training the next crew of sailmakers to do the same.

And we’re not done. We’ve got some big things in motion that will let us build a lot more sails right here at home, at a scale you don’t usually see from an independent loft.

Why independent still matters

Your jib doesn’t know who owns the company that built it. You’ll notice the difference the first time something goes sideways, and on a sailboat, something always goes sideways. At 180 Sails you deal with the owner, not a regional manager or a customer service portal. A warranty question or a sail that won’t set right doesn’t need three approvals and a claim number; it just gets fixed. Blow out a kite the Thursday before the Mac, and your repair can jump the line, because the guy setting the schedule is standing next to the sewing machine.

We sail here, so we know what Lake Michigan chop does to a headsail, and we’ll tell you when the right answer is a recut, a repair, or “that sail has another two seasons in it.” Your money stays here too: our payroll, our rent, and our sponsorships go to Chicago sailors and Chicago businesses, and you’ll find us at the same regattas and beer can races you sail in. And yes, it supports a sailing habit. Mine and the crew’s. I prefer to call it product research.

Then there’s price. When the biggest names in an industry share an owner, the competition that used to keep prices honest gets a lot more polite. Sailors don’t win that deal, and neither do the people building the sails. The only ones who come out ahead are the ones collecting the returns. We price sails on what they cost to build, plus a fair margin to keep the lights on and pay good people. Get a quote from us and from anyone else in town and compare. We like our odds.

We’re the Chicago loft of Evolution Sails, which has been designing sails since 2009, so we have real design software and real materials behind us. What we don’t have is a holding company telling us what to charge you. My plan isn’t to sell to the highest bidder; it’s to hand this business to the team that builds it. Until then, we’re growing, and we intend to ride this as far as it will go. There’s more coming on the sailmaking side, and on the boat side too. Stay tuned for a big announcement in the next few months.

Keep sailmaking local

Every loft that closes or gets absorbed takes a little more of this craft with it. Keep going down that road and sailmaking in this country becomes a shipping label, and the next generation of sailors won’t know what a sailmaker actually does.

So here’s the ask: help keep local sailmakers in business. Bring us your repairs, your recuts, and your next inventory, and send your friends. Every sail built here keeps a sailmaker on the floor, trains the next one, and helps us grow. And if you’re reading this somewhere other than Chicago, find the independent loft near you and do the same.

We also need people. We’re hiring salespeople right now, and what’s coming next is going to need a lot more hands, both selling boats and sails and on the loft floor. We’re especially looking for people who want to build sails and learn the trade the old way, from sailmakers who still race. If you’ve ever looked at a sail and wondered how it’s made, come find out. Call or email me and let’s talk.

Thanks for helping keep the art of sailmaking alive.