The co-founder and co-owner of the business is not just seeing a state-of-the-art facility. He’s seeing the potential for doubling sales and having twice as many employees.
“I smile every day. My partner (Randy Thorson) and I love walking through here,” Ackley said Wednesday, June 10, during a tour of 2121 43rd St. S.
”We feel great about this facility,” he said.
Co-founder Warren Ackley holds a piece of fabric that was cut by laser Wednesday, June 10, at CI Apparel, Fargo.
Michael Vosburg / Forum Photo Editor
The new factory opened March 13, after the revamping of the former Gander Mountain store was completed.
It is 75,000 square feet of scrupulously clean, environmentally controlled, shirt-sleeves-comfortable work space for the growing firm, Ackley said.
With more than 7 acres of land and a parking lot able to hold 400 cars, there’s plenty of room for expansion, including a 20,000 square foot addition now being considered, he said.
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Ackley declined to share sales numbers for the privately held company, but said it has grown considerably since it started as Creative Imprintz in 1990 above the Old Broadway in downtown Fargo.
The firm now has more than 3,000 collegiate partners served under the national brand CI Sport and more than 1,500 custom corporate apparel partners served by CI Apparel, General Manager Rick Fletcher said Wednesday.
General Manager Rick Fletcher talks near a line of embroidery machines Wednesday, June 10, at CI Apparel, Fargo.
Michael Vosburg / Forum Photo Editor
Fletcher said the CI Sport brand is the largest in North Dakota. In the overall college market, they are one of the top 15 producers, sending products to all 50 states.
“We’re probably better known nationally than we are locally,” Fletcher said. “We’re kind of a well-kept secret.”
The firm employs 110 people, but with the goal of doubling sales, there are plans to raise that to 200 employees, Ackley said.
“There’s definitely potential to do that,” Ackley said.
Creative Imprintz was started to fill a need for branded wear for employees of the bars and restaurants that Thorson and Ackley owned in the Midwest, as well as for retail sales.
In 1992, Creative Imprintz teamed up with Scheels to start selling collegiate wear, then determined to dive further into that market. Over time the company changed its name to CI Sport. As it grew, it moved twice to larger facilities downtown, the last being the three-story building at 16 Broadway that was once home to Herbst Department Store.
Lindsey Grant places shirts on a folding machine Wednesday, June 10, at CI Apparel, Fargo.
Michael Vosburg / Forum Photo Editor
Recently, the company changed its name to CI Apparel to reflect the broader scope of its sales, including the college, corporate and tourism markets, Ackley said.
It now offers a range of products and services, including embroidery, screen printing, digital printing, apparel and logo design and product development.
Fargo’s Gander Mountain had been vacant since it closed in 2017 when the firm closed a number of stores.
After purchasing the building, CI Apparel began rehabbing it in 2019, including ripping out an acre and a half of carpet and polishing the 8-inch thick concrete floors.
The building is efficient to heat and light, and the temperature and humidity are carefully controlled to ensure that the printing machines the firm uses run smoothly, Ackley said.
It’s “a green building,” Ackley said. “We’re pretty proud of that.”
The entry is filled with samples of the products the firm makes. Further inside, you’ll see a “wall of fame” for the company’s employees, as well as the company’s first manual screen print press. There’s also a shop where once a month, employees enjoy what’s called “Three For Free Thursday,” and can choose three items that were samples or considered too imperfect to ship.
Entering into the manufacturing facility, you’re met with rows of pallet racking filled with shirts, T-shirts, hoodies, hats and other products the firm screen prints, embroiders or digitally prints.
“We always have about $2½ million of our own inventory, of our own brands,” Fletcher said.
The offices are on two floors. Graphics artists and designers are housed on the first floor, while sales and marketing staff and senior managers have their offices on the second floor, overlooking the spacious manufacturing area.
There are separate areas for embroidery and screen and digital printing, all of them remarkably neat and clean.
Much of the equipment is new, including state-of-the-art shirt dryers that are 80% more efficient than the firm’s previous dryers.
Lasers on the screen printing machines add a high-degree of precision to the process.
CI Apparel created this nature-themed mural in the break room seen Wednesday, June 10, at the company’s new location in south Fargo.
Michael Vosburg / Forum Photo Editor
The screen printing machines average 400 shirts per hour, but larger orders can be processed at 800 shirts per hour, Fletcher said.
The digital printers provide an amazing mix of color.
“It’s like a copy machine on material. It’s pretty amazing. We have two of them,” Ackley said. “This is so much more efficient.”
The embroidering area is a small sea of high-tech sewing machines.
The machines are designed to do 1,000 stitches a minute using laser systems to register. A laser then cuts the backing material that anchors the embroidery, Ackley said.
Automation has been the key to growth in the market, Ackley said. “What evolved is the equipment. That has been a big deal.”
“This is a state-of-the-art facility,” Fletcher agreed. “We’re not the largest in the United States, but we’re the most automated.”
Ackley is also happy with the loading dock area. At the former downtown location, it could take 2 to 2½ hours to load or unload a truck. “Out here, less than 20 minutes. That’s a big deal,” Ackley said. “UPS likes us again.”
For employees, the Lodge area in the former Gander Mountain building has been turned into a break and lunch room. Oddly enough, Gander Mountain left mounts of ducks, fish, antelope and elk when they vacated the building. CI Apparel decided to have fun with it, creating a wrap with a lake, forest and mountains for one of the walls and placing the mounts around it as a humorous nod to the building’s outdoor sports origins.
Ackley is mum about plans for the former manufacturing facility at 16 Broadway.
“The building is in great shape. We do have some possibilities for that,” Ackley said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected CI Apparel like every other company in America, Ackley said. Having students back on campuses around the country will be important for sales of CI Sport collegiate products, he said.
Fletcher said that like many companies, CI Apparel switched to online meetings to make sales, as well as to reassure customers that “we’re back to work.”
“I’m just excited about the potential for growth,” Ackley said. “We’re definitely a barometer for the economy.”
