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FALL RIVER — Did you know they make high-end men’s trousers in Fall River’s Flint neighborhood?
The Hertling manufacturing company, besides making its own line of pants and shorts, manufactures private label trousers for such men’s clothing lines as Paul Stewart, J. Press and Epaulet.
And although the company has been around since 1925, they’ve been in the Spindle City for barely two months.
Majority owner Justin Christensen relocated Hertling in March from the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn to the third floor of the Tower Mill converted mill building on Quarry Street.
“We have twice as much space and air conditioning and pay 80 percent less in rent,” he said.
Christensen, a native of Lebanon, New Hampshire, who now lives in Westport with his co-owner wife and four children, says four of his 10 employees in Brooklyn followed him to Fall River.
He says there wasn’t much hesitancy on their part.
“They said, ‘When do we leave?’” Christensen said, when informed of his plans.
Christensen said one of them, a woman, has been with the company for more than 40 years and that two others have worked for Hertling for at least 25 years.
He also says his key wholesale customers didn’t object to the move.
Hertling in Fall River now has six employees producing around 100 pairs of trousers a week as compared to 300 pieces a week in Brooklyn when the workforce was roughly twice the size.
Christensen expects to eventually hire more people who can learn to operate sewing machines and other types of equipment such as pocket-welting, press and cutting machines.
He says focusing on and increasing online retail sales is fundamental to his business being able to achieve significant, sustainable growth.
“Our e-commerce sales are now 50 percent. We would love it to be 80 percent.”
High-end trouser market
Christensen says customers who shop and buy trousers online at his company typically save anywhere from $25 to $50 per item as compared to in a retail setting; shipping fees are waived on orders exceeding $100.
Hertling brand trousers are still sold in high-end, men’s clothing stores in 14 states. The Andover Shop and Drinkwater’s, both in Cambridge, are among those retailers.
But Christensen says wholesale sales to stores have decreased over time as a growing number of independent retailers have closed and less expensive retail chains such as H&M continue to attract shoppers with cheaper prices.
He also notes the growing popularity of less formal “athleisure” attire that seems to have caught on “from Silicon Valley to Wall Street.”
Christensen says despite these challenges there are still plenty of men willing to pay $228 for handmade cotton chinos or $328 for a pair of wool gabardine slacks.
“Our market is still significant,” he said.
The entry level price point for slacks is $198 for casual chinos that are part of a line called Brooklyn Britches.
“It’s our version of Carhartt,” he said, referring to the popular company known for its work and hunting attire.
Christensen, 46, suspects that some young professionals see the logic of paying more for higher-end, handmade, functional attire that looks and feels good.
“Maybe some of them are wearing cotton stretch chinos instead of used dress trousers,” he said.
Christensen says Hertling has the capability of manufacturing extremely high-end trousers, including all cashmere pants that sell for $1,000. But he says that type of order usually only comes in during the holidays.
He notes that his former employer, Italian manufacturer Brioni, is known for making custom-order $10,000 suits and $100,000 crocodile jackets.
It was during his seven-year stint as Brioni’s director of retail that Christensen realized he wanted to own a manufacturing business capable of producing his own high-end product line.
“My goal is to have the quality of Brioni but at half the price,” he said.
Fall River symbiosis
The groundwork for Christensen’s connection to Fall River predates the acquisition in 2016 of Hertling’s assets by a group of seven investors, among them Christensen, his wife and friends and relatives.
One of those friends, he said, was George Matouk Jr., president and CEO of John Matouk & Co., a Fall River manufacturer of high-end linens, bedding and bath towels.
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He says Matouk eventually sold back his Hertling shares, a move Christensen says afforded him full financial and creative autonomy. Matouk’s initial investment, however, was important.
“George made it a reality for me,” he said.
Christensen has also struck up a working relationship with the Joseph Abboud clothing factory, also known as JA Apparel, in New Bedford. He said the facility is manufacturing some chino trousers specifically for online sales.
More:Joseph Abboud Manufacturing among Massachusetts Manufacturer of the Year honorees
Christensen first met Matouk while working for Brioni at a meeting in New York City being hosted by a firm specializing in product design and branding.
Prior to working for Brioni, Christensen worked eight years for Ralph Lauren, eventually becoming director of wholesale operations of the company’s top-end Purple Label.
He began his career with Ralph Lauren in 2001 as a part-time salesman in the company’s Madison Avenue flagship store after working eight years as a professional male model, a career he embarked upon at age 18.
Christensen, who first became interested in men’s fashions working as a salesman in a New Hampshire store while in high school, says he would read self-help and leadership books in between photo shoots as a model.
“I was content for the most part, but something in me wanted to build a career in sales,” he said, adding that “I wanted to grow up.”
At one point while working for Ralph Lauren he met and hired his future wife, Laura, a Louisiana native who Ralph Lauren himself handpicked to be a designer.
“She was so stylish,” Christensen said.
And although she’s busy at home raising four children, he said Laura is going to introduce both a women’s and children’s Hertling clothing line.
“She’s going to be the reason the company survives,” he said.
Julie Hertling
After working seven years for Ralph Lauren, Christensen says he was laid off as part of a restructuring move by the company.
It was while subsequently working for Brioni that George Matouk told him about the owner of a high-end men’s shirt manufacturing business in Fall River who was considering selling out.
Christensen met and struck up a friendship with Bob Kidder, president of New England Shirt Company, which at the time was on Alden Street in the Flint.
More:Fall River manufacturer highlighted in Hillary Clinton ad
Kidder eventually decided not to retire and relocated to the Tower Mill building. But he also during one particular trade show in 2016 introduced Christensen to Julius “Julie” Hertling.
“Julie was a legend in the garment industry, and somehow I found favor in his eyes,” Christensen said.
Hertling had been running the family business started by his father, Morris, since 1946 after serving in World War II with Gen. George Patton’s Third Army.
Competition from overseas manufacturers in previous decades had taken its toll to the extent that Hertling at one point sold his Brooklyn building and then became a tenant.
Julie Hertling, who died a year later at age 92, was interested in selling his business. Neither of his two sons, who had their own careers, was interested in running it.
And so a deal was struck to sell Hertling for $1 million to Christensen, his wife and the five other investors.
Christensen says Kidder encouraged him to buy Hertling.
For the next nine months, he said, Julie Hertling “showed me the ropes.”
During that time Christensen commuted to Dartmouth, where he owned a house, or sometimes spent nights at his parents’ house in Manhattan, where they had moved years earlier.
Christensen says he’s taken some lumps since buying the company five years ago but has learned by trial and error how to modify the Hertling business model in order to stay profitable.
“I was treading water and made many mistakes in the first few years,” he said.
One of the more immediate challenges was an increase of the New York state minimum wage in 2017 from $11 to $13 and then to $15 in 2018. And the landlord of the Brooklyn building where Hertling was located at one point raised the rent.
One of the changes Christensen undertook early on was to focus more on the high-end men’s market.
He raised prices to increase the profit margin for both his company and the retail stores that sell his clothing line.
COVID challenges
In April of 2020, when Hertling was still in Brooklyn and COVID-19 was declared a national emergency, Christensen, like a number of other manufacturers, used his ingenuity to stay open for business.
Hertling had the necessary cloth materials needed to manufacture face coverings.
Christensen says he was inspired by the news that U.S. auto manufactures were stepping up to design, manufacture and distribute hospital breathing machines known as ventilators.
He says he quickly tested his double-cotton-layer mask prototype and publicized it on Instagram. The next step was to ask local officials to designate Hertling as an essential business so that it could remain open.
Christensen credits Brooklyn Borough President and current Democratic candidate for mayor of New York Eric Adams for his assistance.
He says he ended up donating 30,000 face coverings with non-woven, polypropylene filters to hospitals and selling another 70,000 to online customers.
Hertling face masks range from $20 to $68 for cotton seersucker, wool and cashmere.
“At first we thought $10 was a lot,” Christensen said.
He said the company during the height of the pandemic qualified for two Paycheck Protection Program loans, each of which was for $80,000.
“It helped us keep the lights on,” he said of the federal, forgivable loan program.
Full-time Fall River business
Fall River has a rich textile manufacturing history, and Hertling can now count itself among a small group of companies that remains active in the local industry.
Some of the others include New England Shirt Company, Merrow Manufacturing and Anchor Uniform Manufacturing.
More:How this Fall River uniform manufacturer is outfitting police departments nationwide
And if you rely on sewing machines it’s helpful to have a seasoned repair business handy, which in Hertling’s case is JNT Holding Corp. of Fall River and its owner John Tallmadge.
Christensen is also converting a large, empty space behind his main work floor for photo and video production.
He says he’s convinced he made the right move by relocating to Fall River.
“I never thought we would leave Brooklyn,” Christensen said. “But now all of us here are helping each other be an American-made community.”
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