Sportif's brave new world

Bobbin, July, 1998 by Kathleen DesMarteau

In describing Sportif's investment in its Mexican operation, which it purchased in March 1995, John Kirsch says, "A lot of the [employee benefits-related] things we have done have come about through pure necessity, in order to match our competitors. Unfortunately, our competitors are huge electronics companies like Bose and the big Korean conglomerate Dae-Woo, which has 9,000 employees in the same city and occupies what has got to be a million square feet of manufacturing there."

Despite the challenges, Sportifs investment in Mexico is paying off, as the company has cultivated a highly skilled 200-employee work force capable of flexible production of any of the firm's products. "We've been successful in Mexico with garments that are not easy to make . . . but it definitely has taken time to make it work," adds Kirsch.

Decisions as to which orders are run through Sportif Mexico (the Mexican subsidiary carries about 30 percent of Sportifs annual production load) versus the larger Sportif Lanka plant usually are based on the type of fabric used in a given style. "If it's a domestic [U.S.] fabric, we're probably sending it to our Mexico facility because of NAFTA [savings]," explains Jim Hulse, director of sourcing, who adds, "Our expertise is pretty exceptional at both factories . . . and there are programs that price out the same in Sri Lanka and Mexico."

Nonetheless, most of Sportif's high-tech outerwear programs, many of which contain popular branded outerwear fabrics such as Gore-Tex[R], are produced at the 700-employee Sportif Lanka, which is a W.L. Gore-approved factory. And as Hulse explains, "Gore-Tex goes through the factory pretty slowly because [the high-tech outerwear products require so many manufacturing operations]. You need to have a pretty big operator base to handle it."

Sportif's Sri Lankan operation was built from the ground up in 1990 by the company's founder, who settled on the small island south of India after researching potential sourcing locales in U.S. territories such as Saipan and Guam. (Until 1996, Sportif had a factory in Hong Kong and utilized a contractor in China, but exited these manufacturing markets because of inflationary pressures.)

Despite the political turmoil surrounding India in the wake of its nuclear weapons testing, Sportif is confident any U.S. sanctions against India will not affect Sri Lanka. Apparel is Sri Lanka's largest export to the United States, Kirsch notes, and the country has always enjoyed strong U.S. trade relations.

This healthy trade environment is one reason Sportif hopes to expand its Sri Lankan operations. Jeff Kirsch, who managed Sportif's Mexican facility for two years before moving to Sri Lanka to run the company's operation there, says he would like to grow Sportif Lanka from 45,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet by the end of this year or early 1999. He anticipates that in five years, the operation will have expanded beyond its current facility and will employ close to 5,000. At this point, Sportif Lanka also will have invested in some sophisticated automated cutting, packing and pocket setting equipment, he predicts.