Bret Schnitker, Emily Lane
June 9, 2026
Bret Schnitker 00:03
Everyone wants to have perfection in this industry, in a garment or in a business decision that doesn't exist. You always make the best possible decision at the time, and then there's always evolution and Bret,
Emily Lane 00:28
welcome to Clothing Culture, a fashion industry podcast at the intersection of technology and innovation. I'm Emily Lane
Bret Schnitker 00:35
and I'm Bret Schniitker. We speak with experts and disruptors who are moving the industry forward and discuss solutions to real industry challenges.
Emily Lane 00:44
Clothing culture is produced by Stars Design Group, a global design and production house with more than 30 years of experience. Welcome back to another episode of Clothing Coulture, a space where fashion is more than what we wear, it's how we think, how we build, and how we shape the world around us. This season, we've explored the power of creativity, the evolution of design, and the stories behind the garments that move culture forward. And today, we close the chapter on this season with something deeply personal, because this episode is about
Bret Schnitker 01:25
us. It's all about us. It's just about us.
Emily Lane 01:26
That's right. At Stars Design Group, we've always believed in having conversations that shape tomorrow today, and this platform has been one of those ways that we bring that belief to life. Today, we're stepping out from behind the scenes to share more about the voices, the vision, and the journey behind our story, and what we've learned being deeply involved in designing, developing, and manufacturing apparel across the global supply chain. Let's start with who we are, Stars Design Group, and what role we play in the apparel echo system. Bret being the founder of this company almost 27 years ago.
Bret Schnitker 02:07
Yeah, time flies when you're having fun,
Emily Lane 02:09
and being in this industry for 30 years, we'll just say, quote unquote, I'm keeping
Bret Schnitker 02:17
it 30.
Emily Lane 02:18
Why? Why did you say if
Bret Schnitker 02:23
I say more than 30, I sound really old. Oh, why did.. why did I start this? Let's
Emily Lane 02:28
start at the beginning.
Bret Schnitker 02:29
Hey, like all great ideas, it wasn't this singular mind. It was kind of like a group of people kind of got together and decided, hey, let's give this thing a go. We had been brought up through a corporate kind of history, and you know, at some point you kind of learn what you can learn within a corporate environment. You do make decisions, you can continue up a corporate ladder, you can go to a new company if you feel like that one corporate corporation isn't continuing to, you know, provide you what you, you need, or you can step off and kind of take the entrepreneurial route, you know. For us, it was kind of a, I don't know, an intersection of occurrences that had happened. Edison had gone through its going through its second bankruptcy. We saw
Emily Lane 03:25
this was the multi billion dollar retailer, the retailer that we were at. Yeah,
Bret Schnitker 03:29
they were making quite a few pretty difficult, challenging decisions, and you definitely saw the writing on the wall, and, and, and despite individual successes, I happened up quite a few there. The overall company just was struggling, and you kind of saw an end, so you had a decision to make. You were going to either jump ship because you had kind of progressed up through the ranks pretty quickly and pretty well, or you were going to make take another different approach, and I think you know at a young age, entrepreneurship and owning your own company is tantalizing, exciting, especially when you have support of others to help you get where you need to go. Doing it solo is tough. Any business doing things solo is tough, and in my case, you know, I had a bunch of people overseas that were willing to support that. A partner at the time had a good idea that, you know, wanted to get this going, and so it provided us a little sense of security, even though there's not a ton of security to give it a go, and for us it was that we felt like we had a lot of expertise, we had a lot of experience, and that there was this niche and need in the industry for what we do, our services that we do, and those services have continued to evolve, but at core we make really good product, and we understand how to build that product and deliver it. Pretty seamlessly in a pretty difficult world,
Emily Lane 05:02
when you, you talk about that initial conversation that you had, that that helped kind of set the stage for what Stars Design Group would eventually become. Originally, you had a pretty limited infrastructure of, you know, United States-based manufacturing in Turkey, and then very quickly decided that you didn't want to be beholden to just one country. Now it's a multi-country portfolio. Tell me a little bit about that decision.
Bret Schnitker 05:28
Yeah, when you're working in a large corporation with multiple categories, like we always talk to our customers, not every country does everything well, so you've got to be in different countries to execute different programs, and you know, the corporation gave me an opportunity to explore a lot of these countries and develop a lot of relationships in different countries, and originally, when we started, it was pretty Turkish-based, one of our partners was Turkish-based, he owned factories there, and, and it was great for him, but it was pretty limiting for us, because we always went back to the well with him on manufacturing. He was everybody has strengths and weaknesses, but he was kind of inconsistent on delivery and things like that, and he was very narrowly focused in terms of product and I felt like to a degree that wasn't going to be a long term strategy we wanted to be and still to this day actually do products from multiple countries with multiple categories and I think that's a really good business model because it provides us to step in where somebody needs us most, right? Yeah, and then expand, and so I think you know that beginning step got us used to running our own business, and then shortly, I think it was a couple years later, we kind of formally moved past Turkey with the help of many others in other countries, um you know to kind of create the foundations for what Stars is today. You mentioned multiple categories of product, and I think this is one of the things that makes Stars so special and so unique. So many times we'll be talking with a customer and they'll be like, no, really, tell us what really are you good at it? People say they could do every thing, but no, no, like, wink wink. Tell us the truth. What's your specialty? And I love what you have to say about this. Yeah, I would tell you that a lot of people will jump into a specialty as a manufacturer, like a manufacturer will come over and have a conversation with the retailer, and many times that that manufacturer does have a specialty, they are a woven supplier, their bottom supplier, and out, or whatever, and and so it is kind of habitual for a buyer or product developer, you know, or a brand to ask someone that walks in the door, someone their first meeting that has the potential to build product for them. Hey, what's your specialty? Because they assume you know you've spent your time doing something better than others. And the benefit that we had at that organization years ago was that we had our hands in a lot of different categories, everything from tailored to basic knitwear, bottoms, tops, accessories, everything, and we had to virtually manage that globally, and so that gave us a really great foundational knowledge for producing a wide variety of product for us that continued to evolve at Stars, where I felt the needs from clients are wide and varied. Some of them may have a challenge with a knit, some of them may have a challenge with a woven outerwear, tops, bottoms. You never know where that initial conversation leads, and in most successful businesses, of course, they have lots of producers, manufacturers that do a pretty good job, right? The wheels aren't falling off everywhere, you wouldn't have a company, and so they typically have this portfolio of good, bad, and ugly.
Bret Schnitker 09:14
They've got great manufacturers doing a great job, they've got okay, they've got kind of ones that they kind of deal with, because they might have a great price or some kind of a niche, and then they got problem children, and if you can step in, if you can be competent at a wide variety of product, and you can step in where that challenge is, overcome the challenge, do a great job, you do have the potential to move horizontally through an organization, because you have the ability to do wide variety of variety of product, it falls in line with the needs of a part of a brand, typically because they want their product to look like it's kind of all made from one person, right, same DNA, same thought process, similar hand feel, great quality things. Like that, and so, if you can, if you can understand their DNA, effectively overcome the challenge, and then get opportunities in different parts of their business as challenges arise, or as you've learned your way, right? Then, then both parties win.
Emily Lane 10:18
Okay, so you talk about where the wheels are falling off, the good vibe, the ugly, the problems that are happening. Let's talk a little bit about some of those case studies. Like, what are the kinds of things, problems that companies have come and said, "I need help with this, I don't understand what's going on, but I've got a problem.
Bret Schnitker 10:35
Boy, it has been, you know, early in the career, it was a half a million unit program that was built from an Ottoman stitch polo program, and it was built for the outdoor for a large golf company, and the head of sourcing came and said, "Hey, we've got all sorts of fading issues and shrinkage issues, and that was pretty easy to fix. One ottoman does have a shrinkage issue, but you can compact fabric compact, you can panel compact, and those things reduce shrinkage. So that was a pretty easy fix, but the fading issue was a little bit more complex. All of the garments, and many cotton garments today, use a thing called reactive dyestuffs. Reactive dyestuffs, Achilles heel is sunlight. It fades to sunlight over time, and there's a wide variety of dyestuffs in the market. Everyone thinks, oh, reactive dyestuffs, I'm going to go pull my reactive dyestuffs off the shelf. There's domestic in-country dyestuffs, China, India. There's great European, European dye stuffs. There's a wide range, so some of them are more stable than others, some of them are more expensive than others, some of them are less expensive. She was challenged with perhaps a medium quality that was where the garments were fading because these customers were in the sun all the time, so based upon our experience, we knew that in addition to dye stuffs, there are specific additives that you can go in and you can place additives into dye stuffs to create or overcome instability, and in this case, we added this product called Ciba FN into the dye stuffs, and what that does is it creates a more stable dye stuff against sunlight, and that greatly improved the product for her, but my gosh, it has been, it has been all over the place, overcoming technical challenges, overcoming creating outerwear garments that can slide 150 feet across an asphalt without falling apart. I mean,
Emily Lane 12:54
yeah, that's kind of interesting. I, one of the things, when you've talked about, you can various performance needs, yeah,
Emily Lane 13:00
it's, it's, you know, what, what is the wearer of the clothing doing right? And I think that's really fun, because you have so many stories of hopping on snowmobiles, hopping on yachts, you know, to see what are the needs of these garments to make sure zippers don't rust, or make sure that was just an excuse.
Bret Schnitker 13:21
I wanted to be on the
Emily Lane 13:24
yacht. That's true. You go out there and you live the life of,
Bret Schnitker 13:29
you learn a lot by doing. Yeah,
Emily Lane 13:31
I think that's really fun. You've had, you know, you had a very large brand of iconic American brand reach out once because they were having a fabric challenge, they, that I think, in the end, they ended up having to dump what was going on there, that was not with us, no, there wasn't,
Bret Schnitker 13:51
we actually, you know, through our, through our relationship with others, we, you know, we stay in touch, and there was a Korean trading company that had reached out and had a large, large program, millions of units with a large national retailer, and in our industry you want to make sure that when you're knitting a particular fabric that you're knitting it correctly to ensure you have a, you don't have a thing called seam slippage, the fabric kind of moves, and when you're attaching it and assembling it in a seam, if there's a lot of movement in a fabric, and it can be both woven and knit, if the fabric is, if the, if the yarns in the fabric move to a particular degree, that can come and come unraveled at the seam, that's the best way you can explain it. And so they had actually, you know, purchased a nominated fabric from this big retailer's portfolio. They were the CM factory, the factory that would assemble the garments, and as they assembled them and started doing tests, they found out they had a horrible seam slip at. And things were coming apart at the seams, so they called kind of rather frantically, because they had locked, you know, when fabric comes into a factory and it's an order that big, you have blocked production for many, many lines for quite some long time, and if your entire fabric inventory that's supposed to go into that line is problematic. You have just lost a ton of money every day, because those, yes, and so it was a rather panicked call. And so we worked through different opportunities about compacting and figuring it out, but in the end, after I saw the fabric, it literally wasn't salvageable, you, it was just knitted incorrectly, and I suggested that the only way to do that is to remake the fabric correctly. Long story short, interestingly enough, and of course we won't mention the brand, they accepted the fabric and rolled that out to retail, so I don't know,
Emily Lane 15:55
don't know how that, how that shook out. Yeah, it was not a wonderful solution. Fit is one of those things that you know companies can come, they're having a challenge with, you know, inconsistency of fit, or I remember even a program that you've talked about where you know it was a very low rise on the back that that was a problem that you got to solve,
Bret Schnitker 16:21
yeah, that was, you know, it was a, it was a tactical company, and that that company was pretty mobile, they would crouch down, they would move around, there were a lot of these elements, and that was really more of a pattern issue, and they knew it, they knew they had an issue, you know, the notorious plumber plumber's crack or Hilton view, whatever you want to do, luxury point of view on it. It's the same result, but they knew they had an issue, and so with technology, and certainly our partners, like Browseware, we were able, and Albanon, we're able to recreate the pattern and balance the pattern effectively. Our teams were and put that into a space, put their pattern on the left, put a new balanced pattern on the right, take and move the avatar, put it into a position, and it showed the fix.
Emily Lane 17:15
Yeah,
Bret Schnitker 17:15
and so we get all the time different challenges, and it's you're right, it's fabric, it's dying, it's fit, it's meeting at price point, it's, it's what's one that you're most
Emily Lane 17:29
proud of over the last 27 years, like maybe the trickiest, you're like, ah, we did it, we know it,
Bret Schnitker 17:36
yeah, I don't think I've ever said we know everything, I've always said, we're on a continual journey. I think there have been a lot of moments where I feel really proud, you know. We had a very large heritage company that we produced for for almost 20 years, and I think I was, I think I was most proud of the moments of a long relationship together, solving problems every day on a multitude of products, where the garments were certainly fashionable, but every individual garment had to meet some pretty high level of performance standards, and day in and day out, you know, it was great that the teams could figure out not only how to make something esthetically look good, and we certainly weighed in on design, and, and have something that you know esthetically look good that performs super well, that customers would rave about with hand feels, and and volume would traditionally be very, very good, and you know there are individual moments where you're like, man, we've overcome something - a huge electrical system built into a garment that's the latest, greatest technology, and you do feel a little bit like a rocket scientist at that point, patting yourself on the back. We were involved in kind of creating a unique antiviral, you know, chemical with Washington University and a few others during Covid, and you do feel moments where you've kind of elevated yourself into more technology than than the basic garmenting business, but you know where I always feel if, if you use the word proud, I think I feel I feel like it's more grateful, and, and I feel I don't know, I feel like, hey, we've done a great job, and I feel really satisfied is when we have these great relationships of people, we solve issues for them on a day in and day out basis, we're not perfect, but and then we deliver over a long period of time, and you get to see their business grow as a result, and then years later, as you know, we have them come back to the well, maybe in another brand or another business, and they've become colleagues and friends, and and I don't. Oh, that's a pretty good, that's a pretty good feeling. Yeah,
Emily Lane 20:02
we started clothing culture. Gosh, now that we can say that we're five complete seasons, and of course already mapping out season six as a, as a way to really share expertise and information, which is, you know, so needed in our space, and it's been really wonderful to see it's so widely adopted around the world through all facets of our industry, schools are using it to share education, and it's just a really a wonderful thing, and it's opened the door for more consulting. You've been really stepping into that lately.
Bret Schnitker 20:38
I had no idea, I mean, I had an idea that people needed answers, you know, for years. Maybe I would weigh into some of those answers and spend a bit of time, but you know, when you formally focus on the consulting side a little bit more and you offer those services, it's a different dynamic, you know, it's a little bit different paradigm. You're not actually, you know, focusing ultimately all the time on the final product. You're really walking people through daily challenges from on a wide variety of subjects, and I would tell you that's been really great. I've been a mentor at Heart Heart my entire life, and so providing the answers I have based upon experience and wisdom, and I always say wisdom is, I made so many mistakes when I was younger, you know what not to do, but I still make mistakes, yeah, yeah, well, I listen to most of them, I suppose, but you know, to be able to steer people clear of things that could cost them and steer them more toward things that would be successful on a consistent basis is a great thing about consulting. You know, you get to dig a little bit deeper than just the order.
Emily Lane 21:56
Yeah, and it's so diverse, you know, it's everything from I have a good idea, help me figure out how to do it, to you know, we're leaders of our space and we need to make changes and need help, so it's been really all over the.. it's amazing
Bret Schnitker 22:11
the different shapes and sizes, big and small.
Emily Lane 22:13
Yeah, what are some of the things that you're looking forward to over the next couple of years?
Bret Schnitker 22:19
Retirement, just kidding, I'm not. I don't know if I'll ever retire. I think it continued a continued movement along the consulting edge, you know. It seems like that pace is picking up in a big way. I enjoyed some public speaking kind of events that we've had recently in New York and St. Louis and other places, and that was, that was my God, that was mind-blowing for me. The response on those, and continuing to help everyday brands and businesses achieve their goals in a really, really complicated world.
Emily Lane 23:00
Yeah, that's that's great. Well, any, any final words of wisdom learned from your own mistakes to share before we wrap up this wonderful season?
Bret Schnitker 23:13
I'd have it, but it's gonna cost you. We're in consulting. No. All right. Yes. Write me a check, and I'll give you a great word of wisdom that will only take five minutes. Billable. No, I would tell you that life happens in a community. You're not an island. Everyone wants to have perfection in this industry, in a garment or in a business decision that doesn't exist, you always make the best possible decision at the time, and then there's always evolution, you're always figuring out customer feedback and making adjustments, and that happens not only in apparel, it happens in sometimes more intentionally in technology, you always have these versions, and so you know, really, you know, there are there are limitations in the business. You are going to do the best you, very, you can. You know, we are out there to help you make those best, those best decisions, but always be able to pivot, always be able to evolve, learn from feedback, and today more than ever, I think you know we are in a consumer-driven economy. Customers are very vocal about what they like and they don't like, and I would say that's been a shift from when I started in the business. We kind of told customers what they should like and they shouldn't, and today customers are really vocal, and so always make sure that you are involving your future community of clients, that you're engaging them with questions, you are listening to their comments, you're making rapid, you know, as rapid as you can changes to mistakes that you think that you've made. Made and mistakes are part of life, and then continuing to evolve, making sure that you're staying up to speed with with all the trends that this industry has,
Emily Lane 25:10
and just understanding the landscape of things, which is changing every day,
Bret Schnitker 25:15
it
Emily Lane 25:16
is, and we do help with that, we do have a weekly drop clothing brief, where we share some of the most current news of what's happening in our space. So, when it comes to things like geopolitical information, tariffs, you name it, we're having the conversation so that you're staying apprised of what's happening. So, even as we take a pause between season five and six, we'll be keeping a regular touch base with you on clothing brief, and if there's anything that you're interested in learning in season six, please, please, please, please reach out, and of course, at Stars Design Group, if we can solve any problems for you, we're here for you. So, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe to stay apprised of season six and upcoming conversations
