I travel to Asia a lot for WERX. This is by means NOT a badge of honor. In fact it's feels like a hardship because I leave my young family, but the necessity for our brand partners' product development, production oversight, or new vendor inspection are a necessity. And I do truly thrive when on-site in the factory.
This past week I had the most exciting factory visiting trip of my career, as I brought my 13 year old son with me to show him where his dad goes every month, and what goes on visiting factories in Asia. My son was welcomed by our factory partners with open arms, got full factory tours, and a real insight to how garments are made from the factory side.
I don't know if he'll follow me in career, even though he's been designing clothing and shoes in his sketch books for years, but I really want to open as many doors as possible for my kids to different industries to show them how many options and paths you can take.
I grew up in a very traditional household where my father went to an office in a suit every day until he retired. I saw his office a few times over the years, but I still honestly don't fully understand what his job was. Something to do with accounting system communications for the large corporations he worked for. Not for me.
I didn't even know that outdoor apparel & gear design was a "real" career until way later in my academics, and had to start all over once I found my true path. I hope I can give my kids the advantage of opening more doors so they can get a head start on their life's calling.
Plus we had an opportunity to go explore Vietnam over the weekend once the business was done, and that time and adventure together was priceless.
PS - Big Shout out to our awesome brand partners NOMATIC for being so cool and encouraging for him to come along.
Written by Mike Fischer
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