Our Pop-up Microfactory in downtown Asheville is a place where we can share our love of making with locals rediscovering their home or those exploring the area who want to uncover some of what makes our Carolina Mountains so unique. Visitors can glimpse our manufacturing process as they watch our makers at work or can hop into the sewer’s seat themselves to take a turn at the sewing machine, leaving with their own creation and a new skill.
At our Microfactory, we offer our Asheville-made backpacks, luggage, and totes, designed with the mountain lifestyle in mind. We also have one of our canvas wall tents set up so that visitors can recreate the tent scene out of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and snap the perfect shot to post to social media.
Residing in the former home of Black Mountain College Museum’s exhibition room–now part of theCenter for Craft, Creativity and Design—our pop-up microfactory is a passion project for owner and CEO John Delaloye, who wanted to create a space to educate, encourage and empower others. He feels supporting other makers in the community is important and that by lifting each other up, we only build a stronger community of makers and industry in the region.
By creating a setting where visitors can interact directly with craftspeople and equipment, Delaloye also hopes to see individuals of all ages and skill levels learning the basics of handcrafting gear. Although the Microfactory’s industrial sewing machines are a bit easier to use than the one visitors may have in their home, his hope is that by getting them on the machines, it will ignite a spark in visitors to go home and try it for themselves and learn more.
Most recently, we’ve partnered with the fine craftspeople of in blue handmade, and visitors can watch them create their fine leather products, as well as purchase them on-site at the Pop-Up Microfactory.
Located at 69 Broadway St. in downtown Asheville our Pop-Up Microfactory hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday through January 2019.
