​ State of the Craft Industry 2024: Panel Discussion Featuring Leading Experts | h+h Connect

Welcome to another exciting episode of h+h Connect. I'm Darrin Stern, the show director for h+h Americas and a Vice President at Koelnmesse Inc., based in Chicago. Our podcast series brings you valuable insights and inspiration to enhance your business, creativity, and overall inspiration.

In today's episode, we have a fascinating State of the Industry panel discussion from h+h americas 2024 featuring a diverse group of experts from the craft industry. Joining us are Tony Lipsy from TL Yarn Crafts, Gina Pantastico from Cloud9 Fabrics, Scott Stone from Genporia Craft, and Virginia Johnson from Gather Here. We'll be discussing the current state of craft retail, trends, challenges, and the future of independent retail. So, let's dive in and hear what our panelists have to say!

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  As we thought about putting together this panel, we wanted to include a diversity of viewpoints and vantage points. And I think that we have got that here in spades.

I'll call our panelists to come on up.

So we have Tony Lipsy, Gina Pantastico, Scott Stone, and Virginia Johnson, and I will let them introduce themselves. So if you all want to take just a 30 seconds or so, tell us a little bit about your business and who you are, and Tony, we'll start with you. Oh, my goodness. Of course,

you're

gonna start with me.

Hello and good morning, everyone. My name is Tony Lipsy. I'm the crochet designer and educator behind Teal Yarn Crafts. I focus on inspiring and encouraging makers at the beginning or intermediate levels of their practice. And I really focus on fostering community. That's one thing that this space did for me.

So I want to do it for other people as well. Thanks, Tony,

and Tina. Good morning, everyone. I share Tony's sentiment. This is quite overwhelming But my name is Gina Pantastico. I am one of the founders of Cloud9 Fabrics and Felicity Fabrics We've been doing this for about 15 years now I currently serve as the Director of Operations, and under that umbrella I handle everything from production, sourcing, customer service, sales, and essentially everything numbers related, and Very happy to be here.

Thank you for having me, Abby. Of course. Thank you, Gina. And Scott?

Hello hello, everybody. As you can maybe tell by the accent, I'm from the UK. My name's Scott Stone. I'm managing director of Genporia Craft, which is a company which owns a selection of brands. One in soft craft, which is called Sewing Street, hobby maker jewelry maker, and visible image.

We are a shopping TV channel by probably But we also work with influencers and content creators to just create great products that people like. And it's all about community, really, and partnership. So we love what we do. I've been working there for about seven years now. Thank you.

Thank you. And Virginia Johnson. Hi so my name is Virginia. I own a brick and mortar in Cambridge, Massachusetts called Gather Here and I run that business with my partner, Noah, who makes it possible for us to do all the things plus 20 other incredibly talented and caring people. Humans that all call, gather here, not just their job, but their third place.

I, we also have an online space, we have a robust social media presence, and I actually hosted a workshop with Abby when I first opened 13 years ago in my first location in greater Boston.

Thank you.

All right, we are in for a great discussion, so thank you. So we're going to start big.

What is the state of craft retail right now? What is working for our brick and mortar shops and our e commerce shops? What is no longer working? What should we be thinking about when it comes to independent retail? So actually jean, I think we'll start with you on that one if that's okay

From my perspective I think that we really need to start focusing on Younger crafters.

I think it's really quite important to bring them into the fold Have them be part of this community and feel that they are Welcome into this community whether they knit So quilts, crochet, we really need to be looking to the future and to me that's the biggest thing I'm trying to do at our company is encourage young people to get involved in this industry, in this community.

Would you have thoughts that sure? I

think I think the state of the industry is growing. Obviously coming out of the pandemic, we had this massive influx of people joining us in our crafty crusades, and I think it's important to continue to embrace those folks,