So how long have you been in business? Two years? Five years? Twelve years? What would you say to 40 years as an embroiderer? Surprised? Time to meet Ed Dance, President of Campus Chalet Embroidery in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Believe it or not, Dance started out in 1967 and is still going strong today. His career began in college working in his aunt’s retail clothing shop which just happened to offer monogramming. “At the time the preppy look was in and very popular with the college kids,” comments Dance, “and monogramming was hot. With five colleges within an hour of our store, we had a pretty good source of customers, plus we worked through other clothing stores and dry cleaners. One of our keys to success was pickup and delivery service throughout the Tri-City area with one day turn-around. The delivery aspect was hugely popular and remained an important part of our business for many years. Beyond that area we also offered mail-order, which expanded our business reach even further.”

Not one to be locked into one market, Dance looked for additional markets to develop. “While the college crowd was good, we also saw potential with the snow ski industry, as our location was only an hour or so from the slopes,” says Dance. To further develop this market we named our business Campus Chalet Embroidery and even added a cedar shake roof to blend in with the ski resorts, which had the campus appearance. 

As the business grew, Dance and his father acknowledged that monogramming was probably cyclic and didn’t want to be totally dependent on only one type of service. So they kept a sharp eye out for other embroidery opportunities and it wasn’t long before one revealed itself. “Family crests were all the rage and were popping up everywhere,” comments Dance. “So we did research on family arms and began embroidering them on linen which we framed and sold with much success.”

As the business grew Campus Chalet Embroidery quickly found that they could only do so much on manual free hand monogram machines. Says Dance, “in 1971 we realized that instead of doing single-piece work, we needed to be able to deliver mass embroidery, in order to grow the business the way we wanted. We had heard about an embroidery machine made by a company called Gross that could do multiple pieces at the same time. So we bought an 8-head, wide-field mechanical machine. Though it wasn’t anything like the equipment of today, it certainly improved our production capabilities,” says Dance. “We put it to good use trying to do a little bit of everything, including patches.”

As the business rolled through the 70’s, Campus Chalet picked up more and more work and added a 12-head mechanical machine to increase their output. Because of the size of the business and the name they had developed, the company was able to break into contract embroidery by picking up work with the local children’s and sportswear manufacturer. Production grew to two, and then three, shifts per day, but it soon became apparent that the mechanical multi-head machines weren’t able to put out the volume that Dance was looking for.

About that time, the first electronic embroidery machines were introduced to the industry. It didn’t take long for Dance to sell his existing machines and use the proceeds to invest in a brand new Tajima 12-head electronic embroidery machine and digitizing system. Campus Chalet Embroidery was now in a position to output more pieces per day than ever before, and the move was just in time to take advantage of the largest craze that ever hit this industry.

At the time, Ed’s sister Joi graduated from college. Joi had worked in all phases of the business and accepted the challenge to manage the art and digitizing department. Joi was very experienced with the mechanical punching machines and adapted very easily to electronic digitizing.

With the release of the hit movie Urban Cowboy (starring John Travolta) audiences took notice of embroidered back pockets on the jeans sported by the actors in the movie. Immediately, the consumer demand for the product went through the roof, almost overnight. New shops sprouted like weeds all over the country, existing businesses doubled and tripled their output, all because of the unprecedented demand for embroidered jeans.

“Jeans put us into the 24/7 mode of operation and we added another electronic machine 6 months later, then another and another…” By 1982, Campus Chalet Embroidery had six 12-head machines. But by then the demand for embroidered jeans had faded and Dance needed to find another market to pursue. “Luckily for us, we continued to do other things during the jean craze including patches, children’s clothing and ad specialty work, so we started to work those areas a little harder and found ourselves picking up jobs with name brand companies such as Healthtex, Buster Brown, Oshkosh, Izod, Hilfiger, etc. Because of all the lessons we  had learned in the early years, we had developed a lot of confidence in our abilities to produce a wide range of high-quality work and were able to win over some of the tough customers, which was a big part of bringing in larger accounts,” comments Dance.

And then came the nineties. Major textile companies began leaving the United States for destinations in Mexico, Central America and the Far East. Established contract operations such as Campus Chalet were hit hard as they saw large chunks of their customer base disappear almost overnight. In fact, many large embroidery operations closed their doors as a result of the exodus. “We were used to people coming to us,” says Dance, “now we had to find them. We knew then (and now) that we couldn’t compete against China in regards to price and didn’t try. But we could turn big orders fast and that gave us an edge. Plus our quality is better!” But Dance saw the handwriting on the wall and began a quest in the early 2000’s to reshape the business yet again. We sold several machines and reduced the employees to 30 full time.

Campus Chalet Embroidery knew their strong points were production knowledge and experience. They also realized that more people than ever before were entering the embroidery business, but were typically very small operations, limited in what they could produce. Dance changed his focus to start supporting these operations, who invariably came across large volume orders that weren’t suitable for a one- to six-head shop.

But he didn’t stop there, he also identified and targeted some specialty areas, that were new territory for him. “Niche markets is a term that is usually associated with small shops,” noted Dance, “but we could see there were opportunities for large-scale specialty work, especially for challenging applications. We began approaching companies such as furniture manufacturers with unique ideas for incorporating embroidery into their product lines and the effort paid off and has helped carry us to where we are now.”

Today, Campus Chalet Embroidery is a far cry from the original clothing shop that did monograms. In fact, it’s quite different than even ten years ago as they have constantly changed with the markets. “We’re going strong,” notes Dance, “though the business is somewhat different. To be honest, we are actually having more fun than ever before.” With a staff of long-term employees that means a high level of expertise which translates into smooth production and a comfortable working environment. And the business is still a family affair, with wife Cyndie and sister Joi taking active roles in the day-to-day management of the 30 employees who keep sixteen 12- and 15-head machines producing a wide variety of jobs from emblems and patches to large and small volume contract jobs.

When asked what gives Campus Chalet Embroidery staying power, Dance responds “Two things: The first is to change direction when change is required; the second is to treat other embroiderers as customers not competitors, which means never trying to steal business or being a threat. Remember, we do a lot of contract work for other embroiderers and work closely to help them grow their business, because ultimately we both prosper.”