Sulky of America - Committed to Quality for Over 35 Years!
Joyce and Fred Drexler, Executive Vice-President and President of Sulky of America remain insistent about maintaining the very highest quality in all of the products that bear the Sulky label.
Fred's favorite “quality” story is about the thread manufacturer from Mexico who was trying to get Sulky to market his lesser quality thread several years ago. After a careful study and analysis of the quality of both his thread and Sulky thread, he told Fred, "You have too much quality in your thread. You don't need that much quality". Believing that consumers could tell the difference, this only reconfirmed Fred's belief that he would always strive to have "Too Much Quality" in all Sulky Products.
Since the inception and marketing of their first nationally known company called Speed Stitch in the late 70’s, the Drexlers have been a strong influence in the home sewing industry, both in the U.S. and Canada.
Fred and Joyce are education Innovators. From their earliest consumer free-motion embroidery classes in their retail store in the 70's to Joyce's national "Success Seminars" and "S.M.A.R.T.” events in the late 70’s and all through the 80"s and early 90's, to “Sew Exciting Seminars" in the mid-90's through today, to Certification Trainings beginning in 2004 through today.
Educating the consumer has always been a top priority for Sulky. Fred explained, “Our extremely strong focus on education through the last 20 years has caused Sulky of America to become the most recognized and asked-for name in decorative threads.”
The demand for Sulky threads is due to its high quality and exceptional array of types, colors and spool sizes, but the “Sew Exciting” seminars and Certification Trainings that the Drexlers currently market have also been a deciding factor.
Recognition first came with the “Success Seminars” that Joyce taught through 1985 using Speed Stitch techniques to demonstrate to consumers how sewing can be fun, creative and exciting.
The seeds of this innovative educational program were sown in 1976 when Joyce started teaching free-motion embroidery in their independently owned Singer sewing store, using top-of-the-line machines. As customers learned how much fun sewing could be when using Joyce’s methods and a good quality sewing machine, they purchased those top model machines and the kits that Joyce produced in ever-increasing numbers even though the home sewing market itself was in a decline.
The Drexlers’ success captured the attention of then Singer Company Vice President, Jack McCrae, who encouraged Joyce and Fred to teach other Independent dealers their winning techniques. McCrae was so impressed with the program that was causing the Drexlers to be one of the top Singer dealers in the country that, on several occasions, he mailed information about Joyce’s Success Seminars to every Independent Singer Dealer in the country.
In 1979, the Drexlers opened a second store, and Joyce taught her first “Speed Stitch Success Seminar” to a group of independent Florida dealers. Because of its huge success, they decided to market Joyce’s kits and seminars on a national level.
In March 1980, Speed Stitch’s first full-page, full-color ad appeared in a National trade publication called Sew Business which proclaimed, “At Last, Crafty Kits for 80 Million Neglected People.” The headline referred to the number of households that already owned a basic zigzag sewing machine and therefore could complete any of the six Speed Stitch Kits.
In that same year, in a wholesale advertising brochure for Speed Stitch, the Drexlers promoted the importance of capturing the limited leisure time of the working woman with Joyce’s stress free, basic approach to Free-Motion Machine Embroidery, which could be done by the widest range of people – not just the talented, artistic few.
In the following year, and then annually through 1985, Joyce taught 20-25, three-day, “Success Seminars”, reaching more than 1,000 independent dealers and educators all over North America with her seminars. She also created over 200 additional products for Speed Stitch including: a book entitled Thread Painting; a 500 page instructor’s manual; six monogram kits and patterns, and artwork for numerous other techniques.
The Success Seminars grew to six days in length and, according to Fred, “The acceptance and growth of Speed Stitch was so strong that it almost exceeded our ability to finance it. At one point, we had used up our savings, secured a second mortgage, borrowed against our life insurance policies and cashed in our IRA’s.”
In 1985, the Drexlers organized their first S.M.A.R.T. event – Speed Stitch Machine Artists Retreat, to teach hundreds of people in one location how to do other techniques currently on the market. “Fortunately, the acronym police never caught up with us,” Fred says jokingly.
(Another very significant thing that happened in 1985 was that Speed Stitch secured the U.S. marketing rights, for the Home Sewing Market, to a high-quality industrial rayon thread called Sulky. In 1987, Speed Stitch entered into a joint-venture partnership with the German manufacturer of Sulky Thread and Sulky of America began marketing Sulky 40 wt. Rayon Thread on the world’s first snap-end spool.)
S.M.A.R.T. was open to both Consumers and Teachers and it accommodated 30 attendees in each of five different classrooms, with 15 to 20 educators teaching morning, afternoon and evening classes for 6 days. By 1993, most sewing machine companies had instituted similar events to teach their dealers, so the Drexlers discontinued their S.M.A.R.T. events and began to teach consumers in dealer’s stores by sending highly trained educators to conduct “Sew Exciting” Seminars.
Currently, Sulky has 9 Free-Lance National Educators who teach five different “Sew Exciting” seminars annually in 200 to 300 retail stores across the country, and for Guilds. Each year, Sulky educators also teach at more than 20 consumer shows and 9 Certification Trainings.
With the success of the Sulky “Sew Exciting” Seminars and the continuing demand for more education, in 2004 Sulky introduced its Sulky Certified Teacher Training Program. This program offers a platform to those creative individuals who have a desire to share their skills and knowledge with others.
The Certification Programs are formatted to train aspiring teachers how to present Sulky sit-and-sew classes either in retail stores, guilds, or independently. Each year’s curriculum is unique and student/teachers are encouraged to take each subsequent year’s training to enhance their portfolio. At www.sulky.com you can get more information about the 2007 Certified Teacher Training events that are scheduled throughout the country in 9 different locations.
In 1995, Sulky created a contest that invited Amateurs and Professional to enter their outstanding creations that they made using Sulky products. Thus was born the “Everyone Loves Sulky Challenge” contest. For the 10 years from 1995 through 2005, consumers and designers entered and won incredible prizes (contributed by Sulky and many other sponsors from the sewing industry) totaling up to $75,000 annually.
Each year, the best of the winning entries were assembled into a Traveling Challenge Trunk Show that appeared in numerous venues around the country. Many of these Challenge winners have gone on to successful sewing careers and as eminent designers.
One of the most notable was Carol Ingram, who won First Prize in the Wearable Arts Division of the second annual Sulky Challenge in 1996 with her beautiful raw silk vest and skirt entitled “Tigers”. (This outfit is shown step-by-step in the book, Sulky Secrets to Successful Stabilizing.) Although Carol had been an accomplished sewer and artist all her life, the Sulky Challenge served as a springboard for her “later-in-life” career.
Subsequent to her Challenge win, Carol co-authored the book, Dimensional Concepts in Sulky, with Joyce, and she began designing garments, wallhangings and other projects that have been featured in recent Sulky books. She has appeared on numerous Sulky sponsored PBS-TV shows, including “America Sews with Sue Hausmann”, “America Quilts Creatively”, “Martha’s Sewing Room”, “Kaye Wood’s Quilting Friends” and more. She has also had great success in designing embroidery cards for Cactus Punch, Viking Sewing Machine Company and Inspira Designs.
Joyce Drexler has produced 16 educational Sulky publications that have sold well over 500,000 copies. Her newest book, Quick and Easy Weekend Quilting with Sulky, was published in 2006. Joyce has designed numerous Embroidery Cards for Cactus Punch, Amazing Designs and Great Notions. She makes frequent guest appearances on eight popular PBS sewing shows which Sulky co-sponsors.
In 2000, Joyce received the prestigious Schmetz Golden Needle Award in acknowledgment of her significant contributions toward enhancing the future of the sewing industry.
A strong dedication to education, community involvement, and superior products are all ingredients that sew up success. Joyce and Fred Drexler have consistently maintained these qualities, and in doing so, have propelled Sulky of America into the 21st century as an industry leader.
In 2004, a category 4 storm, Hurricane Charley, hit the west coast of Florida and passed directly over the Florida warehouse of Speed Stitch and the marketing offices of Sulky. Because of the huge amount of damage all over the County, which caused a lack of warehouse and office space in the area, Joyce and Fred had to sell Speed Stitch to another company and set up offices in his Florida home for the 9 Sulky marketing people to work. The Drexlers have been working out of their summer mountain home in North Carolina ever since.
Fred is proud and honored to have had a 36-year membership in Rotary International, for the last 10 years sharing his time between the Port Charlotte, FL, Rotary Club and the Franklin, NC, Rotary club. During that time he has been involved in literally hundreds of local community and International projects.
He is particularly proud of the 10-month "Operation Mend" project, which he conceived and spearheaded in 1992 and 1993, and carried out with the help of 60 Port Charlotte Rotarians and their families. Operation Mend invited sewers all over America to "Share their Stash" with Hurricane Andrew victims in Homestead, Florida, and thousands of people did, netting two full semi-trailer loads of sewing machines, fabric, patterns and every other imaginable sewing tool and supplies.
Everything was sorted and organized in Port Charlotte, then trucked to Homestead when local authorities felt the time was right. South Florida Chapters of the American Sewing Guild assisted in locating needy victims to receive all of the donated items and helped set up the distribution center in a local church.
On his own time, Fred’s son, Eric Drexler, a sewing machine mechanic at Fred and Joyce’s store, serviced each and every one of the donated machines before they were delivered to the hurricane victims, and on 2 separate weekends, he went to Homestead with Port Charlotte Rotarians to help teach the recipients how to use them.
For his efforts on “Operation Mend”, Fred was honored with the distinguished award of “Rotarian of the year for the state of Florida”.
Fred also served as a Director of the Home Sewing Association from 1999 through 2005
Joyce and Fred continue to maintain their excitement and sense of adventure. Their recent 5,000-mile motorcycle trip across the country attests to their spirit, vitality and sense of adventure.
