Value Chain Directory
Rust Belt Fibershed Value Chain Directory is a network of farmers, mill owners, natural dyers, sewists, weavers, knitters, spinners, designers, menders, and upcyclers living and working within a 250 mile radius of Cleveland, Ohio, which includes most of the cities and surrounding areas classified as Rust Belt during the previous industrial era.
Note: we use the term “chain” due to its familiarity, though we prefer to think of the Supply Chain/Value Chain actually as a web of many interconnected parts, not organized in a specific linear order around the circle. Truly, many parts of our value chain cut across the center of circularity and dynamic interactions form what looks more like a web than a smooth, predictable movement around the circle.
Value Chain Directory Members
We are looking towards a new type of “industrial” area– one that is at a local scale, bioregional and creates connections that allows our place to thrive. One that doesn’t function linearly but circularly– starting and ending with improved soil.
We recognize a current truth of our place: our region is lacking infrastructure for most members of a local value chain to create solely within our three pillars of local fiber, local labor, and local dye. Below are our guidelines for joining as a part of the Rust Belt Fibershed Value Chain Directory for a regional, soil-to-soil textile economy.
That said, not all of our producers on the value chain offer 100% RBF products, but they’re all working towards the same mission of a catalyzing a circular, regenerative textile industry in the Rust Belt Fibershed through their business.
If you want to look for 100% RBF-sourced products (local labor, fiber, and dye) please look for them in the descriptions with each producer.