Welcome Fabric Fans!

We at the Jaftex Corporation (think FreeSpirit Fabrics, Henry Glass Fabrics, Studio E Fabrics, The Blank Quilting Corp., A.E. Nathan Co., Inc., 3 Wishes & Fabric Editions) are ready to launch the fourth iteration of the Jaftex Facebook Live Shop Tour Video Challenge for our valued customers.  I know that I am going to hear lots of excuses as to why people won’t be submitting a video this year, like last year, the year before that and the year before that. Therefore, I am going to debunk those excuses right here and now and recycle the post from years ago.  Funny how some things never change. I hope I can…

As I hope you know by now, for the entire month of August, my company is hosting the Jaftex Facebook Live Shop Tour Video Challenge. This is where we challenge our fabric reseller customers to videotape a tour of their business and post it on their business Facebook page. I share the same video on my @jaftexpresident Facebook page. The winner is the one whose video receives the most views at the end of August. Today, I wanted to take a moment to tell you why I think this contest is so important for our industry now more than ever. For the first time in my fabric career (about 15…

Instructions & Rules WHO: This contest is for all Jaftex customers that buy directly from us i.e. not from a distributor or otherwise. To explain this a little further, since the prizes will be credits, we can only provide credits to existing customers. WHAT:  Create a video tour of your shop that you post on your business Facebook page and I will share on my work Facebook page too:  @JaftexPresident. The video needs to remain up for the entire month of August starting from when you first post it. WHY: Hopefully, this will be your ‘super bowl commercial’ that you can use to get more Facebook and Instagram interest for…

Happy Sunday and July 4th folks! It is summer and any chance I get to do an easy and lazy blog, I take it. I too like some free time to enjoy everything summer has to offer especially after Covid has kept us locked down for so long. We should all take a moment to relish the fact that we are now an independent nation.  This is a great country that we all live in and we should all be very thankful.  With that, please make sure to eat a lot of nitrates, red meat, carbs and sweets….bearing red, white and blue colors of course. Also, make sure to have…

Due to Covid last year, my boys A & B unfortunately were unable to attend summer camp since it was fully canceled. That was probably the first time that ever happened in the history of camp. In any case, my wife and I were fortunate to spend the entire summer of 2020 with them and then some (note sarcasm). For most this wouldn’t be a big deal, but after you have experienced an entire summer with your kids away for 7 weeks, you would understand where I was coming from. And YES, it is 7 weeks…..of silence. LOL. This year, camp is fortunately back on, but it is going to…

Yesterday was Father’s day and as such, I wanted to toast my father, Robert. Don’t tell him that I told you, but this year he is turning 75. Shhh! Would you believe that he has been working for the family business since he was 16 years old? That’s almost 60 years of the 91 years we have been in business. WOW! One important thing to mention is that my dad overcame the odds by helping to get our business to reach our fourth generation of Fortunoff’s. I am not sure if you know this, but it is well documented that the third generation is where a lot of family businesses…

A rollout is when our companies start shipping a new fabric line to customers for the first time ever. This compares to a release which is when our sales reps and distributors start selling our new lines for the first time ever. Now that you know the difference between the terms, let me elaborate about our supersized rollouts, their history and how they are handled. The largest rollouts are derived from our most preeminent FreeSpirit Fabric designers. These rollouts amount to hundreds of thousands of yards that we need to ship out to our customers as quickly as possible. As you can imagine, hundreds of thousands of yards don’t ship…

The import/export world is crazy right now. Consumers no longer have the patience to wait for products as Amazon has spoiled them with one-day shipping. Store owners have the same impatient consumers breathing down their necks and canceling orders that don’t arrive the next day. The instant gratification era is upon us. And the movement of products throughout the world is just one big old hot mess. In an effort to encourage everyone to try and be patient for a millisecond, I would like to share a letter with you written June 3, 2021 from our Jaftex shipping broker. This will open your eyes to the struggles that many businesses…

As my father always says, “We are lucky to live in such an amazing country.” We owe that to those that have served and protected our country and those that continue to serve each and everyday with pride. Thank you for helping to ensure all the freedoms that we enjoy!

In the back of my mind, I knew all along that I would be attending the Houston Quilt Market in October. This is in spite of the fact that I really would prefer not to go because I am just not ready for Texas. I would much rather wait it out until the May market when hopefully the Covid situation is more settled and when more international customers will be willing to make the trek to the US. The truth is, how could I have my employees attend if I, as the owner, was not willing to attend? That would be a tough sell. I guess I need to take…