Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: The Revolt Against Craftsy & All That Sell To Them

During these visits, it was the first time that I heard about the backlash against all that is Craftsy, among some other less juicy gossip that isn’t worth discussing further. 

So what is this big gossip about Craftsy anyway?  I am hearing two different stories.  One of the stories is related to teachers for Craftsy.  As the story goes, the teachers feel like they have been taken advantage of by Craftsy and that Craftsy did not stick to terms that they promised.  In addition, a lot of designers have pulled out from making videos for Craftsy due to Craftsy heavily discounting the classes.  Shame on your Craftsy!  

This reminds me of the same sort of complaints from the teachers that offer classes at Quilt Market.  Here I go again with the quilt market drama…  The teacher complaints are that they are not being fairly compensated for all of their hard work and efforts that go in to presenting their classes at market.  Moreover, instead of making money from the Quilt Market, these teachers are actually losing money, breaking even or just covering their costs.  If I haven’t said it once, I haven’t said it a million times, people go in to business to make money!  This is a very simple concept.  It is really insulting that these certified and talented teachers aren’t being fairly compensated.  I find this totally sad and feel bad for those who are being taken advantage of.  We would never treat our licensors or contract workers this way.    

So the other major complaint about Craftsy is that they are selling their fabrics way too cheaply.  This is harming everyone else in the market place, especially the quilt shops, because Craftsy is selling so much cheaper than everyone else.  What can be done to stop this? 

Well, apparently the people at one of the big quilt shop magazines is  leading the revolt and boycott against all convertors that sell to Craftsy.  This is one way to try to get the message across.  But who is kidding who? I highly doubt that people are going to drop Moda for Studioe, Henry Glass or The Blank Quilting Corp. as much as I would relish that moment more than life!  Other convertors could see a drop in sales, but for the top guys like Moda, I am doubtful.  I guess time will tell.  In any case, I would be super happy to see an uptick in our businesses for us having not sold to Craftsy ever.  One company’s loss is another’s gain.

This brings up an entirely different discussion about economics and free markets for which I am not going to delve in to because we are fabric people and not economists.  But, in order to stay in business, all the quilt shop only fabric companies out there need to sell as much fabric as possible to whoever they can, excluding the big box chain stores.  However, every once and awhile a customer comes along who really rocks the boat like Craftsy and suppliers need to take a long hard look to determine if the risk/reward of selling a Craftsy is really worth it in the end.

This too reminds me of the complaints I have heard about Mass Drop.  They too sell fabrics very cheaply.  Our fabrics had been sold to them thru one of our distributors, but after a couple complaints and seeing how low they sell their fabrics, I made a corporate decision to not sell to Mass Drop ever again.  I kindly asked our valued distributors to do the same and they obliged.  I determined that it just wasn’t worth it! 

If a vendor decides to sell to Craftsy, they are rolling the dice in an already challenging selling environment.  I would suggest that all fabric vendors reevaluate their future with Craftsy now that the word is out or suffer the potential consequences which may trickle down to their bottom lines in the coming months.

That is all I have for you on this subject.  I would love to hear any further details you may know about this new Craftsy controversy.  I would also like to know if you plan on boycotting vendors that sell to Craftsy.  All other info welcome too.  I want to know what you think.

Thanks for your time
This Is Scott “NOT SELLING TO CRAFTSY EVER” Fortunoff