A Social Enterprise combines the best of both worlds.
For-profit social enterprise
No pity purchases. We have to make a profit to survive, which requires us to innovate constantly and take great care of our customers.
Creates impact constantly
No end of year redeeming give backs. Our operational impact model purposefully creates impact every day and every payroll.
Improved manufacturing sustainability
No to overproduction, excess inventory and water waste. Yes to recycled materials, biodegradable packaging and made to order.
Refugees have sewing skills but lack opportunity to work in their trade, so let's create employment and impact by building products people love.
Fair wages and generous benefits for all staff.
Health and wellness
healthcare is an unaffordable necessity so we subsidize as least 50% of insurance premiums for all full-time employees with no waiting period after hiring
Help saving for retirement
saving for retirement is a luxury many cannot afford so we offer 50% matching 401k contributions for all employees with no waiting for vesting
Time to recharge and enjoy
25+ days of paid time off and company holidays regardless of position plus paid parental, marital and bereavement leave
Does Knotty Tie have any retail stores?
Does Knotty Tie have any retail stores?
At this time, shopping for Knotty Tie Co. products is exclusively online. Currently, our facility located at 926 W. 10th Ave Denver, CO 80204 is for manufacturing exclusively.
A few times per year our company participates in the Santa Fe Arts District Arts First Friday and opens our doors for tours, limited retail sales and live music. Follow us on social media if you'd like to know when we are planning to open for a First Friday.
Can I pickup my order in Denver, CO
Can I pickup my order in Denver, CO
We don't necessarily recommend picking up at our Denver facility because it is a manufacturing facility primarily, however, in urgent circumstances or if needed we can usually support an order pickup. Please contact [email protected] for availability of pickups.
Does Knotty Tie make in-kind donations to charities?
Does Knotty Tie make in-kind donations to charities?
We are open to further supporting causes related to our mission including refugee and the environmental causes with product donations. If your event or cause is related to ours, contact [email protected] to inquire further about considering making a product donation.
We also collaborate with causes on larger projects. For example, UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) wanted to provide blue ribbons to celebrities at televised awards functions so we produced 15,000 ribbons at cost to support their campaign since we both work to support refugees. Working together often our impact can become something larger than a generic product donation ever could be.
Is Knotty Tie a nonprofit or for-profit?
Is Knotty Tie a nonprofit or for-profit?
There are employment social enterprises that are nonprofits, often providing skills training or employment to marginalized and disadvantaged groups that have barriers to employment. Knotty Tie is defining an unconventional model as a for profit company and social enterprise. The key distinctions are that our operating funding is largely, if not entirely, provided by sales of our products whereas non-profits typically operate largely from donations and grants. While both models certainly have their merits, especially for addressing differing problems, we are forging an impact model that is competitive and self-sustaining, matching the skills of resettled refugees with the core operation of our company and building of our products.
Is Knotty Tie hiring?
Is Knotty Tie hiring?
We are not currently hiring for any open positions at this time. Stay tuned for employment opportunities by following our company on Linkedin, Andrew Hudson's Job List and Indeed for positions as they become available.
If you are seeking to refer a refugee community member skilled in sewing and wishing to work for our company, please refer them to their respective resettlement agency employment office and have them contact us to be added to our hiring notifications.
History of Knotty Tie
Knotty Tie Co. was founded by two college friends with little more than a desire to help refugees and an Ikea sewing machine - learning to sew from motherly advice and youtube tutorials as they began tackling how to make neckties and make them meaningful again.
Our co-founders launched a scrappy Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to develop customization technology to make ties personal and the internet responds with overwhelming support quadrupling initial campaign expectations.
The company defines its purpose as a social mission to create dignified skills-based employment for resettled refugees and is established with our first two refugee hires thanks to a hiring partnership with refugee resettlement agencies in Denver.
The company receives a vital loan, thanks to Colorado Enterprise Fund's support of veteran entrepreneurs, which allows for the launch of in-house textile printing, design of specialty fabrics ideal for neckties, bow ties and scarves.
We relocated out of the artist collective where we were bursting at the seams and into an ideal facility with twice the manufacturing space, a kitchen, air conditioning, and space for a retail store - all to allow for better staff working conditions alongside a mission aligned landlord in the Urban Land Conservancy.
We completed coding of our first major personalized technology interface and launched the long awaited configurator to enable users to customize patterns and products in 500+ colors in addition to popular bridal swatches, all without needing to wait or pay for designer support.
We financed specialized necktie manufacturing equipment to reduce operating costs and greatly improve product quality and speed of production after securing one of our largest ever orders comprised of 8,000+ ties, bow ties and scarves.
Nominated as a finalist for the Good Business Giveaway sponsored by FirstBank, Knotty Tie was voted the winner of the $20k grand prize for Colorado and the company used the proceeds to scale impact by improving staff wages and funding dedicated skills development.
History Continued...
Covid-19 devastated our business and we nearly collapsed as the economy ceased functioning but our ingenuitive staff, with support of community foundations, repurposed our manufacturing to urgently produce more than 100,000 cloth masks for rural hospitals and consumers.
For the second year in a row, we only barely survived as Covid variants continued wreaking havoc on our business as demand for our products languished. We experienced some of our darkest days as a company when business conditions forced us to lay off multiple staff.
As normality and demand for our products began to return we were able to rehire the staff we had tragically laid off the prior year and began the arduous process of rebuilding our team and our pre-pandemic business model.
After ten years of working to improve the lives of resettled refugees through dignified employment the company hit a major impact milestone having exceeded two million dollars in wages paid to refugees staff since inception and even more impact through benefits, training, immersion and skills development.
Our technology for custom design and customization was completely rebuilt to allow for the unique customer design experience we always imagined was possible featuring photorealistic proof imagery and more intuitive recoloring functionality across products.
The company is laser focused on delivering cost reductions to customers and improving the experience every step along the customer journey; from design visualization to easier site navigation, through to manufacturing, where we seek to consistently ship orders ahead of schedule.
