Industry Leaders and Who Holds the Power - JUL 20, 2020 (Patreon Archive)

I have a question, who do you think of when you think of who the industry leaders are in the fiber/craft/knitting/crocheting industry? 

I’m talking about the people who create the infrastructure for this industry. I’m talking about the people who are innovating ways to keep this industry thriving for everyone working in it.

Now I want to know, who do you think are the people who hold the most power in this industry? I’m talking the people who benefit the most from this industry, financially, professionally.

Are the leaders and the people who hold power the same people? 

I’m asking colleagues, customers of knitting and crocheting and yarn, business owners, what are we doing to ask these leaders or people who hold the power to do better for us, as consumers and as people who contribute to the industry as designers or yarn dyers or LYS owners or makers?

In the fashion industry, there are some people who the masses see as the pinnacle of the industry, who we look to for changing what is the next thing in clothing/fashion, in changing how we manufacture, in changing how fashion and technology interact, in building sustainable and inclusive initiatives. As an industry professional in any field, there are people who we are inspired by, to aspire to, to look to for change. There are people or organizations you reach out to to talk about the future of industry.

I struggle to see who these people are in this industry. Some hide behind titles of CEO and don’t interact with other industry professionals and ask what they need. Who are actually doing the work to move the industry forward, not just profit from it? 

For clarity, I do not consider myself an industry leader because I do not have my hand in the industry right now. I do not hold any power or say in the industry at large. My voice can influence change but that is not the same as holding any power in the industry because it is so much bigger than being a designer. 

So I'm genuinely asking these questions because this fiber/craft/knitting/crocheting industry really lacks structure. There are no standards, there are no policies, there are no advancements as an industry. There are only these individuals or individual initiatives doing the work to push change and they need more support. If there are larger organizations doing the work, where is the transparency? None of that performative, tokenizing BIPOC acts, I'm talking about BIPOC as the ones holding the power, not just given a board while someone else still runs the show, like BIPOC are suppose to feel grateful for that little bit of recognition without real change. The change needs to be at a much larger scale where we do interrupt the old systems to build better ones where it isn't just the rich and the white still holding all the power.

Let's chat in the comments below.