GARY: Next on Start Up, we head to Renton, Washington to meet up with siblings Joe, Tan and Son Vo.

the founders of Silk Road Manufacturing, a company that produces backpacks and accessories for our military, law enforcement, and firefighters.

All of this and more is next on Start Up.

PEIPEI: My business means so much more than just a business.

I'm passing along our culture, our languages to the future generations.

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Amazon, a proud supporter of Start Up.

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♪ GARY: My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country faces significant challenges, small business owners are navigating their way through a changing global marketplace with strength and perseverance while continuing to push the economy forward.

We've set out for our 13th consecutive season talking to a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they learned to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves.

This is Start Up.

♪ The story of American manufacturing is one of evolution and resilience.

In the early 20th century, the United States stood as a manufacturing titan, with its factories bustling with activity as they supplied crucial goods to support our military and propel the nation forward.

Yet as the decades unfolded, the allure of low-cost manufacturing led to a wave of outsourcing, moving jobs overseas, and challenging the very core of domestic production.

Despite this shift, a new wave of manufacturing is emerging in America, with hard-working individuals who champion quality, innovation, and community impact.

Today, I'm in Renton, Washington to meet up with first-generation Vietnamese siblings Joe, Tan and Son Vo, the founders of Silk Road Manufacturing, a company that produces handmade backpacks and accessories for the US military, law enforcement, and firefighters, ushering in a new era of domestic manufacturing.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ What is Silk Road Manufacturing?

SON: We are a cut and sew facility.

We focus mainly on load-bearing systems, carry systems, luggage built in the USA.

So we focus mainly on military, law enforcement, and firefighting.

GARY: It's such a fascinating sort of niche business.

I want to go back to the beginning and learn, how did you get into this?

SON: My parents, back in the 80s, escaped the war.

You know, my mom had to find, you know, being in a foreign land, not speaking the language, not understanding the culture.

She had to kind of just fall back on what she knew.

And what she knew was how to sew.

And so, when she came to the States... GARY: From?

SON: From Vietnam.

GARY: Vietnam, okay.

SON: The first thing she did was, you know, "Hey, I don't know the language, I don't know the culture, I need a sewing machine."

And from that, she, you know, just found work here and there.

So much work that she was able to buy more machines, gather more friends, and out of those friends, kind of get all that work done together.

That's what I remember.

You know, I remember growing up with a sewing machine in the living room.

And she gave us an opportunity to go to school, get an education, learn the language, learn the culture.

And so in return, my siblings and I stayed in the industry.

But this time, instead of being behind the sewing machine, we're kind of just leading from the front.

TAN: She found a big factory.

The owner was Vietnamese.

and mom made her way in there.

She's like, "Hey, I can sew.

I can take thousands of pieces at a time."

All four of us kids were just like, "Okay, mom, what do you need us to do?"

We come home from school.

She's like, "Here, you sew all the straight lines and I'll do all of the complicated part."

So I would jump and sit on the sewing machine and help her sew.

And that's how we made a living.

That's how she fed us.

JOE: She was a very hard worker.

I call her the pioneer.

If there wasn't a path, she would create a path.

GARY: Amazing.

JOE: And, you know, she created that path here.

We are here today because of her, the risk that she took, the faith that she had in a better opportunity for her children.

And I'm just grateful that we get to not only create better opportunities for ourselves, but for our entire community.

♪ GARY: You were able to see, you know, your mother working and sewing and stuff.

Did you end up going to college or did you immediately kind of follow in those footsteps?

SON: I went to school, got my degree, went into youth counseling, and then my daughter was born.

And I realized it was very difficult to raise my daughter on $500 a month.

So I worked for my uncle.

It was supposed to be temporary in this industry.

I started off by just clicking out plastic for shoulder pads.

I spent most of my 20s just learning the industry.

And after learning all of that, decided, you know, I can consult.

I can stay in this industry, kind of evolve from that.

And so, did consulting for a while.

Right before the pandemic, I was working for a brand.

We had the biggest manufacturing floor in Washington.

GARY: Wow.

SON: So I had a crew of about 50 operators, sewers.

GARY: Okay.

SON: And, you know, after the pandemic and stuff like that, things kind of went downhill.

So they pulled me into the office and they said, "Hey, we are going to lay off your crew, all 50."

GARY: What?

SON: Yeah, and they said, "And then we are going to take you and put you into inventory."

And I said, "I don't know anything about inventory."

You know, "I'm a manufacturer guy.

"That's what I know.

"If you guys are going to lay off my crew, all 50 of them, Please make it 51."

So we all got laid off.

That's when I talked to my sister.

And we decided we are going to start our own manufacturing facility.

GARY: Amazing.

SON: With the goal being that I was going to hire back my entire crew.

Because the thing is, we know that American manufacturing is needed.

We just need to make that connection, right?

My sister, my brother and I got all of our resources together, you know, sold assets, all that stuff, got money together, was able to acquire this building, buy machines, all of that.

And I'm happy to say as of today, 20 out of the 50 are employed by me, and we're still going because we're going to hit the 50.

♪ TAN: You bring us the contracts.

I'll get us a building, and then together, everything else, we'll do together.

GARY: The building that we're in?

TAN: Yes.

GARY: How did you secure the money?

TAN: Private funding.

Son said... he sold his house.

I sold my portfolio, and he gave all of that to our agent.

And I said, "Look, I'll put my condo up as collateral, my car, and here's a portfolio."

The landlord was like, "You know what?

"We like what you guys are doing.

We'll take a chance on you guys."

GARY: And that is the definition of having skin in the game.

I mean, for you guys to just go all in to sell your portfolio, to sell your house.

TAN: We took a big chance, you know?

Because I told my brothers, "Guys, we have to succeed because if we don't, like all three of us."

GARY: You're in trouble.

TAN: We put in everything.

Like all life savings is in this company because we couldn't secure $1 from the bank.

GARY: Why did you believe so much in this?

TAN: Because the way we grew up, Gary, the way we were brought up by our mom, my belief is like, "Hey, if you're not going to let me "through the front door, I'm going to climb through the window."

And that's what we did.

We kept hitting walls.

And then instead of just giving up, we climbed through the wall or we went around the wall or we dug through the wall.

GARY: Yeah.

TAN: And every step of the way, you know, there's been days where Son and I stood here and cried because we're like, "Oh, my God, we failed that inspection."

We felt bad.

We screwed up.

There's a good chance that our client might just take their raw materials and... GARY: Walk.

TAN: Walk.

But you know what, Gary?

We said "We are sorry.

"We effed up.

We will fix it."

GARY: Yep.

TAN: "Please let us do it again."

And we failed, but we failed forward.

And we kept moving.

And we learned, we learned from those failures.

♪ ♪ ♪ GARY: Tell me your individual lanes that you guys stay in?

SON: Since I've been in the industry for the last 15 years, I've made a lot of connections.

I basically kind of know the standard order of procedure, know a lot of the big players in the game, and just know how to walk, like navigate that.

My sister Tan is, she is more of HR and finance.

My brother Joe is more of just the day-to-day logistics.

GARY: I don't understand what the complexity is of getting a military contract or selling items to the US military.

Kind of walk through how you guys were able to- to secure a customer like that.

SON: Being in the industry, I know that when it comes to military, when it comes to law enforcement, and when it comes to firefighting, they have to comply with something called the Barry Amendment.

And the Barry Amendment basically states, if it's for us, it has to be built by us.

Basically, made in America.

GARY: Yep.

Completely.

SON: Yep.

Completely made in America.

Right.

And so what we provide is just a partnership in third party manufacturing.

We ourselves, Silk Road, don't have a brand, but we specialize in building the product.

But not just building the product, building the product to quality.

My knowledge of the industry, I was able to connect with the right people.

And then in connecting with the right people, connect their needs to our capacity of manufacturing.

GARY: Would this be considered sort of like a private label or white label company?

So you're at the baseline of manufacturing for another brand who then provides and sells?

SON: That is correct.

We are just basically third-party manufacturers.

And so we team up with any brand out there that needs pretty much inventory.

♪ ♪ ♪ GARY: What's the difference between really good high quality military grade product versus something you get off the consumer shelf?

JOE: There's a lot of audits that happen where, you know, we have to be super strategic on our seam allowance.

There's a lot of symmetry.

I feel like the audits really push us to become better manufacturers.

GARY: Yeah.

Has there ever been a really challenging time where you guys maybe received a really big order?

A time that you maybe felt overwhelmed?

JOE: We failed many times.

And it was hard because my siblings and I would spend hours out here preparing for the audit, you know.

But we didn't know what we didn't know.

And it was our first few runs.

There were mistakes made.

The symmetry was off.

But, you know, looking back now, it's my mindset shift on the failure.

Instead of berating myself and saying, "Man, you suck.

"You're a failure.

You should quit."

GARY: Yeah.

JOE: It was more of like, "Okay, what's the learning opportunity in this?

What can we do better?

What can I do better?

What support can I give my team so that they can do better?"

GARY: The growth opportunity.

JOE: Absolutely.

And once that mindset shift changed with me, you know, we started passing audits flying colors.

You know, we're clearing audits easily now.

GARY: Amazing.

Who is it that's doing the audit?

Is it the people that order?

JOE: Yes.

So it's the brands that we work with.

GARY: And it's just a quality control check.

Essentially, they want to make sure it's on point.

JOE: Absolutely.

Like I said, there's standards that they hold and we have to meet that standard.

It's a pass or a fail.

There's no in between.

♪ GARY: How do we start?

JOE: So you start with, you have the on button here, which I already turned it on.

GARY: Okay.

JOE: You turn it on.

You have three different functions.

You press forward to sew, but before you sew, you gotta get the presser foot up.

So if you step back just a little, you can get the presser foot down.

GARY: So it's all about the footwork.

JOE: Correct.

The thing of sewing is they call it face to face.

So this is the face of my fabric.

This is the face of my zipper.

You always sew face to face.

And the reason why is we sew bags inside out so that they can hide the seams.

So that's the intricacy of sewing is you have to flip shapes 'cause you have to build everything backwards and inside out.

So it's really hard.

GARY: Yeah, I'm seeing that for sure.

JOE: So face to face, we got face zipper with the face of the fabric.

GARY: Okay.

JOE: And then as you sew, you want to line your zipper up with your fabric here.

You're going to go a little bit.

And then you're going to reline it up.

Go a little bit.

Reline it up.

GARY: Okay.

JOE: Want to give it a try?

GARY: I'll give it a try.

I mean, this is, you take it for granted.

This is some really meticulous work, man.

I'm excited about it.

All right.

JOE: Just step really slowly, 'cause the harder you step, the faster it goes.

GARY: Okay.

JOE: There you go.

All right, so you wanna... GARY: Oh, I'm way off track.

JOE: (laughs) It's okay.

You just stick it back in.

GARY: Okay.

JOE: And then line up the zipper with the presser foot.

GARY: Oh, okay.

JOE: There you go.

GARY: Oh, I'm off track again.

This is a serious skill set.

JOE: Keep going all the way to the end.

You want to make sure you get those end stitches to hold it on.

All right, now step.

There you go.

You got it.

GARY: And that's it?

JOE: That's it.

GARY: Ahhh!

♪ ♪ ♪ GARY: What are the biggest challenges around creating US-based factories and manufacturing?

SON: The biggest challenge for us is workforce.

My 15 operators, there's over 300 years of experience here.

This is my mother's generation.

You know, they are going to retire.

And so there has to be, there's a need for transferring that skill set to the next generation.

GARY: Yes.

SON: Right?

GARY: And does the next generation want to come in and sew.

SON: Right.

And that- that is the challenge.

That is the challenge because it, it doesn't, uh, it's not as attractive, right?

But that's not on them.

That's on us, right?

That's on me.

GARY: Yeah.

SON: That's on me to say, "Hey, here is a job," make it attractive and say, "Hey, you can earn "an honest living.

"You can earn a good living with this," right?

A living wage.

SON: A living wage.

GARY: Talk about the Vietnamese culture and work ethic of folks that come over from another country and come here and add so much to this economy and our society.

SON: Our community of sewers here, they- they love this country, they love the opportunity that they have here.

And, you know, a lot of them here work with me for eight hours a day.

And we also have programs where you can sew from home and earn extra money.

And that is their choice.

That's what they wanna do.

And the reason for that is, they can make some extra money and then send that back home because a lot of them still have family and relatives back home, where, you know, a dollar goes a long way.

And in doing so just kinda just helps what we do here.

I like to think, you know, we make a lot of bags for the military, for some of the toughest men in the world, but built by some of the toughest women in the world.

You know, work ethic is- if the work is there, why am I sitting still?

And so, you know, they're just constantly grinding, working.

And so it's a beautiful thing because for us, that means, you know, we're getting a lot done.

And for them, you know, they are also getting a piece of that pie and taking care of their community at the same time.

♪ ♪ ♪ GARY: Tell us, what is your main role here at Silk Road?

DIEP: Yeah, Diep, supervisor.

TAN: Diep is the supervisor for Silk Road.

She oversees all the production from sewing to post-sew.

So every piece that comes through the pipeline, she helps them put it together.

GARY: What is it that you love most about working here, being part of this team?

(Diep speaking Vietnamese) TAN: She says the bosses, her three bosses here are really nice and fair to the employees.

So she likes the management here and also the community.

And everyone here, they just put in an effort and they work together to make one bag and everybody loves what they do.

So they come in in the morning and everyone likes what they're doing.

And it's a little community of sewers here.

And that's what she likes the best, is the community part and the owners.

GARY: Of course, yeah.

♪ When people think US military contract, that feels huge.

TAN: Yeah.

GARY:What kind of volume is that?

TAN: So now we're at to the point where we streamlined it so much that we can push out these particular bags about 150 a week.

Because every single bag that leaves this factory right now still passes through my hands and through my eyes.

I do the final inspection on everything before it gets into the box.

So I work 10 hours a day sometimes on a set, and then I come in here afterwards, and I'll stay here until 4 o'clock in the morning.

Joe does the same thing.

He comes in here before his shift.

He works in the evening, and he'll do his kitting, his cutting.

And then after my shift, the guys are like, "Hey, you guys want to go out for a beer?"

I was like, "I can't.

I got to go to my factory."

GARY: Hard workers.

TAN: Exactly.

And the three of us, we all have our jobs and we do it.

And I don't care what time of the day it is.

If I get two hours of sleep at night, I get two hours of sleep.

But you know what?

At noon, that truck's coming for those bags.

Those bags have to get in the box.

GARY: Working with family can be challenging for a lot of people.

What is your experience working with your siblings?

JOE: I know a lot of people tell you to not go into business with your family.

But I feel like this is something the three of us have grown up in.

And we also, we all three bring something different to the table.

And I think that's what makes us so successful.

You know, my mom raised us to be very family oriented.

So I feel blessed that I get to see my siblings every day.

You know, a lot of people don't see their families, sometimes don't see their siblings for years.

I get to wake up and build this dream alongside my siblings every single day.

GARY: Are you happy?

Do you enjoy what you're doing?

JOE: I do.

It's really my passion to be really- really hands-on.

But at the end of the day, I feel like the country that gave me the opportunity to become somebody and do something, I get to give back now to the very people that serve this country.

GARY: If you could go back to yourself, as you sit right now, to the very beginning of starting this, would you do anything different?

SON: I think if you asked me a year ago, I would say "I made a mistake."

You know, it was very difficult in just working 16-hour days and just wanting to make enough money so that I can afford avocados, you know.

But now, as the staff has grown and just kind of where we're at, you know, like I'm, I don't make a ton of money.

But you know what?

To have the freedom that I have and to see the impact that we have on this community and to have the connections that I have with this community.

I don't think there's enough money you can pay me to not do this.

And that, to me, has been the most important thing.

So what would I change if I could?

I wouldn't change a thing.

and we're still not done.

♪ GARY: Meeting Joe, Tan and Son, it felt like stepping into a powerful narrative that echoes the story of America.

The extraordinary legacy of their Vietnamese immigrant mother who risked everything, crossing oceans and risking her life, all for the chance to carve out a better life for her children.

It's a profound reminder of the sacrifices that so many immigrants have made in pursuit of the American dream.

At Silk Road Manufacturing, I saw how that dream has taken shape.

This family doesn't just contribute to our industrial landscape.

They embody the essence of hard work and unwavering patriotism.

As I walked through their facility, every detail reflected their commitment to quality and integrity.

And every American-made backpack and accessory is more than just a product.

It carries a promise to serve and protect our nation's heroes.

It's incredible to witness how Joe, Tan and Son take pride in their work, understanding that they're honoring their mother's name while continuing to build a bright future for themselves and their community.

Over two-thirds of the largest manufacturing firms in the Fortune 500 were founded by immigrants or their children.

Their contributions, much like the Vo siblings, are not just part of our history.

They are the backbone of our progress.

For more information, visit our website and search episodes for Silk Road Manufacturing.

♪ Next time on Start Up, we head to Detroit, Michigan to meet up with Achsha Jones, the founder of TripSlip, a digital platform that streamlines permission slips for parents, schools, and venues.

Be sure to join us next time on Start Up.

Do you want to learn more about the show?

Or maybe nominate a business?

Visit us at StartUp-usa.com and connect with us on social media.

♪ ♪ We've got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ Got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ Before we pay our dues ♪ We've got a long GARY: You're not my father.

CAMERAMAN: He's not your father.

♪ (Gary screams) ♪ (clapping) ♪ (cheering) MAN: Hold on, if they ever doubted it was me.

There it is.

GARY: Oh, yeah, there's nothing fake about this.

(laughing) ANNOUNCER: Running a business isn't easy.

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ADRIA: Sustainability, kindness, ingredient integrity, became the pillars of my company.

You should slay your look, not the planet.

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Amazon, a proud supporter of Start Up.