Along North Dakota’s eastern edge, just 30 miles south of the Canadian border, visitors quickly sense that community runs deep and strong in Drayton — as strong as the catfish that challenge even the most adept fishermen who regularly fish the Red River of the North which winds through one of North Dakota’s oldest communities, as deep as the commitment Cheryl Gjevre, president of Originals Casual Wear, brings to sustaining a viable avenue of employment for many who call this hospitable rural town of 900 home.
Originals Casual Wear is an exclusive line of women’s casual clothing with retail stores in Drayton and Grand Forks, North Dakota, St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Internet and catalog sales are rapidly gaining in popularity.
Community support is a vital part of what Originals Casual Wear is. It’s consistently woven into the day-to-day business activities. “We try really hard here to support Drayton businesses as much as we can. We all go out on Wednesdays for lunch and try to do our routine shopping in Drayton. It is important in small towns that we all help each other and protect a feeling of community,” states Cheryl. “We try to be an active part in the community, as well. We take part in the Chamber and big community events. We support school activities. There will be an all-school class reunion in the summer of 2003, and Originals will help celebrate with a big style show and warehouse sale. We also try to have a float entry in the parade each year. We hope that we are having an impact on the community in many ways.”
Cheryl readily admits that Originals Casual Wear is not the mainstay of the community. “I don’t want to compare us to Drayton’s largest employer, American Crystal Sugar, because they employ about 200 people. We are no comparison to what they do, but you know,” she continues, “every bit helps in stabilizing a town the size of Drayton.” Originals brings to Drayton and the surrounding area job opportunities for people, mainly women, who are interested in part time or seasonal work. “We even have a lot of retired women that like to come, say, two or three days a week,” Cheryl notes. “Some even drive a distance, and they carpool together.” Cheryl is quick to interject that “If there is someone who wants to work year round then we try to find ways to employ them as such.”
Cheryl is also not shy when asked how Originals Casual Wear began. The strength of her beliefs and commitment to community echo true as she explains the sometimes rocky entrepreneurial journey that led her and her company to where it is at today. “I truly see this as part of the plan God had for my life. I made that step (of faith) and God just started dropping these things in like I was supposed to do this. The opportunities just kind of opened up.”
It was not an instant road to success, however. Instead, Originals Casual Wear grew and evolved from a variety of entrepreneurial business ventures that, at times, lost money but always taught marketing lessons along the way. “I used to sell ad specialties like calendars and pens. When I did, I noticed that events like anniversaries or churches that had big occasions would sell 500 of one item. So when I heard about the North Dakota Centennial coming up I thought, ‘Wow! The whole state celebrating the Centennial! This would be a great opportunity to market some products!’” Cheryl went to the North Dakota Centennial Commission and received approval to sell several products bearing the official Centennial logo. These centennial products were marketed first to school children through a company called Rainbow Fundraisers. “We actually had that company for about 2 years and lost a ton of money. It did not work at all,” Cheryl confesses.
The next endeavor was a decision to wholesale the Centennial products throughout North Dakota, including a larger variety of products. “We went all over the state of North Dakota, wholesaling the products to stores. We included products like mugs, photo albums, and t-shirts,” explains Cheryl. About this time a women named Joy Lavik moved across the street from Cheryl. “She was an excellent artist, and when I found out her capabilities, I began asking her to design products for me.” One design was a sweatshirt that looked like it was cross stitched. “We did the design with puff paint to resemble this embroidery technique. It had cross stitched prairie roses, the North Dakota state flower, an outline of the state itself along with the words North Dakota and the Centennial dates,” she continues. The sweatshirts and added t-shirt designs were an immediate success.
Originals Casual Wear was born. “That first year Joy put together a winter design line of sweatshirts for us using the same techniques. We then went out on the road, had good success with our designs, and made the move from Centennial items to a women’s clothing line and wholesaled it,” states Cheryl. Joy continues to be the primary artist behind the Originals’ designs.
At one point Originals was selling products in up to ten states through sales representatives, but, according to Cheryl, “Every time we tried to get into the bigger chain retail stores the doors would just shut.” That, coupled with many of Originals current small town clothing store market outlets going out of business, caused Cheryl and her staff to make another drastic decision about their clothing line. “We decided that we would be an exclusive and no longer sell wholesale; people could only buy our products through our stores.” Once again, this bold step of faith has since evolved into four retail stores throughout the region, as well as profitable catalog and Internet sales.
Today Originals Casual Wear employs 15 fulltime and up to 71 part time employees during peak times. “We bring in seasonal people in the fall when it gets busy to help carry us through to the spring,” Cheryl explains. “So it’s been good for Drayton. It’s been good to keep a lot of our people here in town, and we do have to have some folks come from outlying areas. We are almost at a point in a small town where there aren’t a lot of people to draw from anymore. It’s an obstacle but not a big obstacle at this point.”
And for Originals Casual Wear? Cheryl confidently exclaims, “Originals, I will say that we will double in size. I see that as just a better thing for Drayton. There will always be jobs. There’s that security for people here in Drayton for jobs. It is a good thing.”