By Taylor Boyd
Started in the late-1800s as a horseshoe nail manufacturer for the United States Cavalry, Capewell Aerial Systems Inc. in Meadows of Dan has kept its military roots and expanded to supply personal safety equipment to the U.S. armed forces.
Cathy Roberts, Quality Assurance and Contact Manager, said the current facility was the old Tultex/Sale Knitting Co., and was purchased for Capewell’s relocation from Long Island, New York. Since 1987, Capewell has acquired 11 companies to expand its capabilities and product list.
Roberts said the company primarily works as a Department of Defense (DOD) supplier.
“Our main product is supporting soldiers with life support items, airdrop equipment, helicopter belts and harnesses, jet fighter pilot vests and harnesses, ejection vests and seat components,” she said.
While Capewell uses a lot of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines, the knowledge of how to sew is still needed for a lot of the work. As a result, many employees are female.
Roberts said Capewell also performs life-cycle maintenance on several of its products including vests, flotation bladders, helmets, and breathing air bottles.
“That’s where when we sell products to the military, every two years or four years or whatever that lifecycle maintenance is, they return those products to us, we charge them a fee to refurbish it and bring them back up to new condition. It’s a really good repeat service for us,” she said.
Major non-military customers include aerospace companies such as Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Boeing, and EastWest Aircraft, who supplies helicopter seats and ejection seats and products.
Director of Operations Don Arrowhead said the company also manufactures many products found in the first responder type, or area.
“We make some of the things you may have in an ambulance, like the body torniquets and other things that have fabric sown into them, like rescue cover gear and medic bags,” he said.
Arrowhead added that the company also creates personal protection equipment (PPE) gear.
“We had quite a few sales to the military when it first came out because our products used the same materials that their uniforms would have, and those are non-disposable materials,” he said.
While Capewell did offer a few products for regular PPE to help with COVID-19, Arrowhead said those products did not take off like disposable masks because they were made of very-compliant, high value materials.
Capewell currently makes over 700 different line items and produces and ships out thousands of products monthly through daily shipping.
“We’re a job shop, not a T-shirt factory or sweatshirt factory, like most of the textiles in the county would be used to seeing repetitive 4,000 sweatshirts this month, we’re not doing repetitive parts,” she said.
The facility currently includes a machine shop, a sewing center, a welding department, and a specialized area for life-cycle maintenance.
Roberts said the company is going in a new direction with the Combat Water Survivability Center of Excellence (CWSCE).
“Our CWSCE and the team assigned to the unit are responsible for training soldiers in the proper use of Emergency Breathing Systems (EBS),” she said. The team will also produce, inspect, and rebuild products and equipment soldiers use in dangerous water situations.
Because of the experience needed to operate the manual sewing machines, Roberts said most employees are female. However, finding sewing machine operators is becoming increasingly difficult because sewing is a dying art.
“There’s just not that many people that are used to doing it. It used to be generational,” she said.
Roberts said the company does not solely rely on hand sewing. It uses Computer Numerical Control (CNC) sewing machines for increased productivity.
“A lot of our sewing machines are programmable, so we program patterns and you just put the pattern in, and you hit the button. You hold the material, and the machine does the work and sews the pattern,” she said.
Capewell currently employs 140 people at the Meadows of Dan location, and 55 at the headquarters in Connecticut. Roberts said employees also come from surrounding counties including Floyd, Henry, Carroll, Surry, and Grayson.
As the company currently is expecting some growth, it is looking to expand and hire more employees. Employment opportunities can be found on most online job boards.
(Editor’s note: This is part of a continuing series of stories about Patrick County’s manufacturing sector.)
