This is one of our flatseam sewing machines, we call it “#9″.
We rescued this old beastie from a shut down sock factory in Wyoming. Note the large oil stain. Leaky! After switching up over $1200 in new parts, and fiddling around for days (months?), we eventually got #9 to make a nice seam on our Power Dry baselayer material. It’s been huming along for over a month now, this post better not jinx it.
Matt working today on some Women’s Tanks, just in time for winter…
Sorry ladies, he’s taken!
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We are hard at work developing a new version of our softshell jacket. Want proof? Seda is sitting on it!
A fresh shipment of Powershield Pro softshell fabric arrived Friday.
This new fabric is a big step forward compared to the Powershield material we used in our last softshell. The “Pro” version of Polartec’s Powershield has much improved breathability, better water repellancy, and a lighter & less rubbery feel.
The previous version of our softshell - this one is maybe 5 years old.
The new version is a hoodless evolution of the above, with improvements throughout. Better material, much lighter overall weight. More warmth and better breathability. No pit zips – don’t need em! Super deluxe euro zippers. Improved wrist & waist hem closures. Twenty sizes! That’s right, twenty sizes, regular and tall versions in both Men’s and Women’s sizes. We can’t give you any more information at this time, no firm date, no final price. Just know that we are hard at work getting these developed, and that we have the material in the house. Good things come to those who wait!
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Folks are always emailing us photos of themselves wearing their Melanzana. We love these pics, doesn’t matter if they are cute, goofy, or a little nuts. Obviously, we’ve got all kinds of customers, and we try hard not to discriminate. Here are some recent classics…
Justin sporting a mullet and a hoodie. (On the way to Boise?)
The Fehringer kids back home in Nebraska after visiting Leadville.
Sam and Samantha on a CMC trip in the Gore Range.
Mary in DC with the Obamas!
The Snydermans on a hiking trip in Switzerland.
Daniel rocking out in his Scrap Cap.
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Winter is coming! The Winter Guide for the Lake County Recreation Department is coming too, so we had to put an ad together.
This will be a full page ad on the back cover. Melanzana is a big supporter of the local recreation department, which has really stepped up it’s offerings in recent years under the guidance of director Larry Colley. The completely unrelated ad photo is from a trip that Fritz and James took to Rogers Pass in British Columbia with some friends. Seven days of spectacular backcountry skiing, with nights spent in a hut, a motel, and on a couple of couches. Yum!
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Smokey (aka Mark Burgess) is a longtime Melanzana employee who now runs his own killer consignment shop, Community Threads, a few blocks down the street. Over the weekend he ran his first ultra, the Leadville Trail 100, and managed to finish despite painful IT band and foot issues. Way to dig deep Smokey!
Smokey leads a group into Twin Lakes at mile 60, with Twin Peaks above.
Followed by his pacer Steph, with Hope Pass in background.
Changing shoes in Twin Lakes. The new shoes didn’t help much.
Pulling out of Twin Lakes around 7 PM Saturday after 15 hours on the trail.
4 Blocks from the finish, 8 AM Sunday morning. Ouch!
Smokey is already talking about 2012… he says he may prepare with a little stretching next time!
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Better late than never! After being mostly out of stock for many months, we are finally cutting and sewing a big batch of Power Dry, our lightest weight material from Polartec. This stuff wicks moisture better than any other fabric we’ve ever tried, and has a thin, comfy & silky feel.
New Power Dry TShirt! (this one is a Men’s Large in Blueridge/Smoke)
The TShirt has set-in sleeves, flat-seamed side panels, and a casual (but still functional) fit. This new design wastes about 35% less fabric on the cutting table than our old Power Dry Shortsleeve with raglan sleeves, which is a huge benefit. These should be available on our website by the end of next week, after we have the pricing finalized.
Freshly cut: over 400 Women’s Power Dry Tanks and Bras ready to sew.
We will have most of our Power Dry styles back on the shelf by the end of August. Men’s TShirts and Tanks, Women’s TShirts, Tanks and Bras. Just three colors this time around: Black, Smoke, and Blueridge (plus Black/Smoke and Smoke/Blueridge two-tones in the TShirt and Women’s Tank).
Unfortunately, the evil mastermind behind the scenes has dropped our old Longsleeve style for the forseeable future. RIP Power Dry Longsleeve!
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We added 44 solar panels to our roof last August! The panels have been generating enough electricity to run our main 3000 square foot room. In other words, all of our sewing machines, computers and retail lighting is solar powered, as well as over half of our production lighting. That just leaves the room that houses our cutting table, the break room, and our three-phase air compressor running on conventional electric power. Nice!
The racking system gets mounted to the roof.
Crazy clouds that August afternoon.
Leadville city hall in the background.
Almost complete.
Luckily, Melanzana stumbled into some generous federal and utility grants that paid for a portion of this system. Unluckily, we used an installer out of Boulder. At this time we can’t recommend them, or even name them. (Starts with “A”, ends with “ux”!)
If A*****ux could only complete the job (pay their vendors!) we would happily recommend them. For now, stay away.
Runs good, even on cloudy days.
On sunny days our meter runs backwards!
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