Message From the CEO: Community Building and Community Serving
I hope you hear the news about our latest “Made In…” focus region: Spain! Made in España will debut in Amsterdam and will feature a mix of denim mills, machinery and solutions providers.
We have a lot planned for Kingpins this year — and 2026. I can’t wait to share it all with our denim community.
But today I want to share with you two stories that I found personally inspiring.
In our work, it is easy to focus on results, deadlines and strategies. But I often come back to a more personal question: What makes us truly happy in what we do? For me, the answer has always been about more than business. It is about creating impact, giving back, and continuing to grow as people.
When we stay open, possibilities begin to appear. Some are big and transformative, others are small and unexpected, but all of them can guide us toward new meaning and purpose.
Last month, Kingpins was asked to organize a panel discussion at Texworld Los Angeles. Since partnering with Messe Frankfurt, we’ve maintained our independence — and we intend to keep it that way. But ours is a friendly partnership — the Kingpins team is part of Messe Frankfurt’s Texpertise community, after all – and we were happy to bring a little of the spirit of Kingpins to Texworld.
We organized a panel discussion about how companies and entrepreneurs find ways to pivot and survive in challenging times. It seemed an appropriate topic for today’s environment. Our panelists included Susan Lee, owner of the Wilder vintage store in LA’s Echo Park neighborhood. Many of you already know Susan, who spent a career designing denim for companies like AG Jeans, Anthropologie and Abercrombie & Fitch, before opening her store. She’s now in the process of creating a direct-to-consumer collection.
The other panelist was Jodie Dolan, owner of Dolan Group, which produces apparel for companies such as Anthropologie and Free People; and Dolan Scrubs, a collection of size-inclusive medical apparel. Jodie is also the founder of The Laundry Truck, a 501C3 nonprofit that provides free mobile laundry services to unhoused individuals, children, and families.
Community Serving
The Laundry Truck grew out of Dolan’s volunteer work on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Since launching in 2019, they have done 57,000 loads of laundry across Greater Los Angeles. (You can find out more about The Laundry Truck and the work they do HERE.) Launching a nonprofit required a whole new set of skills for Jodie —from raising funds and building the first trailer, outfitting it with washers and dryers and bringing on sponsors to help keep the truck running, to identifying new communities that could use those services (including seniors and those affected by the recent wildfires in Southern California).
The seed of the idea for Dolan Scrubs grew out of the COVID pandemic, when Jodie was asked if she could make cloth facemasks domestically. As she kept her employees and factories working on PPE (personal protective equipment), she learned that the scrubs business is a $6 million business in the U.S. and none of the existing players was creating size-inclusive products.
“I had been thinking about how to pivot my fashion business to something that aligns with my values, doing something for the community and helping people. But I didn’t know what that was,” Jodie said. “This is the good thing about a crisis, right? It’s like all of a sudden you do things you couldn’t do before.”
Community Building
Susan’s trajectory from denim design to vintage retail was similarly itinerant. After leaving design, she opened a small showroom in the back of her parents’ nursery in Highland Park. That showroom, filled with a mix of vintage and her own designs, attracted the attention of designers from JBrand. That led her to open a retail business: Wilder, originally run out of her home.
At the height of the pandemic, she moved to the Echo Park space and while renovating, she put a rack of vintage clothing out front and attracted customers.
These customers have become a community and that has shifted Susan’s thinking about the purpose of the store. She describes her mantra as “becoming and belonging.”
Becoming refers to the need to grow and evolve. Belonging acknowledges the role of the community.
“We’re going through chaotic times right now. People really want a sense of belonging,” she said. “I throw events in my space — everything from drawing to writing classes. Younger kids come to the events because they didn’t have that — they went straight from COVID to a world that doesn’t make sense right now. So they want a space where they can just belong to. Don’t forget about your community because you help them, they help you back.”
The journeys of Susan and Jodie touched me deeply. They reminded me that staying open to new possibilities — both big and small — and looking for ways to create impact and give back are often the key to greater happiness and satisfaction.
Susan and Jodie’s stories are not only about shifting their businesses. They are about finding joy again, discovering resilience, and choosing to see opportunity where others might see only challenge. They remind us that success is not just about what we build, but also about how we grow and how we bring others along with us.
As we look ahead, I hope their experiences inspire you as much as they inspired me. Business is never only about numbers or strategies. At its core, it is about people, possibilities, and the courage to lead with heart.
Hope to see you soon.
You can learn more about Wilder, The Laundry Truck LA and Dolan Scrubs on Instagram:
@Wilder_LosAngeles
@thelaundrytruckLA
@shopdolanscrubs
