Industrial Textile Apprentice of the Year Georgie Fry is back hard at work after her big win. Photo / Paul Taylor
Industrial Textile Apprentice of the Year Georgie Fry is back hard at work after her big win. Photo / Paul Taylor
Hastings industrial upholstery apprentice Georgie Fry was crowned overall Industrial Textile Apprentice of the Year at the national Outdoor Fabric Products Association of New Zealand (OFPANZ) Awards in Tauranga.
OFPANZ Awards for Excellence is an annual competition that offers apprentices a chance to showcase their technical skills, design excellence and innovation on a national stage.
This year apprentices were briefed to create an innovative solution or product enhancement, using just 1.8m2 of outdoor fabric.
After a bit of brainstorming ideas that would help out at home, Fry killed two birds with one stone, as her dog Millie always needs assistance getting in and out of the car so she decided to make a custom-designed injury-support harness for Millie as part of her competition entry.
Industrial Textile Apprentice of the Year Georgie Fry, with her dog Millie sporting the winning entry, Millie’s Multi Harness.
Fry said, “I realised a dog harness would stand out from previous entries, which are usually bags or covers, and the interchangeable harness to coat came as an after-thought which I then had to re-work into the design.”
The winning design entitled ‘Millie’s Multi Harness’ incorporated several unique features not available in existing similar products, including handles for lifting her safely in and out of the car, easy fixing hooks for a dog that doesn’t sit still, and carry bags with domes to ensure Millie could be kitted out for whatever adventure she may embark on.
The design works well and is Millie the dog approved, Fry saying Millie is pretty happy in her new harness and even happier when Fry packs her favourite treats.
As newly crowned overall Industrial Textile Apprentice of the Year Fry was chuffed to win and said the experience itself was “really cool.”
“I was at the awards ceremony and the room just exploded with applause,”
“Just being part of the competition is fun in itself, getting to be more creative by coming up with your own product idea and following the whole process through is quite rewarding and then to actually win was a huge compliment and quite a confidence boost for me,” Fry said.
Production Manager, Adam Greville (Left), Apprentice of the Year, Georgie Fry, with Co-Owners of Douglas Innovation in Hastings Suzanne Hoyt and Pete Swinburn. Photo / Marty Brown
This is the second year in a row that Fry, 26, has taken out an award for her work. Last year she won Tier 1 Apprentice of the Year, a category for early trainees.
She has been an apprentice at Douglas Outdoor & Textile Innovation since 2021, when she somewhat by luck stepped into the textile trade.
“I’d always been a maker of things, but it wasn’t a trade that was ever talked about at school so unfortunately I didn’t find it until later in life.
“An ex-boyfriend of mine had worked as a marine trimmer in France and I’d done a bit of fashion sewing in High School so, I think, when Douglas employed me as a general hand, they must have seen some potential in me,” she said.
It was pretty much love at first sight between Fry and advanced textile fabricating. She explained she loves the job because it has so much variety, “and you’re hardly ever working on the same thing, from day to day it’s always different.
“One day you could be trimming vintage car seats, the next making a giant commercial shade sail, almost all of our jobs are custom, made to measure, so someone comes to us with an idea of a product they want made, and it’s up to us to find a way of making it work.
“Once you have the basic sewing and fabric welding skills, it’s all about problem-solving,” Fry said.
The young apprentice is grateful for the mentorship and support she’s received from everyone at Douglas, “in particular, the production manager Adam, and Pete and Suzanne, the owners, who have all been so supportive along the way.”
OFPANZ executive officer Amanda Newport said this year’s entrants set a high standard and each entry showed a phenomenal amount of detail and effort put in by each apprentice.
“As the industry body, for us, it’s amazing to see such talent coming out of our industry,” Newport said.
Newport was also stoked to see the continued influx of women entering and excelling in the trade, as it’s still a very male-dominated industry, with 80 per cent made up by men.
“It’s wonderful to be building on that and to see females taking the leap and having positive experiences when they get here,” she said.
As is the case for most trades across New Zealand right now, attracting apprentices is an ongoing challenge and industrial upholstery is not often in consideration for would-be apprentices, explained Newport.
The OFPANZ executive office added, “When you consider the skills involved - designing anything from a custom caravan suite to a winery tank cover - fabricating, repairing, and keeping items in good use for decades, these are traditional skills of value which challenge the throw-away mentality and for which we foresee a huge demand.”
Maddisyn Jeffares became the editor of the Hawke’s Bay community papers Hastings Leader and Napier Courier in 2023 after writing the Hastings Leader for almost a year. She has been a reporter with the NZME for almost three years now and has a strong focus on what’s going on in the communities, good and bad, big and small. Email news tips to her at: maddisyn.jeffarea@nzme.co.nz
