For those that love the adrenaline rush of jumping out of a plane and soaring through the sky, Manufactory Apparel is a brand name you have probably already heard of. Founded by Shelly and Robert Delaney, Manufactory Apparel is a custom design service of graphics and merchandise for professional skydiving teams and business owners. With a wealth of knowledge between them, the success of Manufactory Apparel has grown from strength to strength.
Professional skydivers themselves, customers can rely on their experience and expertise behind the brand. “Shelly and I have been skydiving for nearly 10 years and very early on we became very passionate. We decided to be part of many record attempts, training camps, boogies events and saturated ourselves with skydiving.” Entwined with their training and studies in fashion and graphic design, their love of skydiving and fashion has mixed perfectly to build their brand. “We live and breathe clothing, it’s been a part of our lives since before skydiving.”
An opportunity arose for Rob to become a creative director for Skydive Dubai and undeniably it was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up, “I jumped at this opportunity to work within the industry using my graphic design skills and knowledge of merchandise and was lucky enough to stay in the Middle East for almost 2 years. I found a real need for this type of work for all of the skydiving industry. This is when we decided that all skydivers could benefit from what we had created for skydive Dubai.” Their passion for skydiving and fashion inspired them to make a change in their industry, “We saw that there was a lack of quality in the merchandise and apparel that was being used within our sport of skydiving.” Hence, Manufactory Apparel was born.
With Manufactory Apparel located in Ocean Grove, Rob has found the highlight of owning a business close to Geelong is that it allows Shelly and himself to live by the coast, practice skydiving and participate in their other hobbies that reflect their coastal lifestyle. With having a business in such a beautiful location Rob finds it hard to find any fault “the only bad thing is that we travel so often and we need to drive an hour and a half up to Melbourne International Airport, other than that it suits our lifestyle and we love it.”
Rob has some wise words of advice for starting a business
“Being in business for yourself can be extremely rewarding when you learn to be grateful for the successes you are already having. Business is extremely cutthroat in any industry. These days it’s with customers and a market that you don’t even meet face to face, it’s all online. You need to be prepared to work every hour of every day.”
The plan for Manufactory Apparel in the next five years is “about giving back as much as we can to the industry and the sport that we love.” For Rob this means making sure the brands footprint and values remain strong for their customers to grow alongside them. If they were to collaborate with anyone? It would be the Soul Flyers Fred Fugen and Vince Reffer due to their ability to “innovate our sport of skydiving, safely and with extreme professionalism.” Rob’s passion for skydiving and designing shines through the brand of Manufactory Apparel, and its all for the customers. “We value the quality and integrity of the products that we put out there to customers because the customers are our skydiving family and friends.”