Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (July 16/01) - One of Fort Simpson's most successful homegrown businesses will be spreading its wings and its Dene fashions to points south thanks to a lucrative contract with Winnipeg's Mid-West Garment Company.

Nats'enelu's D'arcy Moses looks to the future in one of his Dene-inspired designs

The garment company will be producing, distributing and marketing 20 Nats'enelu designs.

"It will put Dene inspired products into the marketplace," said D'arcy Moses, Nats'enelu's general manager.

Mid-West, a company that does $350 million in sales each year, will put garments tagged with special labels in stores across Canada and the United States. Nats'enelu will receive a percentage of the gross.

"They're Canadian. That's important," said Moses.

Each tag will have information about the artist that inspired the garment's design and the artwork involved.

He described the relationship between both companies as a working partnership and added the marriage will enable Nats'enelu to put money back into the community of Fort Simpson.

"We are using artists from Wrigley and Fort Simpson," he said, adding that craftspeople will have to give permission to use their designs.

The clothing will be mass-produced using less expensive and fewer labour-intensive materials. For example, beadwork will be replaced with machine embroidery and elk or caribou hides will be replaced with commercial leather.

"Consumers are interested in design and price," said Moses.

So he is combining the affordability of design alterations and mass production with the value seen in aboriginal handicrafts.

A jacket produced from commercial leather made to look like deer-tanned hide will retail for about $450 instead of $700.

Mid-West will also be distributing parkas inspired by the North, fleece shirts and baseball caps from moose-hide and leather.

Moses is sure he'll receive flack for knocking off aboriginal designs and mass distributing them.

"But we have to change with the times."

He said the Northern companies have to change their marketing strategies in order to stay in business.

"As it is now all we're doing is paying our bills to produce leather jackets. As a business we had no other choice."

Nats'enelu will continue to make hand-crafted jackets and other clothing using time-intensive procedures.

The NWT Development Corporation is financing Nats'enelu's charge to success. "They are loaning us the money to pull this thing off," said Moses.

He is using the loan from the corporation to develop samples, fly to trade shows and go to Winnipeg.

The thought of going into debt and the risk involved leaves goose-bumps on Moses' skin.

"It's kind of scary but it's exciting too. We're in the real world now."

He is sure if the deal hadn't been struck Nats'enelu would not have been able to survive.