POWERGRAMS

21 First, he had to gain the community's trust. Robinson knew he needed to prove himself to earn that trust. With no buildings for commercial use in Gee's Bend, Paskho converted two homes into the sewing pod and a warehouse for the fabrics and assembled clothing. With each step, from setting up the pod and warehouse, to equipping the pod with sewing machines and inviting people to come try them, to putting out signs letting residents know Paskho was hiring, Robinson gained converts. "Once we built trust and took the first steps, we've just seen this incredible, incredible growth of people who want to be part of it," he says. Among them are Clareese Pettway and Mary Margaret Pettway, who aren't sure they are related. Pettway is one of the most common surnames in Gee's Bend, the result of Mark H. Pettway buying the Gee plantation from the Gee family in the 1840s and bringing 100 or more slaves with him, all given the last name of Pettway. "I really love the job and love the people that work here and really like the community," says Clareese Pettway, a presser for Paskho. The sewing pod is important to the community because "there are tons of people like us," she says. "We really need jobs." Mary Margaret Pettway sews for Paskho, is a third-generation quilter who teaches others her art and chairs the Souls Grown Deep board of directors. While she has made and sold many quilts, Pettway is thankful for her Paskho job. "There's not a lot of jobs down here. That is the main thing. That's another reason I'm glad Paskho is open." Surf ing shorts Robinson's path to Paskho began when he was a 14-year-old surfer living in Southern California. Inspired by Quiksilver, at the time a small company that specialized in clothing for ocean and mountain lovers, Robinson began sewing surfing shorts for his school buddies. They prepaid for the shorts, and he would buy fabric store remnants and make "all different patterns." "I wish I still had the business because I made one size and that was it. I only knew how to make one size," he says. "I'd show up with 40 pair of shorts. If you were the first kid who saw me, you'd get to pick from 40 pair of shorts. If you were the last kid, you'd get the last pair of shorts." His friends loved them, which got Robinson to thinking he wanted to do that with his life. Seeing a film that featured Jeffrey Banks, a famous Black designer, and the iconic Calvin Klein sealed the deal for Robinson. He moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design and became a fashion designer. Robinson worked for iconic brands such as Giorgio Armani, Anne Klein, Perry Ellis, Paco Rabanne and Gap. Robinson founded Paskho – which is the ancient Greek word for "passion" – in 2013 with a Kickstarter campaign, fully launching the company in 2015. His idea was to create an eco-friendly apparel company making high-end, comfortable clothes. As he puts it, "You could wear one of our pants to go climb a mountain, and then you could walk off that mountain and go straight to dinner in New York City at a fancy restaurant in the same pants." But it wasn't until living through a pandemic and watching George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020 that Robinson realized his full vision for Paskho. "As a Black man, that broke open my heart," Robinson says of Floyd's death. "I was like, that could just be me, that could just be my son, my daughter. There's something that changed in me." From a focus on being environmentally friendly, Paskho shifted to social justice, equality and dignity, he says. "We changed the whole company to be about this conversation about dignified jobs," Robinson says. And none of those jobs would be offshore. "We feel very strongly that paying people a fair wage, that actually lifting people up and giving them dignified jobs with the skills that they have and then training others for those skills is really, really important as a company," he says. Community made Paskho began what Robinson calls a "community-made model" – creating jobs in communities that have suffered – in New York City, which the company calls home. During the height of the pandemic, Paskho set up a sewing pod in the city, hiring people who had worked on Broadway and lost their jobs as costume-makers, as well as those who had lost their jobs when the factories that employed them shut down. Robinson says Paskho proved "New York City is not that hard," but the company needed to show the community-made concept can work in a rural community. Gee's Bend became the first of what Robinson hopes will be many expansions into struggling communities, including others in Alabama. "My long-term goal is a big one. My long-term goal is to actually be able to manufacture not just clothes, but multiple products in communities across the United States," he says. If enough people decide to spend their money on Paskho products, Gee's Bend and other communities will benefit, Robinson says. In Gee's Bend, he hopes that employing enough people and paying them living wages will transform the community over the next decade, triggering other opportunities and filling needs, from stores and restaurants to a gas station and even a hotel. "We've just started a seed," he says. "But it's going to grow." By Bob Blalock Quilt designs are displayed on streets in Gee's Bend. Patrick Robinson founded Paskho in 2013.

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