Kathy Cheng Didn’t Chase Trends. She Built Infrastructure for Brands That Last.
Category Failure, Diagnosed
Apparel manufacturing hollowed itself out chasing low-cost overseas production.
Brands lost control. Quality slipped. Lead times stretched.
Kathy Cheng, President
of WS & Co. and Redwood Classics Apparel, saw a different opportunity: rebuild domestic manufacturing in Canada as a competitive advantage. At WS & Company and its premium division, Redwood Classics Apparel, she bet on something most brands abandoned — keeping production at home. Handcrafted in Toronto, family-owned and operated, vertically integrated from yarn to final stitch. The result isn't sentimentality. It's control. Speed. Quality. And a supply chain brands can actually stand behind.
Tenacious, strategic and described in the Financial Post as "a crusader for Canadian garment manufacturing", Cheng is something of a BFT muse.
The Strategic Bet
Kathy does what most brands abandoned: make things close to home. Although she has been presented with countless opportunities to move production offshore, she chose proximity over price. That decision became the moat. The client roster tells the story: Roots, Polo Ralph Lauren, J.Crew, Holt Renfrew, Club Monaco, HBC, Champion, to name a few.
Not for nostalgia.
For control.
Capital, Not Campaigns
Redwood operates vertically integrated manufacturing in Canada, supplying thousands of brands globally, from startups to enterprise clients.
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In-house cutting and sewing
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Ethical labor standards
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Shorter lead times
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Lower minimums without sacrificing margins
Likely Next Chapter
As supply chains regionalize, Redwood isn’t adapting.
It’s already positioned.
The BFT Take
Cheng didn’t build a fashion brand.
She built the system fashion brands rely on.
That’s leverage.
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