For the 25 companies ‘pitching’ to the judging panel at the 11th annual Naturally Boulder Pitch Slam & Party, the questions came fast and followed a pattern:

“What’s the SRP (suggested retail price) and the shelf-life of your product?”

“Where do you manufacture? What’s the long term plan?”

“Where do you experience your highest (retail) ‘velocity’?”

“How do you differentiate your product in the crowded (fill in the blank) category?”

At stake for the winner was coveted booth space at Natural Products Expo West next March, spending cash, free business consulting and the attention and adulation of an industry sector that today has become a national superstar in the multi-billion dollar natural products industry.

The winner was Wild Zora — profiled in CompanyWeek last year — a husband and wife team whose tasty natural meat and vegetable snack bars (think ingredient-enhanced jerky) stood out from a group of four or five products that were clearly the cream of the crop. Josh and Zora Tabin’s story is as compelling as their snacks, which seem poised for a national breakout if the company can scale manufacturing, no small issue when meat is involved. Zora’s kitchen gets a daily visit from food safety inspectors.

Food startups dominated the proceedings, and product themes followed familiar trends in the natural and organic sector — gluten-free was a staple — with some some quirky, inventive angles. There were RollinGreens‘ ‘tater tots made with millet instead of potatoes; Cow’s Gone, a non-dairy ice cream with coconut milk and natural sweeteners; Rowdy Mermaid kombucha, inspired by the owner’s charming daughter; cold-filtered coffee and a slew of interesting brownies, cookies and a ‘savory’ snack bars. Savory flavoring in the energy bar category also seems a new trend. ‘Paleo’ is still in. Grain-based, sweet-tasting snacks were nowhere to be found.

But as narratives go, the food companies this year took a back seat to the larger spectacle of the event itself and the unspoken feeling among the packed house at the St Julien Hotel & Spa that this community may be changing the rules of an entire industry sector. I congratulated a beaming Clif Harald of the Boulder Economic Council on the event. The companies, he said, “are perfect examples of the fresh ideas and entrepreneurship fueling this important sector of Colorado’s economy.”

Harald is right, of course, but the implications of the annual gathering seem wider. The event brings to light the sea change in how new products are being brought to market, in how the industry innovates. The days of industrial food companies devising the next mega-snack in a laboratory, with a top-down go-to-market strategy, feels far away from these companies. These are passion-fueled entrepreneurs, prototyping in apartment kitchens and earning their chops at farmers markets. Buyers from Whole Foods and Lucky’s provide the big break, offering shelf space for the most promising to test retail ‘velocity’ — that is, how fast and furious the product sells. It’s a ground-up, organic methodology, and its become the new norm in developing the next great thing — a Larabar, ProBar, or 34 Degrees cracker.

Equally transformative is the manufacturing ecosystem, the network of co-packers and maker resources that help the high-velocity brands manufacture in sufficient volume to meet the demand that regional and national distribution requires. Co-packers manufacture for multiple brands. They’re Colorado’s most unheralded business catalysts, providing critical lift to food companies that inevitably must wrestle with the challenge of making more stuff.

Yet the manufacturing component seems poised to evolve again. Co-packers like Fresca, Kitchen Coop and Natural Food Works can work with a limited number of brands; demand is outstripping the supply of co-packing capacity. And some co-packers are launching in-house food brands. With solutions like The Food Corridor on the horizon to connect food brands with other manufacturing opportunities, the next great wave of food innovation may develop around, not through, today’s network of established food manufacturers.

As with other lifestyle manufacturing in Colorado, support from the state’s economic development office is a head-scratcher. I learned that a list of Colorado’s co-packers can be found in the Department of Agriculture’s web pages, because snack bars are made from ag products. But so is Voormi’s vaunted new high-tech outdoor apparel, made from from Rocky Mountain-sourced wool. One assumes Voormi is not an ag business.

It’s a manufacturing business, but policy makers should eventually find a way to provide promotional lift to Colorado’s food business, including its world-class manufacturing value-chain. Clif Harald accurately surmised, “We are recognized around the globe as an epicenter for natural and organic product innovation and leadership.”

That it all starts with 25 passionate entrepreneurs pitching to a room full of discerning industry supporters only makes is sweeter.

Er, more savory.

Eric Peterson’s terrific profile of Rubadue Wire and CEO Sue Welsh serves the much-needed purpose of shining a light on one of Colorado’s most accomplished manufacturers. It’s also segue to a worthy topic, that of the profound influence of leading women in Colorado manufacturing.

Welsh’s story is noteworthy because she leads a growth company in an industrial sector, operating in global markets. There’s added interest because she does it alongside more men than women. It’s compelling because she’s the one sibling of 10 who emerged to lead her father’s business. I’d say she has star power; she’d disagree.

In Colorado, she has company. We’ve featured a long list but the upshot here, in Colorado, is that more women are not only extending family legacies in industrial companies — like Welsh, Susan Cirocki (Arrow Sheet Metal), and Katie Munro (Munro Companies) — but are leading a regional manufacturing surge in other sectors.

Liz Myslik (Fresca Foods), Kim Jordan (New Belgium), Koel Thomae (Noosa Yogurt), Mo Shaffer (Coyote Gold), Beryl Stafford (Bobo’s Oat Bars), Megan Reamer (Jackson’s Honest Chips), and others we’ve profiled are the face of a regional food and beverage sector tipping the national scene on its side. Annelise Loevlie (Icelantic), Diane Boyer (Skea), Tamara Smith (Gibson Athletic), Jessica Montoya (COSewn), C.J. Riggins (KidRobot), and Nicole Smith (Mary’s Medicinals) are among the region’s lifestyle manufacturing leaders. And the list goes on.

Public figures like Denver City Councilwoman Robin Kniech are effective advocates. Kniech is especially well suited to advance manufacturing. She hails from a Midwestern family with roots in manufacturing. “Denver is blessed with some strong women leaders in manufacturing, in sub-sectors like apparel where they are clearly leading, to women inventors using contract manufacturers and those who grew up in the industry and now run smaller, family owned shops,” she told me. “The challenge,” she added, “is whether and how the industry is willing to adapt to attract women workers.”

It’s a provocative assertion — that manufacturing must change to be a more diverse sector. “Lessons learned from other industries indicate that you can’t just ‘add women and mix’,” she says. “You have to think thoughtfully about the fact that statistically, women are still responsible for more home and parenting/eldercare responsibilities, which impacts the kind of workplaces most likely to attract them. For example, last-minute mandatory overtime, a practice in some manufacturing environments to cope with staff shortages or sudden changes in demand, might not be a good fit for women.”

Kniech adds, “The good news is that changes that make workplaces more attractive to women benefit all workers, including men, and are also similar to some of the trends more likely to attract millennials.”

Stacey Bibik, controller at Stacy Machine & Tooling and also a manufacturing brat, sees it differently. “I’m a tough gal,” she admits, “and I tend to stay away from the whole ‘workplace needs to be more female-friendly because we’re caregivers’ argument. Statistics and surveys have supported the fact that including, engaging, and advancing women in the workplace improves the bottom line.”

“So why the shortage in manufacturing?” she asks. “Because women lack encouragement and education about the realities of employment in manufacturing, and those realities relate to the personal satisfaction of making things and the diversity of career pathways available.” Bibik’s also standing up a Colorado chapter of Cleveland-based Women In Manufacturing.

Colorado’s lucky to have both women advocating manufacturing. More than that, the sector needs both voices. From my uninformed perch, there’s profound truth in each perspective. Both are right.

And the irony of manufacturing’s big tent (and getting bigger) is that high-growth industries like natural products and apparel, led by women, will shape manufacturing into one of the economy’s most diverse sectors. Regardless of historic barriers.

Now that’s rich.

Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Contact him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Reach Denver City Councilwoman Robin Kniech at robin.kniech@denvergov.org, or Stacey Bibik at sb@stacytool.com.

There’s a line that separates artisans from manufacturers. It varies industry to industry but those who cross it describe the telltale sign similarly. One night you go to bed a hobbyist and wake up a manufacturer, having spent a sleepless night wondering how in hell you’re going to make more.

Game on. Welcome to manufacturing.

We spend millions to make this path easier for some. In technology and healthcare, we incubate and fund ideas before anything’s made. The business landscape is dotted with Think Atomic and Techstars and Innovation Center of the Rockies, an incredible ecosystem that provides a lifecycle path where an idea is vetted, business planned, funded, prototyped, market-tested, and mentored before anyone is asked to buy or manufacturing bottlenecks are encountered.

But there’s a larger and equally passionate ecosystem, thousands of inventors, designers, crafters, cooks, and homebrew artisans with limited resources or expertise. They’re also eager to make a business out of it, but for this group it’s a harder path. Manufacturing’s a pain point for many.

Increasingly business is finding a way — credit a widespread maker and manufacturing revival — and this week an important service will be available to fledgling small businesses seeking enhanced manufacturing capabilities. Etsy, the giant online sales outlet for homemade, crafty products announced the launch of Etsy Manufacturing, a new platform, as the New York Times described it, that “grew out of a realization that many Etsy sellers wanted to grow, but were having trouble finding manufacturers willing to take on small orders from untested business partners.”

Etsy’s inviting manufacturers to the craft party. “Starting Monday, Etsy will invite manufacturers to apply to list a profile, complete with pictures, on Etsy Manufacturing,” the Times wrote. “‘Etsy will review those applications based on a set of criteria,’ said Amanda Peyton, and Etsy executive, ‘including how much the manufacturer makes in-house and how much it outsources itself.'”

Etsy’s not the first — Techstars graduate Dorian Ferlauto launched BriteHub to match industrial designers with manufacturers — but it’s easily the most newsworthy given its size and potential impact. Not for industrial giants but for the wave of American-made products over the horizon.

Will the current community of contract manufacturers benefit from registering on Etsy? According to the Times, the “site now lists over 32 million items from 1.5 million sellers and generated $1.93 billion in sales last year.” It’s conceivable that some manufacturers will find small-batch orders from a tier of products poised to become the next BB-8.

More likely Etsy’s move will advance the maker and manufacturing revival by encouraging even more collaboration between businesses in the manufacturing supply chain just beginning to find one another after decades of finding partners overseas, in Asian factories or European fabric and materials markets. And growth will result. It’s not a game changer; it’s a game enhancer.

But if Etsy works to connect more small businesses, directly, only good things will happen. It won’t take long for the next ProBar, Voormi, Lizard Skins, or New Belgium to emerge. In a fascinating report by the National League of Cities — Four Ways City Leaders Can Boost Entrepreneurship and Propel Economic Growth — the number one recommendation was to ‘Build Connections.’ The report suggested:

While capital constraints represent one of the primary challenges to entrepreneurs, research has shown that public venture funds and local incubation centers result in little to no benefit to entrepreneurs. Instead, cities should focus on fostering local connections among entrepreneurs and businesses. These local connections, as opposed to national or global contacts, are vital to an entrepreneur’s success. Focus should be put on events that cause entrepreneurs to think and act together, building a robust local ecosystem.

We couldn’t have said it better, though we tried.

Connect the players and let business find the way. And rest easy in the process.

CompanyWeek is hosting the next, important connections-building event. Don’t miss the 2^nd annual Colorado Apparel Manufacturing Summit next Thursday, September 24 from 3-6:30 p.m. Register here.

A highlight of last year’s inaugural Colorado Apparel Manufacturing Summit was the exquisite timing and passionate comments of a determined, spunky economic developer from Phillips County, Colorado. Julie Worley, executive director of PCED, rolled into the Summit from Holyoke, on Colorado’s eastern plains, with a desire to learn about the state of apparel manufacturing in the state, and an idea.

What she needed was an education. “Before the Summit last year I knew very little about the cut-and sew labor shortage,” Worley says. “As a rural economic development director, I was always on the lookout for industry that would work in small towns. I had done some limited research prior to the Summit, and what I learned through that research was enough to make me realize that cut-and-sew centers would work in our small, rural towns — and provide much-needed jobs and industry.”

The dialogue (here’s a recap) exposed Worley to apparel’s hard knocks and the mother of all barriers for emerging brands: the lack of domestic labor and modern equipment that today’s apparel and sewn-product entrepreneurs need to thrive. But halfway through the discussion, to a rousing applause, Worley informed the crowd that the labor, work ethic, and capacity to learn resided here, in Colorado, in the small towns of the Eastern Plains. Worley’s towns.

A year later, on the eve of the 2015 Apparel Manufacturing Summit, comes the stunning news that the idea, transformed with the help of collaborators Carol Engel-Enright, Darlene Carpio, Jack Makovsky, and Lisa Elstun, is now a finalist for the Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund. RCAM, short for Rural Colorado Apparel Manufacturing, with local investors already in tow, is making national news. And it could get even better.

RCAM aligns with Walmart’s push to reshore American manufacturing jobs and in the apparel sector decades of offshoring have decimated the cut-and-sew labor pool. It’s this sector’s version of the workforce challenge that most U.S. manufacturers wrestle with. Consumers have played an important role in revitalizing demand for U.S. product — think food’s locavore trend — but circumstances in Asia are also creating opportunity for American makers. Rising labor costs, instability in China, and the fatigue of managing long supply chains are factors.

Quality is another. As the RCAM outline explains, “Overseas manufacturing has resulted in ‘fast fashion,’ with the lowest price for the least style, poor quality fabric and materials, and poor craftsmanship. Domestic, local apparel production could bring a return of high quality craftsmanship and construction to the apparel industry if demand remains steady.”

Here, there’s little reason to believe it won’t. Colorado’s already a destination for entrepreneurs launching lifestyle businesses. This year’s Summit should feature a new crop. RCAM could be a catalyst, though the prospect of the state becoming a mecca for emerging brands seems more daunting without the resources and support other manufacturing industries receive here. Apparel and sewn-product manufacturers are companies without a home in Colorado’s statewide economic development plan.

That reality doesn’t diminish Worley’s enthusiasm a bit, though her view is informed by an authentic dose of modesty. She’s a bit overwhelmed her idea has gone this far. “I’m very pleased — and somewhat in awe — of how the RCAM network is coming together,” she says. “With the possible opening in the not-too-distant-future of the Wray center, the vision will soon be a reality.”

It’s here, in the small towns of eastern Colorado, where economic opportunities are sometimes far and few between, that RCAM could mean everything. The RCAM proposal calls for startup and operating capital for six months and is specific in identifying advanced equipment like a digital patternmaker and a laser cutting system as well as digital textile printing systems.

But it’s the people factor and rural setting that inspires Julie Worley. “Revitalizing economic development efforts in our rural communities — that’s what really got me excited,” Worley says. “For a variety of reasons, it is hard to locate any industry in the small, rural areas of the state, but this industry will work in small towns — and that’s what we need in the country.”

In the ‘country.’ Indeed.

Don’t miss the 2nd annual Colorado Apparel Manufacturing Summit, September 24 in Denver’s RiNO. Registration and details here.

Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.