Patricia Rodriguez

I've been in apparel manufacturing for over 25 years, and honestly, it's been in my blood since birth. I grew up watching my parents in this field, surrounded by fabric, sewing machines, and threads my entire life. I met my husband Freddie in the industry - he's a professional tailor - and we've been partners in business and life ever since. For more than 20 years, I traveled throughout Central America and the Caribbean, setting up factories in El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. I would go into industrial zones, find locations, bring in 500+ sewing machines, hire all the employees, find trainers to train them, and build operations producing 40,000 units per month to ship back to the U.S. When my young kids came along, I decided to stay home and stop traveling, but we didn't stop manufacturing. Freddie and I created a mini version here in the U.S. - we started in our first apartment's laundry room with one borrowed sewing machine that didn't even work. Freddie fixed it, and we ran alterations services from that one machine. Now we have a shop with over 50 sewing machines on our 2.73-acre property in Naples. We manufacture an incredible range of products - men's clothes, bathing suits, leotards, intimate apparel, dog apparel, leashes, vests, oxygen vest supports for people who wear oxygen all the time, and even boat covers. Our company is called Unlimited Sewing Workshop because we truly can do anything. Our bigger mission now is building massive production facilities in the Dominican Republic under Unlimited Sewing Workshop Dominicana, while maintaining our showroom and sample room here in Naples. I handle customer relations, logistics, production schedules, and work closely with our key account manager in New Jersey. Freddie is always on the factory floor managing quality, training employees, and setting up machines for new productions. There have been a lot of no's along the way, a lot of people saying we can't do it, but I've done it, and I'm very proud of everything we've accomplished. I just want to keep the fuel going.