Hometown Heroes Dreams Take Flight with Support from Madewell and Nest

The Madewell x Nest Hometown Heroes Collective celebrates American craftsmanship by selling curated selections of makers’ products through Madewell.com. To date, nine classes, totaling 69 Hometown Hero makers from 23 states, have been featured on Madewell’s website. The Hometown Heroes program increases a maker’s annual income by an average of +62% a year.

“Since joining the Collective, we have been able to improve many areas of our business and gain experience that helps us continue to better our processes and grow. Working with Madewell has been a dream come true to us. We are extremely grateful for this opportunity, it validated everything we worked hard towards, we gained a ton of experience and saw significant growth for Peacesake,” shared Eli and Valencia Morr, owners of Peacesake Candle Co., a Class 6 Hometown Hero.

When surveyed, 82% of the Hometown Heroes reported that they felt the program was beneficial to their business growth, citing the market exposure and increased revenue as the greatest benefits of participation. Each year, four Hometown Heroes classes of 8-13 American makers are selected to showcase their products on Madewell.com, gaining invaluable marketing and brand exposure from the website, and increasing their customer bases which increases their direct sales. Additionally, each participating business receives meaningful support and development tools to help them continue to grow their businesses like Class 7’s Feminist Goods Co. who expressed their gratitude for the program:

“Not to be dramatic—but also to be dramatic— this program changed my world as a maker. I gained exposure and support that I could only have dreamed about prior to this program and the effect on my business has been very noticeable. The resources and team at Nest and Madewell have been absolutely the best thing to happen to my journey as a maker. Thank you so much for everything you do to support, encourage and amplify makers!” said Lauren Harbury, owner of Feminist Goods Co.

Madewell has been supporting artisan and maker entrepreneurs since 2010 when it launched the first iteration of Hometown Heroes. In 2019, Madewell enlisted Nest to support the program by providing a pipeline of qualified maker businesses from our Artisan and Maker Guild and renamed the program the Hometown Heroes Collective.

To date, more than 1,930 makers and artisans have benefitted from Madewell and Nest’s joint programming, which includes the Hometown Heroes Collective, as well as webinars and other training resources provided by industry experts from the Madewell team. Since then, Madewell and Nest have guided this inclusive and connected community of American makers to be both economically viable and socially impactful.

In addition to the Hometown Heroes Collective, industry experts from the Madewell team have hosted business training and capacity-building webinars for members of Nest’s Guild. In total, Madewell and Nest’s joint programming has reached more than 1,930 maker entrepreneurs and artisan businesses to date, and together, we continue to seek new ways to engage more artisan businesses, brand partners, and consumers in this work.

Shop the latest members of Hometown Heroes Collective here.