March 2020. France is in lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In Roubaix (North), in one of the buildings of a former textile factory, a real commando operation is being set up. In a few days, nearly 130 industrial sewing machines arrive and the building, silent for decades, gets back into operation. Former seamstresses, young people from the neighborhood, people who had never threaded a needle began to mass produce masks ordered by the State and communities such as the metropolis of Montpellier or the City of Paris. Thus was born Résilience, a textile integration company.
Four years later, at the beginning of April 2024, in this same place, workers are putting the finishing touches to a huge order from Decathlon, which will have kept them busy for a year: t-shirts intended for volunteers for the Olympic Games (July 26-11). august). The contract will have made it possible to relaunch the workshop in search of large volume production. A real breath of fresh air for a company that is faced with the difficulties of being made in France.
The project was born here, in the heart of this old textile land and in the minds of its creators, notably the stylist Stéphanie Calvino. The initial ambition is to create “the first network of inclusive French textile workshops”. Throughout the country, 80 structures, establishments or work assistance services – these workshops employ people with disabilities -, and integration companies come together behind the Roubais bridgehead, which dreams of relocation textile and relaunch a truly mass “made in France” in the sector.
Some nice orders
The first stage was a success, driven by the health emergency: 43 million masks left the network’s workshops. Building on this feat which made it known, Résilience was awarded another important contract: 180,000 “first 1,000 days” kits ordered by the Ministry of Health and Solidarity to be distributed in maternity wards.
This time, we have to sew sleeping bags, bibs, soap cases – more technical pieces. Enough to help employees gain skills. A golden opportunity for the Resilience network, which then seeks to position itself on production in large numbers in order to supply the eighty workshops it has brought together.
There will be some nice orders, such as this market for 36,000 jerseys for Olympic volunteers, on which Fil Rouge, in Marseille, member of the Resilience network, is also working, or that of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games for the towels which will be used to athletes. However, these contracts are exceptional.
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