ROTTERDAM — Some of South Korea’s knitwear is made in the Capital Region.  

In a clearing off Curry Road sits the Newberry Knitting Co. The enterprise occupies two buildings: A bigger manufacturing facility, ringing with the sound of electric knitting machines and a smaller, quieter store, its shelves packed with hats, gloves, mittens, scarves and leg warmers in every conceivable color and pattern.  

Owned and run by Nancy Newberry, the business is almost 80 years old, having been founded in 1946 by Newberry’s late father-in-law, James “Fred” Newberry. He was a friend of Newberry’s father, who owned a knitwear business in Johnstown. After a brief stint working for the FBI in Washington, D.C., Newberry married her husband, settling in the Schenectady area.  

“I was married, and I just stayed home for a while,” she said. “I started coming here because I didn't know anybody. I just did whatever anybody wanted done. I wasn't wanting to be all that reliable because I had to go early for the kids. But I learned all about the business.” 

After her father-in-law died, Newberry’s husband, Arthur, took over the business. And once her children were grown, she began to work there herself. Today, 60 years later, her husband having passed on 2013, Newberry owns and runs the company with the help of her general manager. It has become a routine now, something she does by force of habit.  

“I don't know, you just do what it is you have to do,” she says. 

Newberry is not your average local business. This little facility in Rotterdam sells to wholesale and retail markets across the world, from here in the United States to Japan and South Korea. They are proud of their products and the fact that they are all American-made, from the yarn to the deerskin sewn on their specialty gloves.  

Much of the credit for the global clientele the business has acquired in recent years goes to the company’s general manager, Christian Egnor. A native of Schoharie, Egnor started at Newberry sweeping the floor and picking up any stray mittens.  

“I was in construction prior to this, and I was just sick of the seasonal work,” said Egnor. “I'm kind of a busybody, I have to keep working. I came out here looking for a job. They weren't hiring, but I stopped there and put in an application and I got a phone call three days after that.” 

Today, close to 30 years later, Egnor can take credit for setting up a website and social media presence for the company, teaching himself everything from website management to digital marketing. According to Newberry, Egnor is one of the best things that happened to the company.  

“They've had a website for probably 18 years now,” he said. “And of course, things progress every year. You’ve got search engine optimizations. You have to invest the time and researching everybody else's websites, getting on the phone (and) calling them. You find people who have comparable products and ask them how they’re doing it. So yeah, I invest a lot of time that way.” 

But, despite the modernization, running a company is hard. While there is a lot of demand for their products, keeping up with it is difficult. The process needs specialized laborers, many of whom the company has to train.  

“We have one lady up here that sews leather palms (onto gloves and mittens),” he said. “I had to go through 12 people to find that one person. It’s always challenging to find somebody that has the skill-set and the discipline to sit there for eight hours.” 

Egnor added that the company accrued a loss of $9,000-$10,000 over a year and a half in the process of hiring and training. The pandemic, of course, added to these troubles.  

“Last year was a catastrophe,” said Newberry, who still came in to work to run the business even during the height of the lockdown. With meeting demand being difficult at the best of times, the pandemic almost made the business grind to a standstill, she said.  

 Supply and demand was an issue that affected the factories that made their yarn, too. 

“Basically, what happened was because employees were getting reimbursed so much to stay home, they didn’t want to go into work,” said Egnor. “So the yarn mills kept saying they don't have enough people. Three or four of them shut down.” 

But the supply-chain crisis strangely has had a positive side, Egnor said 

“Ironically, the logistics concerns that everybody's facing helps us in that aspect, because it keeps the imports out,” he said. “But the other thing is, we have a lot of niche products that nobody else does. And that's how we stay in the industry.” 

Over the past decade, with American-made products gaining popularity, according to Egnor, the company has seen a 50 to 60 percent increase in demand. They have made changes, emphasizing the fashion side of the industry and taking on military contracts — making inserts for the gloves worn by soldiers.

The business has benefited from being an American enterprise, with 95 percent of its sales made outside New York state. About 25 percent come from overseas, with less than a fraction of revenue coming from the Capital Region.  

Challenges notwithstanding, Newberry sees the company as having a future as long as she and her children are alive.  

“I think we'll continue to run it for a good long while, but we may not be doing some of the things that we're doing now.” 

Shrishti Mathew covers Arts and Entertainment for the Times Union. A graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, she has previously written for American Theatre, The Daily Orange, and The NewsHouse. Shrishti is originally from Chennai, India. You can reach her at Shrishti.Mathew@timesunion.com.