Specialty Fabrics Review January 2021 - 20

[ PERSPECTIVE ]

since the beginning. " As we grew from
doing 12 or 15 sales a year to over
1,000, I made sure to create efficiencies
that would allow our patterns and
processes to be scaled as we acquired
knowledge, equipment and customers. "
This is also part of the reason
Dickerson earned several manufacturing certifications early on. These skills
help him not only innovate but also
better understand the industry and his
employees. " We're a small but nimble
team, " he says. " Welders and sewers
understand installation and packaging ... project managers have been to
installs. We do everything in-house to
deliver the highest quality product possible. I want to be proud of what we do,
and I want our employees and clients
to be proud as well. "

Setting priorities

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

Shading CocoCay
No stranger to taking chances, Matthew Dickerson, president and CEO of
shade sail manufacturer Tenshon, accepted a challenge in May 2018 that
now serves as one of the most striking examples of the high-quality work
his team is primed to produce: shading Royal Caribbean's entire private
island, Perfect Day® at CocoCay®.
With a soft open scheduled for April 2019, Dickerson spent eight months
discussing design modifications, fabric recommendations and installation
processes with the client. And right on time, he and his team manufactured
and delivered approximately 250 poles and components ranging from 10 to
20 feet tall, with more than 150 individual shade sails ranging from 400 to
4,500 square feet of a custom-blue HDPE fabric.
" This unique setup is right in our wheelhouse, and my staff did an
amazing job with organization and logistics, " Dickerson says. " It was also
a perfect example of how addressing shade sails late in the game can lead
to a need for changes or adjustments after the fact. " Because not all of
Dickerson's design recommendations were approved, he's already been
asked to amend and redesign several areas and replace several sails.
Still, he says, " I continue to be blown away by the incredible opportunity;
it turned out awesome. "

Consistency is not as easily found
outside of the business. " My biggest
frustration with this market is it's hard
to predict; the commercial industry,
especially, is a moving target, "
Dickerson says. " Because the life cycle
of our product can vary, when we
complete a project for a resort or an
institution, we can't depend on them
for anything except an occasional
replacement. We have to do really
good work for really good people
and hope referrals will support our
ongoing relationship-building and
marketing efforts. "
Residential projects, which comprise
roughly 15 percent of Tenshon's sales,
are slightly more predictable and
typically grow year over year. Sales
received an extra boost in 2020 as
home improvement projects increased
because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To preserve time and resources for
large, custom projects while continuing
to meet residential demand, Dickerson
recently expanded the company's

20 SPECIALTY FABRICS REVIEW / January 2021

0121RV_p18-21_Perspective.indd 20

12/17/20 10:06 PM
Specialty Fabrics Review January 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Specialty Fabrics Review January 2021
