{"id":72136,"date":"2025-02-12T15:42:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T20:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/?p=72136"},"modified":"2025-02-12T16:47:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T21:47:06","slug":"textile-technology-launches-nc-state-alumnus-career-with-under-armour-carhartt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/textile-technology-launches-nc-state-alumnus-career-with-under-armour-carhartt\/","title":{"rendered":"Textile Technology Launches NC State Alumnus\u2019 Career with Under Armour, Carhartt\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

With over $1 billion in revenue<\/a> and a quickly expanding customer base<\/a>, Carhartt is one of the industry’s most talked about American-based clothing brands. Every time James Carr sees one of these Carhartt customers out in the world, he says he feels proud to have played a role in what they\u2019re wearing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is one of the biggest things that fuels me every day: being able to work on something \u2013 even if it’s two years out \u2014 and then see it in the store or see someone wearing it in the airport,\u201d he says. \u201cThat’s just the coolest connection for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a manager on the company\u2019s technical raw material development team, Carr is in charge of making the vision of in-house designers and merchandising partners come to life. He describes his line of work as a sort of translator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s very much getting into the construction, the yarn technologies, exactly what type of yarns you want to put in the fabric and why, and understanding the performance characteristics that are going to come with it,\u201d the Wilson College of Textiles<\/a> alumnus says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says he leans on his textile technology degree<\/a> to get this work done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pivoting to a hands-on, applied STEM degree <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Carr first arrived on NC State\u2019s Centennial Campus as a mechanical engineering student. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was one of those that did an extra lap-and-a-half in college,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he reached his junior year, Carr began looking for a degree where he could more readily make real-world connections with what he was learning in class. Next, he tried textile engineering. While this was a step in the right direction, he found that the emphasis on coding and Lean Six Sigma still didn\u2019t quite fit his personality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m very much not a documented process, everything by the book kind of person,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he ended up taking a spinning and fiber science course as a part of his textile engineering curriculum, Carr says he finally found his perfect fit. <\/p>\n\n\n