[gentle orchestral fanfare]

♪

[resonant strings lead
building orchestration]

(male narrator)
Welcome to Our State ,

a production of UNC-TV

in association
with Our State magazine--

for over 80 years,

bringing readers
the wonders of North Carolina.

On this edition,
the story of a T-shirt

made with local cotton
and Carolina pride...

and artist Duane Raver,

who's been capturing
wildlife on canvas

for over half a century.

[guitars lead easy rock tune]

♪

[gentle piano melody]

(male announcer)
Since 1872,

BB&T has been supporting

the people and communities
of North Carolina.

From our small-town roots

to the banking network
you see today,

we've always been here
for all our clients,

stretching from Manteo...

to Murphy.

We're proud of our heritage

as the oldest bank
in North Carolina,

and we're very proud
to provide funding

for Our State .

♪

Quality public television
is made possible

through the financial
contributions

of viewers like you,

who invite you to join them
in supporting UNC-TV.

[echoing
electric guitar melody]

♪

♪

(narrator)
Not too long ago,

the seed
beneath a person's feet

became, in time,
the shirt on their back.

The clothes drying on the line

hailed their creator
in the field

only a few feet away.

The process began
and ended at home.

A screen printer
and entrepreneurial survivor

hopes others
will follow his lead

and make their way back home.

(man)
We built
a high-volume contract

screen-printing business
working for the brands,

companies like Nike,
Tommy, Gap, Polo.

And then, in the mid-'90s,

this thing called NAFTA
came along.

(narrator)
Fostered with good intentions,

the North American
Free Trade Agreement

was organized
to encourage trade

with other countries.

However,
many believe globalization

has had the opposite impact

on American
manufacturing jobs.

(man)
Totally destroyed
our business,

textiles in this community,
textiles in this country.

Within two years, we went
from a hundred-plus employees

to 14 employees.

Somewhere in the high 90%
of our apparel

now is made overseas,

and NAFTA was the start
of opening that floodgate

and chasing cheap labor.

A typical T-shirt today

came anywhere
from 13,000 to 15,000 miles

before it comes back
to your local store.

But now you're startin'
to hear this thing

called "reshoring,"
coming back to the states.

We formed the brand called
Cotton of the Carolinas,

changed the mission
of TS Designs

to create the highest quality,

most sustainable
printed apparel,

and then we started
going out to the people

that make the product,
all in the Carolinas.

We want to control
that supply chain.

The only way to control it is,

we gotta go all the way back
to the beginning,

meet that farmer,
and buy that farmer's cotton.

(narrator)
Cotton loves Carolina soil
and weather

and has been a cash crop
since the mid-1800s,

but by the 1920s,

a cotton-devouring beetle
called the boll weevil

migrated from Central America

and decimated
the cotton industry.

By the '90s, however,
cotton was on its way back.

The boll weevil
had been eradicated,

and the popularity
of the versatile crop

was in high demand.

Third-generation farmer
Ronnie Burleson

saw the need
and helped to bring cotton

back to the western Piedmont.

(Ronnie)
The way we determine
if cotton's ready to pick

is if that seed'll pop.

tick

Did you hear that pop?

Well, this is dry cotton.

[echoing
electric guitar melody]

It has to be dry
for it to pick.

Weather is not always
conducive to harvest,

so when you do have
good weather,

you work long hours
on those days

and try to get
as much done as you can.

(narrator)
From October through December,

Ronnie, his son, and brother
move from field to field

by instinct and with a cadence

that comes from years
working the land.

Forecasts of rain
increase the sense of urgency.

The longer
the cotton sits in the field,

the greater the chance

weather can degrade
the quality of the crop.

(Ronnie)
If you need to be here

taking care of your crops,

you need to be here
taking care of your crops.

You can go on vacation later.

(narrator)
In 2015, North Carolina

was the fifth-largest
cotton producer in the U.S.,

and more than half our crop

is exported to be dyed,
cut, sewn,

and sometimes
even printed elsewhere.

♪

Before
Cotton of the Carolinas,

Burleson had never seen

a product
made from his cotton.

(Eric)
Ronnie is now excited
because he knows

that the T-shirt
I'm wearing today,

he grew the cotton.

And what globalization did,
it totally destroyed all that

because what happened is,
the marketplace was buying

either cotton or service
along the supply chain

based upon price or quality,
so we totally fragmented.

You're rebuilding
and reconnecting

those relationships
that we lost in globalization.

(narrator)
One crucial relationship

is between the cotton farmer
and ginner.

Autumn roadsides
sprinkled with cotton

guide the way
from Ronnie's farm

to the Rolling Hills Gin
in New London.

Wes Morgan built his gin
in the early '90s

to meet the growing demand
from Piedmont cotton farmers.

♪

The seeds have to be removed
from the cotton fiber.

A process folks used to do
so laboriously by hand

is now done by a machine

that revolutionized
the cotton industry.

(man)
In the 1700s,

a guy by the name
of Eli Whitney

came up with saw blades
in between some ribs

and came up with
the modern-day cotton gin.

You know, the process
hasn't really changed a lot,

but what that allowed is,

where a person could do
a few pounds per day,

now this machine can do
hundreds of pounds per day,

and now we actually do
thousands of pounds per hour.

[contemplative score]

When we bring the cotton
in from the field,

we weigh each load
as it comes in.

This module here
is about 20,000 pounds.

There's probably
about 15 finished bales

of cotton in here.

When we start processin', uh,
we take those covers off.

In the first part
of the process,

the cotton
is cleaned and dried.

In the middle
of the building,

we actually have
the gin itself...

♪

'fore we actually remove
the seed and the fiber.

♪

The seeds get blown over
to another building,

sent off for cattle feed
or possibly cottonseed oil.

And then the lint goes on
to some lint cleaners,

and then we take it over
to our bale press,

which we package
in 500-pound bales.

Then we'll process
12, 13 hours a day,

six days a week

from usually
the beginning of October

through around Christmas.

We would love
for all of our cotton

to stay in North Carolina
and become a totally

made-in-the-Carolinas-type
product.

That's not gonna happen,

but if we can at least
get it started.

You have a lotta people
that say,

"Sure, I'd love to buy a shirt
made in North Carolina,"

and so this
is trying to fill that.

And then,
whenever Mark's ready

at Hill Spinning,
we'll ship the cotton to him

so he can make the yarn

and take it on
to the next process.

(narrator)
All of this
used to be commonplace

back in the days
when cotton provided

thousands of jobs
and millions of dollars

for local economies.

(man)
Growin' up in North Carolina,

I remember every town, just
about, had a textile plant.

Tremendous amount of 'em
were cotton mills.

They'd go on and on and on

all across the state
of North Carolina.

There's very few of us left
that do this type of business.

(narrator)
Yet there are hopeful signs
of resurgence and perseverance

here and there...
in places like Thomasville.

[train horn blowing
and crossing bell ringing]

(man)
We actually started
back in the '40s

when our grandfather
started making hosiery.

Attached to the hosiery mill,
he built Hill Spinning Mill.

Just over
the last 10 to 12 years,

we have closed
our hosiery mill

mainly due to imports,

and now the only thing left
is the cotton mill.

The bigger guys,
they go for the big volume.

Well, we cannot compete
with that.

Because we are so small,

we are able to do
a lot of the small orders,

just like the example

of the Cotton
of the Carolinas program.

[contemplative score]

And we bring that cotton in,
and we do the opening.

We do the cleaning;
we do the blending.

Just like makin' a cake,

you wanna make sure
it's well mixed.

We bring it through our cards
nice and slow.

(narrator)
The result is
a soft, untwisted bundle

called a sliver.

(man)
Then we take it
through a drawing process

which parallels the fibers
and blends the fibers.

(narrator)
With each hypnotic phase,

the delicate fibers
are joined,

twisted, and drafted down

into a stronger
and smoother product.

The roving frame
drafts the fibers

from a thick sliver

down to a much smaller size

and adds
a small amount of twist

to help pull it off
the roving bobbin

in the next process.

Ring spinning takes
the roving from a bobbin,

drafts it down
to the desired size,

puts the desired amount
of twist into the yarn,

and then winds it
on a spinning bobbin.

(man)
We still have some equipment

that is original
from our start-up.

We have some equipment
that we modernized.

Over the years,
we have stayed in business

by purchasing used equipment
from other mills

that have gone
out of business,

used the parts off of it
to keep our cost down,

and that's part of the reason
why we're still here.

We feel an obligation
to our family name,

to our employees,
and even to our community

to keep these positions
and these jobs running.

(Eric)
If you're creating jobs
in your community

and that money is spent
back in your community,

then it just multiplies.

Typically, they say,
a dollar spent locally

will bounce seven times

compared to a dollar
at a big-box store.

Then most of that money
is going

out of not only the state
but out of the country

because they are products
that aren't produced here.

(narrator)
Hemingway, South Carolina,

not unlike other
old Carolina mill towns

with their diminished
populations

and shuttered storefronts...

[echoing
electronic guitar melody]

but there is hope here too,

thanks to Piedmont cotton
and Hemingway Apparel.

(man)
Every employee you got

is probably creatin' a job
for somebody else.

So it's not just that you've
got 50, 55 employees.

Those employees create jobs
for other people.

(narrator)
Since 1978, Jack Marsh
has overseen the process

of cutting and sewing
knitted fabric into apparel

by the skilled hands
of people like these.

But the lure of lower costs

once nearly tempted Jack
to take his business offshore.

(Jack)
I went, and I looked
at different countries--

spent weeks.

A lot of it
was in South America.

But I came back home,
and I told my wife; I said,

"If it's gonna sell
in this country,

then I'ma make it
in this country."

If you stop and think,

you buy a garment
that's made in China,

Pakistan, or India
or wherever.

How do you know
what was in that product?

[upbeat soft rock tune]

♪

(Eric)
This is where we print

the Cotton of the Carolinas
T-shirts.

♪

But what makes it
uniquely different

when you come to TS Designs,

you're just gonna see
a lotta white T-shirts.

We print white T-shirts.

The way
most T-shirts are done,

where they knit the fabric,
dye the fabric,

cut and sew the T-shirt,

and then print
with this plastic resin,

what you're feeling there
is plastisol ink,

and not only
does it crack and peel

when it's hot
in the summertime,

it contains PVC,
polyvinyl chloride,

and phthalates,

things we don't need
in the environment.

We developed a process
called "rehance."

We take a white T-shirt.

We put a print on that.

You end up with a print in
the fabric, not on the fabric,

doesn't crack,
doesn't peel.

♪

We go about five miles
down the road

to another facility

which used to manufacture
and dye socks.

♪

And it's about
a four- to six-hour process

of takin' that white T-shirt

and creating
a red T-shirt

or a black T-shirt,
blue T-shirt.

(narrator)
The process uses water-based,
nontoxic inks and dyes

that are
environmentally friendly.

(Eric)
People that are buying

the Cotton
of the Carolina shirts

are coming to us--
they want it for an event.

They want it for a business,

but there was nobody
out there generating

just North Carolina-themed
graphics.

And David
and his partner Derek

came to me and says,
you know,

"We would like to start
filling that niche."

Mindful Supply
is a great partner

to help
take what we're doing

from a manufacturing
perspective

and get it out there
to the retail consumer.

(narrator)
Both Mindful Supply founders

have backgrounds
in design and textiles,

so their shirts
are inspired,

full of Southern pride,
and in demand.

They've also
been witnesses to change

as production shifted
rapidly offshore.

(man)
What we like to call
disposable clothing

kinda came along.

You know, with that,
labor is cheap,

and clothing
was even cheaper.

Mix that with retailers,

and they're gonna
give consumers a cheap price,

but they're gonna give 'em
a cheap T-shirt.

But I think
now there's been a--

a huge resurgence
in well-made, quality goods,

and it's all about knowin'
where your goods are from

and how it lines up
with your values.

(narrator)
Mindful Supply
wants you to know

where your shirt came from.

Just check out
the code on the label.

(David)
And that code
is linked to a Web site,

and you can track your shirt

based on the color thread
that's in the hem.

From that, you can kinda see
exactly who made it for you.

[electric fiddle leads
energetic guitar strumming]

(Eric)
We give you a picture.

We give you a phone number.

We give you
a physical address,

and we give you an e-mail.

It's the only apparel--

the only T-shirt that has
that amount of transparency.

♪

Any major brand
you can think of

most likely will not be made
in this country.

So imagine you wanted
to go see that supply chain.

You might as well
go ahead and take weeks off,

buy lots of plane tickets,
and fly around the world.

With Cotton of the Carolinas,
it makes for a long day,

but you get in a car

and touch everybody
in the supply chain

in one day
in two states.

(Ronnie)
This Cotton
of the Carolinas project,

it's not but a small part
of our business,

but I'm proud
to be a part of it

because we're all dependent
on each other.

[mellow arrangement]

(Wes)
Just because you can make
a T-shirt in another country

and get it back here
and make it cheaper

doesn't necessarily
make it the best idea.

(man)
Textiles is alive
in North Carolina.

We do make a quality product
and tend to stand by it.

♪

(Jack)
I just firmly believe--

I was born American.

I need to buy American.

(David)
It's the same as food.

People want to know
what they're digesting, uh.

People now want to know
what they're wearing.

♪

(Eric)
At the end of the day,

we, the consumer,
drive this ship.

We're gonna open up
our wallet.

We're gonna open up our purse,
and we're gonna buy something.

Cool, thank you.

(Eric)
It could be a tank of gas.

It could be a cup of coffee;
it could be a pair of shoes.

Oh, this is
perfect.

And it starts
with being aware...

This was grown
in Nash County.

(Eric)
...by looking
at where's it made

and how is it made.

(woman)
Yeah, it's grown
in North Carolina.

North Carolina
cotton!

(Eric)
If we don't look
at that label,

then don't be surprised
where your product's made.

♪

[crickets buzzing]

[bright acoustic guitar tune]

♪

(narrator)
Fishing is a hopeful endeavor.

Think about it.

You enter
into nature's realm

with great expectation,

even if your fishing
is limited to a farm pond.

And there you make
sort of a bargain

with the Divine,

who will loan you His fish
for a while

just for the fun of it,

although one could
easily conclude

that the fish aren't having
nearly as much fun as you are,

especially if you get to fish
on a warm spring afternoon

with your grandson.

For Duane Raver,
fishing and fish

have been his way of life
and vocation

for a very long time.

He's been catching
and painting fish

for going on eight decades.

♪

If you've ever seen
magazine covers like these

over the years,

you've seen Duane Raver's art.

♪

It's little wonder
that a fish just like this

could find its way
first onto canvas

and then into print,

and wonder more that Duane
got into art at all

after hearing what
his high school art teacher

had to say back in Iowa.

"Mr. Raver,
I just don't believe

you've got a--
a future in artwork."

(narrator)
Clearly he did,

but it took awhile
for him to get the idea.

(Raver)
I was really surprised

that I had that ability.

I thought the kid
right next to me in the desk

could do exactly
the same thing I could do.

Well, obviously,
it was a gift that I was given

that most kids there
did not have.

I remember the one, uh,
that I got paid for.

The first--
my first assignment

was the Fin and Feather News ,

in Lufkin, Texas,
and I got five dollars.

I think that must have been
about 1946 or '7,

and I thought,
"Whoa! That's great."

So that was my introduction
to professional artwork.

(narrator)
By 1949,

Duane had finished school
with a degree

in fishery management
from Iowa State College

and was ready
to tackle real life.

Got a call one day
from North Carolina.

Friend of mine, uh--

we had sort of
a mutual agreement

that if he got a job
that I might be interested in,

uh, he'd let me know,
and vice versa.

Well, he was first to call.

"I'm leaving North Carolina;
come down and take my job."

The Wildlife Commission
was only, uh,

two or three years old
and kind of an infancy,

and certainly,
the fish division

needed a lot of, um,
organization.

(narrator)
The new Tar Heel
got right to work

taking stock of fish
in North Carolina's reservoirs

and as it turned out,
got to work

helping put together
the Commission's new magazine.

(man)
I think, for a long time,
Duane was the magazine.

I mean, Duane literally,

for some years,

did everything
there was to do

for the magazine.

Duane would paint the covers.

He would paint illustrations

for the inside
of the magazine.

He would, uh,
literally paste up the pages

uh, when--

when, you know,
pages had to be pasted up

and then shot,
and the negatives, uh, were--

were printed, um.

Duane did everything.

I mean, I think, really,
Duane made this magazine.

I think his paintings
made this magazine.

(Raver)
I strive for accuracy--hah!

What comes to mind
was a cover that I did

for the Wildlife magazine
of a turkey gobbler.

And, uh,
it got in print,

and about two weeks later,
I got a, uh--a communiqué

from a turkey hunter
in Florida.

"Mr. Raver,
that's a nice gobbler on there,

but it's the only I ever saw
that didn't have any spurs."

I had not put the spurs
on the gobbler,

so that was obviously
in print,

and I'll never live--
live it down,

and so I've made
some mistakes, um,

in my checkered past.

There's no question
about that.

(narrator)
After his retirement

from the Wildlife Commission
in 1979,

Raver launched himself
full time

into the freelance world.

♪

(Raver)
Fishes of the Southeast
United States--

we did 150 illustrations,

both fresh
and saltwater there.

Whoa, those have been used
and used and used,

which is great.

(narrator)
Despite his success,

Duane sometimes
seems to agree,

at least in part,

with his high school
art teacher

that he can paint this,
but he can't paint that,

and he doesn't consider
himself an artist.

(Raver)
I--I classify myself
as an illustrator

as opposed to an artist, um.

Now, you may say,

Well, I don't see
the differentiation.

Well, uh,
there is, uh,

certainly,
in my judgment, uh,

considerable difference there.

I cannot do abstracts.

I don't do portraits.

I had to learn
to do, um, waterfowl, um.

Demand--

"Hey, can you do
a goose painting

or a duck painting?"

"Well, yeah I can try,"

and that took a while to--
to develop that.

I was so into fish

that anything else
was a real challenge.

I simply had to learn--
and I'm still learning there,

so--whoa--after, whatever,
70-some years just to be sure.

Now, every day, I--
I learn something, I hope.

(narrator)
This ever-learning,
ever-fresh artist

has plenty of opportunity
to hone his technique

and paint even more
new subjects

because his daughter Diane
operates a taxidermy business

as part
of their Wake County studio.

Well, I do remember,
he would work--

paint at night

when he would come home
from work, so, um,

I would spend time there
in his--in his workroom,

and he may have had a--
a duck wing, um,

those kinds of things
that he was workin' on.

So that's a very early
memory for me.

(narrator)
And that's not
the only difference.

Having Diane so close by
has been a blessing...

both ways.

(Braswell)
It's great.

He works in this section,
and I work downstairs

in my section, um.

Even though we work, maybe,
together all day long,

we may not have a whole lot
of interaction some days,

and then other days,

he'll advise me
on bill color of ducks

or, uh, habitat material,
things like that

that he's, uh--
helps me with.

I've done a lot
of commercial deer heads

over the years,
but my, um--

my preference
was always with waterfowl.

There's so many
different species,

different poses--
flying, standing, uh--

a lot more interesting.

♪

(narrator)
Both father and daughter
consult the real thing

from time to time,

including a stash
of bird wings

Duane keeps
in a file cabinet.

When painting something
as elaborate

and finely detailed
as this mother wood duck

and her hatchlings,

he often refers
to actual specimens,

much like Audubon did
for his life studies.

♪

Now let's finish up
with a story

plus a keen observation.

This is an original
watercoloring

that Duane Raver did in 1946

when he was a student
at Iowa State College.

And this was found in a--

in a--a pile
of belongings, uh,

from one of his college mates
back in--in those days.

And, uh, the daughter

of the college friend
found this,

didn't know
who Duane Raver was,

googled the name,

and found out
that he was an artist and--

and an illustrator
famous in North Carolina,

contacted Duane, and--

and asked what to do
with this original artwork.

Duane said,

"Send it to the Wildlife
Resources Commission,

and they'll be proud
to display it,"

and this is one
of our proudest items

we're glad to have
from, uh, 1946.

Even today, uh,
when I go across the state,

or sometimes people
will call in

or send a letter in,

and they will talk about
seeing Duane's paintings

on the cover
when they were growin' up

or the fact that they have
Duane's paintings

in their house now,

and how much pleasure
they get from that,

and I--
I think a large part of that

goes back to them seein'
those paintings on a cover

when they were children,

and, you know,
Duane's paintings

evoke, I think, a nostalgia,
uh, for those people.

I--I mean,
I know they do for me.

It's hard to think
about wildlife

in North Carolina

and not think
about Duane Raver.

[harmonica concludes
guitar tune]

♪

[insects buzzing]

[echoing
electric guitar score]

♪

♪

[percussion joins]

♪

♪

Caption Editors
Will Halman & C.A. Satterfield

Caption Perfect, Inc.
CaptionPerfect.com

♪

(announcer)
To subscribe
to Our State magazine,

visit the Web site
ourstate.com or call...

[strings support
gentle piano melody]

From the time BB&T
opened its doors in 1872

in the town of Wilson,

we've supported
the people and communities

of North Carolina

from the Outer Banks
to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We've been in business
for 136 years,

making us the oldest bank
in North Carolina.

We're proud
of this distinction,

and we're also very proud

to provide funding
for Our State .

♪

Quality public television
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