Common Thread is a cooperative of Canadian organizations that have sewing programs and enterprises. The cooperative provides brokering and production coordination for our members and other producers.  

Our members operate social enterprises: businesses that have a primary social purpose, such as creating employment for a specific group such as newcomers to Canada or Aboriginal communities. Like most social enterprises, they were started and continue to be hosted by non–profit organizations. One of our members is incorporated as a  worker cooperative.

The idea for the cooperative first came up in 2006 as a way to establish a more reliable stream of work for sewing social enterprises.

Common Thread works with promotional companies to design products for their corporate and non-profit customers. We also work directly with customers who purchase products in bulk from us.

Once a contract is in place we coordinate production among our network of sewers. Our Production Coordinator is a designer and pattern-maker with more than twenty years experience in the industry.  

We also partner with private companies in co-production, which means they may sub-contract to our network or assist us to complete a product when needed.

We are incorporated as a cooperative under the BC Cooperative Association Act