Welcome to Beer & Gear, a series where we get to know individuals making big moves in Portland’s Athletic and Outdoor industries. In this edition, author Ellee Thalheimer talks with Tim Sheils, President and CEO of Pine Crest Fabrics, at Gorges Beer Co.
Tim Sheils and I kicked back over pints at Gorges Beer “The Trailhead” (2724 SE Ankeny Street), a brewery which has generously supported Trailkeepers of Oregon and People of Color Outdoors. As he recalled his storied history with Pine Crest Fabrics, Sheils, 44, recounted shooting rubber bands with warehouse workers when he was six or seven years old.
Sheils’s father John founded Pine Crest Fabrics (PCF) in Northeast Portland in 1978, so he grew up around the business. As a teenager, he cut bolts and shelved shipments, and then ran the warehouse right out of college. Sheils became president and CEO after his dad retired in 2023 at age 76.
“This industry is something I know really well, and when you know something to that level, you get more into it and can really geek out,” says Sheils. “And one of the best parts of working here is our team.”
Tim’s father John at the office in the early 2000s.
Left: A PCF company picnic in the mid-80s, right: a 1998 PCF tradeshow.
Back in the early days, Pine Crest bought and sold mill ends, odd lots, and seconds, sourcing surplus stretch fabrics from sportswear and apparel manufacturers and reselling to smaller companies, often startups and niche brands that needed quality materials but didn’t yet have the scale to buy direct from mills.
Today, Pine Crest is a global wholesale supplier for high-quality, eco-friendly, and comfort-oriented technical fabric used in activewear, including swim, dance, gymnastics, skiing, and yoga apparel. They work with brands like Beyond Yoga, Lilly Pulitzer, Blackstrap, and Bandit Running. With a heavy emphasis on sustainability, they collaborate with over 20 leading knitting mills around the world, delivering more than 20,000 custom prints and 1,000 custom production fabrics.
Right here in Oregon, Pine Crest supplies more than 85 companies—66 in the Portland area—with the majority being smaller or emerging operations. While not all of these companies manufacture locally, Portland often serves as their creative, sales, or design hub, like Destira gymnastics apparel, for example.
“In just the last five years, the industry has changed drastically,” says Sheils, who has pivoted Pine Crest in sync with manufacturing trends that increasingly are going overseas. “We went from shipping 60-70% of our products domestically to the inverse, shipping 60-70% to international manufacturers.”
Members of today’s PFC team include Penny the office dog (left).
Many small domestic manufacturers have shuttered because Amazon, Temu, and other big brands which use loopholes to avoid taxes, thus outcompeting domestic industry and forcing manufacturing overseas. Additionally, tariffs have strained domestic manufacturing by increasing prices. As a result, Pine Crest now offers a much more customized service as liaison with international manufacturers in Vietnam, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and a few US working mills, with each location specializing in different fabric technologies.
Fibers such as polyesters, nylons, cotton, and modals are blended with spandex and knitted in various ratios to create custom characteristics. Pine Crest helps customers to choose the optimal fabrics for their product vision, honing everything from texture and technical properties to pattern choices.
Though Pine Crest has been successful, Sheils continues to dream big. “We set a 10-year Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) in 2024. We aim to more than double our current annual revenue and grow our team to more than 20 employees, building a stronger international presence in markets such as Australia, South America, and Europe. Two years since the BHAG, we’re on track. At the same time, we’d love to see more garment manufacturing return to the United States, particularly in Portland and the surrounding region. While current tariff policies challenge that vision, it remains an important long-term goal.”
Ellee Thalheimer is a Portland-based freelance writer and guidebook author. When she can’t get to the trails, she’s writing fiction, relishing local IPAs, falling off bouldering walls, and obsessively scheming the next adventure. Find her on Instagram: @pnw_hedonism.
