About Hoffman California Fabrics & the annual Hoffman Challenge
In 1924, Rube Hoffman, a New York textile jobber, founded Hoffman California Fabrics, selling wool flannels to California department stores and clothing manufacturers. Soon, he was buying greige goods (undyed fabric) to imprint his own designs. Transitioning from a jobber to a converter, Rube played an important role in the growth of California's textile industry.
His sons, Philip and Walter, both championship surfers, joined the company in the 1950s and combined their passion for traveling to their favorite surfing spots with discovering unusual printing processes and different types of fabrics. Soon, Hoffman Fabrics abounded with their original designs of surfing scenes, beach life, and underwater settings.
The 1970s found the Hoffman Fabrics enjoying great success in the apparel industry. Then, the Whitney Museum held a groundbreaking quilt exhibition that elevated quilt making to an art form. Around the same time, the American Bicentennial and the TV program "Roots" piqued the country's interest in its history. Everyone began searching for their own roots. Anything homemade and connected to our individual past was greatly sought after, and quilts headed our lists because of its storytelling tradition. The quilt world exploded, and Hoffman Fabrics answered demand by making quilting fabrics.
Today, three generations of Hoffmans are actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. More than eighty employees are involved with filling orders and shipping fabric to retail fabric stores, craft shops, quilt stores, apparel makers, wholesale distributors, and manufacturers throughout the world. Our Design Department creates more than 800 designs of colorful screenprints and luscious Bali batiks each year. Our fabrics are sold by independent sales reps that call on customers throughout the U.S.
Known internationally as Hoffman California-International Fabrics, the firm enjoys a special place in the global fabric industry for its superior fabric and innovative design. We have wholesale distributors in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Japan who sell Hoffman fabric to apparel makers, manufacturers, fabric and craft stores and quilt shops around the globe.
This year, Hoffman Fabrics celebrates its 86th anniversary and continues in its leadership position as the finest producer of screenprints and Bali batiks. Whether you're buying fabric to produce a product for resale or purchasing stock for your fabric store, count on Hoffman Fabrics to deliver the finest fabrics and the best customer service.
The Hoffman Challenge
Each year, Hoffman selects one print to be the featured fabric in the "Hoffman Challenge", an international contest that challenges entrants to incorporate the chosen fabric into an original quilt, garment, or doll. When the contest began in 1987, there were only ninety-five entries in two categories. However, Hoffman has received so many submissions each year that today the contest includes four categories. Last year, more than 800 people entered what is now one of the most prestigious quilt challenges in the country.
Once the judges have selected the winners and Hoffman Fabrics has awarded the prizes, the top 150 quilts, thirty garments, and thirty dolls are divided into five traveling exhibits. Then, they spend the next year traveling throughout the country, being displayed at quilt shops, national exhibits, and quilt shows. Being included in one of the Hoffman Challenge traveling exhibits is a singular honor.
Julie Breidt is the Challenge curator. You can reach Julie by emailing her at julie@hoffmanchallenge.com, by phoning her at (970) 690-6715 or mailing correspondence to her at 1281 E. Magnolia, Unit D, PMB #130, Fort Collins, CO 80524.
