SHEET 03 · COMPANY · ABOUT

A contract sewing shop in Melbourne, Florida, since 1971

Christian Workshop builds custom soft cases, pouches, covers, straps, and foam inserts for aerospace, defense, medical, and technology customers. Tim Kennedy opened the shop in 1971 with a backpack of leather tools and forty dollars. It runs 6,000 square feet and more than twenty industrial sewing machines now, and it is still family run.

  • FOUNDED 1971
  • CAGE 0FDR6
  • ITAR REGISTERED
  • SAM REGISTERED
  • NAICS 314910 / 316990
  • VETERAN AND WOMAN OWNED
  • MADE IN USA

ORIGIN · 1971

How it started

In the summer of 1971, Tim Kennedy rented a room in old downtown Melbourne, moved into the space behind it, and hung out a sign. He had forty dollars and a backpack of leather tools. Nobody taught him the trade. He read what he could find, took apart work he admired, and asked questions of the few craftsmen willing to answer them.

Those first tools are still in the building. Some of them still get used.

The original Christian Workshop storefront in downtown Melbourne, Florida, 1972.
The Christian Workshop, 1972.

THE NAME

Why it is called Christian Workshop

Eximus Et
Gratis Dei

In gratitude to God

The name is not decoration. Tim named the shop for what he believed he was doing with it, and the motto has read the same way ever since: Eximus Et Gratis Dei, in gratitude to God. Customers do not have to share any of that to get good work out of us. It does explain why the shop has never been renamed to something that would look tidier on a capabilities statement.

TL-01 – TL-04 · THE SHOP OVER TIME

The shop over time

  1. Tim Kennedy opens a leather shop in old downtown Melbourne.

  2. [YEAR TBD]

    The family joins the business.

  3. [YEAR TBD]

    Christian Workshop becomes an LLC, veteran and woman owned.

  4. [YEAR TBD]

    The shop moves to West Drive and expands to 6,000 square feet.

THE BENCH

The people who run the machines

Average tenure here is over sixteen years. That matters to a buyer for a plain reason. The operator who sewed your first article is usually the one who sews the reorder three years later, so the second run looks like the first one.

Tim still runs the shop and still answers quote requests himself.

AVG. TENURE — 16+ YRS
MACHINES — 20+
FLOOR — 6,000 SQ FT

A Christian Workshop sewing operator at an industrial machine in the Melbourne, Florida shop.

405 WEST DR. · CAPABILITY

Inside the shop

Six thousand square feet on West Drive. More than twenty industrial sewing machines with operators who know them. Commercial laser cutting, a clicker die cutter, strap makers, embossing, heat transfer, and vinyl cutting equipment.

The machines are set up for material as light as parachute cloth and as heavy as saddle leather. That is why one building can turn out a padded medical instrument case and a Berry-compliant cargo cover in the same week.

CUSTOMERS

Who we build for

Aerospace and defense primes, medical device makers, communications hardware companies, and police departments. Also small OEMs, and the occasional walk-in who wants one holster made right.


ENGAGEMENT

Working with us

Minimum order quantities are low, so a prototype run does not have to be a commitment to ten thousand units. Larger programs can ship in one release or in staged releases across a year. Send drawings, a spec, or a physical sample and Tim will tell you what it takes to build it — request a quote and it lands on his desk.

405 WEST DR., MELBOURNE, FL 32904 · (321) 676-2396 · TIM@CASEWORK.US
EXIMUS ET GRATIS DEI