'We clean generations of clothes'

Sutherland family has been in cleaning business for 62 years

There's an old wire hanger in the back of Sutherland Dry Cleaners.

Emblazoned across its original paper covering - only slightly rumpled and showing little more than a dog-eared corner after possibly 40-some years - is "1 Hour Service. Sutherland's Drive-In Clothes Clinic. 130 Second St. East. SK 6-6041. Kalispell, Montana."

The SK stands for Skyline, a Kalispell phone prefix at the time.

"We were the first drive-in in Kalispell," owner Steve Sutherland said, "even before the banks or the fast-food places."

Well into the next century, the drive-in window's still there.

So are the generations of customers - and the generations of clothes they have been bringing in for laundering, altering and dry cleaning since Bill and Florence Sutherland set up their shop 62 years ago.

When Bill handed over the business to his son Steve in the 1980s, he passed along more than a business. He passed along a subtle set of skills, an eye for detail and pride in workmanship and relationship.

"You're taking care of a privately owned garment. We're still under that old ethic of, 'You treat people like you want to be treated,'" Steve Sutherland said of the tradition established by his dad.

Bill Sutherland died 10 years ago, but Florence Sutherland still is active in Kalispell events.

Treating people like you want to be treated, according to Steve and his wife, Brith, means realizing the folks who walk in their door are more than just cash flow, and the items they bring in are more than just cloth and leather.

"We like to know their names, who they are, what they do," Steve said.

"We try to make friends, not just customers," Brith added. "People do identify with their clothing … they want to be comfortable with what they're wearing.

"We're kind of an image maker," she admitted.

But the Sutherlands stop short of judging whether they help make a better image than the cleaners up the street.

"We do strive to do a better job," Steve said, "but the customers are the only ones who can tell you if you do."

Bill Sutherland got it all started in 1938 when he went into business as a tailor. Eventually, he got a set of five-gallon buckets and cleaning solvents and started in the dry-cleaning business.

His business venture was interrupted when he was called to World War II. He served as a flight engineer and co-pilot for B-17s and B-25s, a general's private mechanic, and a bomber pilot in the Burma Hump.

When Bill came back home in 1945 he bought out another laundry and dry cleaner and set up shop in what was later the Wells Fargo bank building (now being renovated into a new Kalispell City Hall) on First Avenue East. Years later, he dropped the laundry but continued tailoring and alterations. As business grew, he hired a couple employees to help in the sewing.

His son took an interest in the business early on.

"I've been sewing since I was 12," Steve said, grinning at the memory that one of the carts in the back of the shop was his crib.

"I'd work with my dad," he said. "We worked together for a long time, on and off from the '70s until the mid-'90s." After his father's retirement, Steve turned the tables and hired back the best tailor in the valley for the next decade.

Eventually, Steve's hands had had enough - and the complexity of designer clothing became too much - so he stopped doing major alterations personally a couple years ago. He continues doing minor mending and still offers full alterations through the shop.

At one point, Steve considered an engineering career or perhaps going into art.

Perhaps it was that artist's eye that set the bar higher on presentation when it comes to sending clothing back to the customer. After 26 years of marriage, Brith has that same eye for detail, he said.

Steve said he goes through every garment when it comes into the shop, checking for stains, missing buttons, tears, problems from other cleaners, then handling each issue as needed. With computerized settings on the shop's newest equipment, he himself does a couple specialty runs on clothing that's touchy because of, say, beading, specialty fabric or construction methods.

Seams are pressed precisely and in the proper direction, cuffs and collars are crisp, and mending is done when the customer picks up the clothing.

After starting their ownership with 16-hour work days, Brith now takes care of all the books and accounting from home and rarely is in the shop. Steve is giving himself a lot more time off, too.

But the work ethic is the same with employees as with owners. Manager Kathy Blades has worked with the Sutherlands for 15 years, Julia Calhoun for 10 years, Nadine Gladeau for five years and Sandy Urrea for six months. All four are "multiversatile," Brith said, as they trade off among all jobs.

Complaints are rare. But an active approach prompts them to call the customer themselves if something goes wrong in the cleaning process, whether with a $25,000 suit or a business shirt.

"They're a lot more open and honest with us that way," Steve said. "They trust us."

"We were blessed to have Bill show us the ropes," Brith said.

They're applying Bill's foundational ethics to a changing industry as they keep pace with the times.

Industry changes really rolled in about 20 years ago, Steve said. Solvents his father used in his early years are worlds apart from the treatments that have evolved today. Steve and Brith installed an ultra-efficient pulse boiler and use a 99 percent emission-free cleaner in their efforts to leave the smallest carbon footprint they can.

But the human element never changed.

"The hardest thing we do?" Steve answered his own question without hesitation. "Watch our customers pass away."

As a Kalispell and Whitefish native, Steve and Brith have grown up with many of them. New customers have become friends, friends who are recognized in their absence almost as much as by their presence.

"You get to know people's clothes," Brith said. "You don't need a tag." In fact, one gentleman's clothing became so familiar that Steve was surprised to see the same suits and shirts coming through after their owner's passing. It turned out that his grandson was making good use of the clothing.

It's hard to think of it as just a business, they admitted. They make generations of friends from local families, but that's not all.

"We clean generations of clothes," Steve said.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com