Kate's Blog: What's in a Name?

March 11, 2025

Written by Kate Mitchell

“What is NOMAR?”

Simple question, not so simple answer. People who visit our retail store only see the beautiful, well-made bags and clothing that we produce, so the name seems a little strange.

Let me tell you the story.

I grew up under my mom’s sewing table. She was the first woman in Washington state to get her Journeyman’s Card in the Upholstery Union. I learned a lot by just watching her and I grew up sewing my own clothes and gear. By the ‘70s, I was married with two children of my own; we were a Coast Guard family living in Ketchikan. One day, I went to buy supplies to make something for our boat and the shop owner said, “Do you do boat canvas?”

“I do.” Not too big a fib. After all, I was making something for our boat.

His wife had hurt her back and he didn’t want her taking on any more heavy sewing projects. He offered to sell me that part of their business and refer customers to me. A business that could be run from the front room of our house on Park Street. I could raise my kids while helping our family’s bottom line.

So, in Ketchikan where there were 8,000 boats and it rains over 200 inches per year, Mitchell’s Boat Tops was born. Boat canvas was all I did. This is where I learned that type of industrial-style sewing, by making boat tops.

After almost three years, the Coast Guard moved us to Homer. Homer was a very small community- less than 100 boats in the harbor and none of them had any canvas. I knew I would have to offer a much wider range of sewing skills but I was determined to get a business started. I told someone I did boat tops and they thought I worked with fiberglass! It was going to take time to build a business.

Enter our first shop: the converted school bus. Small, cheap and parked on the road between the harbor and boatyard. Mitchell’s Boat Tops and Upholstery was open for business. The homesteaders and fishermen didn’t care about my humble shop but I had an industrial sewing machine and knew how to use it. It wasn’t too long before we upgraded to a dirt-floor Quonset hut with an outhouse in back. Now I had the space to bring boats inside and tackle bigger tasks.

And now, as they say, the rest of the story…

Two Alaskan fishermen came into the Quonset hut. They had a problem and I had a sewing machine.

They explained: "We pick a large volume of salmon from our gillnet into the boat. We need to quickly move that catch to the processor. Right now, we’re using a large net bag but each salmon that touches the strands of the knotless web gets damaged and we’re getting paid much less for that fish. Kate, we need a smooth-sided bag that drains quickly, doesn’t mark the fish, but can be picked as quickly as this existing net bag."

Our little company created a solution to their problem; one that helped them and the other 5,000 boats that gillnet for salmon in Alaska. This bag needed a name- a trademark and title that reflected what the business had become. We called it a Brailer Bag. In fish terms, to brail means to move fish quickly. If the old-style seine web bags marked the fish, ours would be called a NOMAR: No-Marka-Da Fish. It didn’t take too many years before we became known for our NOMAR Brailer Bags. And that name stuck!