Like everything else COVID-19 hit, the pandemic delivered a blow to workplace leadership development. At the same time, the pressure on leaders to deliver outstanding results hasn’t abated, often leaving millennials who are stepping into more senior roles—and Gen Zers who will begin doing so—struggling to develop their “managerial instincts.”

A wall displaying nearly 30 years of industry awards marks the entrance to Mike’s Marine Custom Canvas in Virginia Beach, Va.—a testament to the shop’s history of quality and craftsmanship.

Zippers can feel like a wild beast that can never be tamed,” says Mike Boatman, owner of Boatman Marine Canvas in Oklahoma City, Okla. “When you start working with zippers for the first time, you find out really quick that it’s not as simple as sewing the zipper onto a piece of material.”

Some canvas fabricators get excited when a customer asks for seat covers, helm covers and bolster covers, while others begin to get anxious.

I have been sewing for the better part of 52 years. My dad started a custom canvas company in 1963, when I was a teenager, and I eventually went to work with him. That is where I really started learning about sewing machines.

There are so many marine canvas-related products, like the weatherproof frown, which have almost faded into the past. This is primarily due to mass producers taking shortcuts by creating cheap imitations of the original.