David Peed knows his way around a sewing machine — but it wasn't always that way. Before founding CustomCanvas in Surf City, NC, David spent years as a licensed contractor and firefighter. He learned to sew entirely by necessity: he needed to protect lumber on a coastal job site and bought a machine off Amazon to make a vinyl windbreak. He found he loved it.

"I've always worked with my hands, and so I was still constructing and building things, just on a different scale," he says. That instinct grew into a full business — custom boat covers, Bimini tops, T-tops, marine upholstery, and vinyl enclosures. To sharpen his craft, David trained at Boat Canvas University in Maryland, the only marine canvas training program in the country.

Today, David is also known locally as The Bag Man — selling handmade beach bags, fishing bags, and coolers throughout Surf City and Sneads Ferry. But his real passion is passing on what he's learned. "God has gifted me with a talent to be able to do things with my hands," he says. "If I can envision it and see it, I can build it."

At Mid Atlantic School of Marine Upholstery, David teaches students the same real-world skills he built his business on — from cutting and sewing marine vinyl to pricing jobs and finding customers. His students leave ready to work, not just trained on theory.