American Made Work Clothing

[WickedKitchen]

All of my work shirts and most others are AKWA.

http://www.akwa.com/products.asp?idDEPT=99

These shirts are fantastic. I wear polos for work every day and you can wash them like 1000 times before they show wear. I find the sizes run a little bigger than the imported ones...or maybe I'm losing weight. Either way, they're great and they're not expensive.

[texastorm]

I agree but I can get really nice 100% cotton slacks made by George at WalMart for less than $25.00. It seems ridiculous to me that I cannot get an American made version of that same item for a bit more say $30.00-$40.00. I really don't mind paying a bit more but I also have my limits. I have the same issue when trying to buy shoes in a wide width that aren't made of leather and are suitable for work. It's either $20.00 for Payless plastic shoes or $150.00 for yuppie vegan shoes. There is no middle ground!!!(class)....

Don't you see? You either spend like a serf at Walmart or you pay for high ticket like a lord.. Middle of the road pricing dissapears, as the middle class is forced downward, or finds a way to buy up..

So what yer saying is you would be ok if American workers would work for double third world wages of .50 cents or so a day to sew your shirts and shoes. But you refuse to pay American wages for an American product. Yep your the average American... no doubt.

In my great grandparents day, nearly all clothing was domestic made, and if you do some research, quite expensive to boot. A lot of people resorted to the old fashioned method... make your own damn clothes.

Here is the reality in this link you can see a typical selection of womens skirts in the 1900 Sears and Roebuck, priced from just over a buck to about 3.50, given that the median income in 1900 was about 100 times less than it is today, you should expect to pay 100 times more for the same products today... correct? So a cheap skirt should be 135 dollars and a mid range one about 300... and while you can certainly buy skirts in this range, your more typical shopper goes to WalMart or Target and buys such and item for as little as 20 dollars.

So you should be ok with paying 100 dollars for a pair of jeans, and 75 dollars for a shirt, and your undershirt should probably be about 30 bucks too. Then when your clothes get holes in them you do this amazing thing... you patch them and wear them again. You should be able to get about 2 years life out of a pair of pants worn near daily!

This is what I think of when I see people bitch about how nothing is made in the US... we wont work for 17 cents an hour, but we want shirts priced that way, made by people who demand 15 to 20 dollars an hour and union benefits. You cannot have you cake and wear it to!

Yes there are companies that try desperately to make US merchandise, but they rarely last long, because they can't have any margin in the products they make. Then they don't sell at the volumes that the margins left require to sustain a healthy business. People say they want something and then go buy the cheap one anyway.

[Simplysnus]

I've been pondering this as well, however I don't mind paying for something that lasts a long time. I've been wearing Mountain Khakais recently for about $80 a pair, but they're worth the double price or more of other khakis to me. Not American made, however, so I've looked at Bill's and I'm considering the all american clothing company linked above. Very hard to find.

[Simplysnus]

What really bugs me though, because it impacts me personally, is that people don't care about buying american for things they can't tangibly see. Who does the work on your bank's systems? If it's a large bank, more than likely someone in India. Same with insurance and other financial sectors. Hell, we specially target importing people to outsource that kind of work with h1b visas.

[Simplysnus]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...4&pageNumber=1

Computerworld - Henry Ford, the automaker, was a genius. He was willing to pay his workers more than twice the going wage to ensure a loyal and stable workforce. Ford felt that a population with a solid and secure income made the best consumers. And he was right. He sold 15 million Model T automobiles, most to the emerging middle class.

Ford's recognition of the consumer as the country's economic engine was farsighted. The U.S. economy is consumer-driven, not export-driven like that of China or Japan. We need middle-class people with paychecks to keep the corporate lights on. For the U.S., the equation is simple: no consumers, no business. But that bulwark of consumerism is under intense pressure these days.

[Darwin]

I can not see a way to effectively rein in these tendencies without rampant unintended consequences. Protectionism is a "cure" that is virtually always worse than the disease.

[Curtisp]

So what yer saying is you would be ok if American workers would work for double third world wages of .50 cents or so a day to sew your shirts and shoes. But you refuse to pay American wages for an American product. Yep your the average American... no doubt.

In my great grandparents day, nearly all clothing was domestic made, and if you do some research, quite expensive to boot. A lot of people resorted to the old fashioned method... make your own damn clothes.

Here is the reality in this link you can see a typical selection of womens skirts in the 1900 Sears and Roebuck, priced from just over a buck to about 3.50, given that the median income in 1900 was about 100 times less than it is today, you should expect to pay 100 times more for the same products today... correct? So a cheap skirt should be 135 dollars and a mid range one about 300... and while you can certainly buy skirts in this range, your more typical shopper goes to WalMart or Target and buys such and item for as little as 20 dollars.

So you should be ok with paying 100 dollars for a pair of jeans, and 75 dollars for a shirt, and your undershirt should probably be about 30 bucks too. Then when your clothes get holes in them you do this amazing thing... you patch them and wear them again. You should be able to get about 2 years life out of a pair of pants worn near daily!

This is what I think of when I see people bitch about how nothing is made in the US... we wont work for 17 cents an hour, but we want shirts priced that way, made by people who demand 15 to 20 dollars an hour and union benefits. You cannot have you cake and wear it to!

Yes there are companies that try desperately to make US merchandise, but they rarely last long, because they can't have any margin in the products they make. Then they don't sell at the volumes that the margins left require to sustain a healthy business. People say they want something and then go buy the cheap one anyway.

Not what i am saying at all, i am saying the giants like walmart, target, home depot etc, have virtually eliminated the independent retailer. Unless you have more spendable income, as the upwardly mobile middle class "used" to have, you are left with no choice but to buy their shoddier merchandise. Now, there is very little mid range merchandise. You either pay cheap and get cheap, or you save up for more expensive, higher quality, if you can. And if you think merchandise made abroad is better, ok. But, the only reason it was sent there to be made, was to increase the bottom line of the company selling it. Not to help "you save money and live better".

[texastorm]

Not what i am saying at all, i am saying the giants like walmart, target, home depot etc, have virtually eliminated the independent retailer. Unless you have more spendable income, as the upwardly mobile middle class "used" to have, you are left with no choice but to buy their shoddier merchandise. Now, there is very little mid range merchandise. You either pay cheap and get cheap, or you save up for more expensive, higher quality, if you can. And if you think merchandise made abroad is better, ok. But, the only reason it was sent there to be made, was to increase the bottom line of the company selling it. Not to help "you save money and live better".

Actually the American public voted out the independent retailers. Dollars are votes. You could say we did this to ourselves in a manner of speaking.

In a rich nation of excess, we voted with our dollars to get more. We like cheap clothes, refuse to pay decent money for a meal, and want huge portions to boot.

You simply cannot lay blame to the businesses...not all of it. Its the businesses fault we buy cheap crap? I cant go for that. But if you are buying I am willing to sell you cheap crap all day... I have some cheap crap I want to buy I just saw at the Wally World.

[Bigblue1]

Oh Yeah forgot about these guys for Jeans http://www.gussetclothing.com/

And Most New Balance footwear is made in the US. Only athletic shoes I'll put on my feat. They can pay Americans a good wage because their not paying MJ, Lebron, and Tiger Millions and millions of Dollars......

[lxskllr]

I didn't know New Balance was American made. I didn't think Americans made athletic shoes anymore. I don't wear sneaks, but if I did, I'd buy them.

[Bigblue1]

Well I guess It's not as much as I thought anymore. But they are the only company producing any Athletic shoes in the US. http://www.newbalance.com/usa/#/factories

Oh and of course my $70 country walkers are of the "Made in China" variety.

I just looked even my $190 pair of Danner Pronghorns are made in China and definitely weren't bought at Wal-mart. So what the hell can you do?

[GoVegan]

So what yer saying is you would be ok if American workers would work for double third world wages of .50 cents or so a day to sew your shirts and shoes. But you refuse to pay American wages for an American product. Yep your the average American... no doubt.

In my great grandparents day, nearly all clothing was domestic made, and if you do some research, quite expensive to boot. A lot of people resorted to the old fashioned method... make your own damn clothes.

Here is the reality in this link you can see a typical selection of womens skirts in the 1900 Sears and Roebuck, priced from just over a buck to about 3.50, given that the median income in 1900 was about 100 times less than it is today, you should expect to pay 100 times more for the same products today... correct? So a cheap skirt should be 135 dollars and a mid range one about 300... and while you can certainly buy skirts in this range, your more typical shopper goes to WalMart or Target and buys such and item for as little as 20 dollars.

So you should be ok with paying 100 dollars for a pair of jeans, and 75 dollars for a shirt, and your undershirt should probably be about 30 bucks too. Then when your clothes get holes in them you do this amazing thing... you patch them and wear them again. You should be able to get about 2 years life out of a pair of pants worn near daily!

This is what I think of when I see people bitch about how nothing is made in the US... we wont work for 17 cents an hour, but we want shirts priced that way, made by people who demand 15 to 20 dollars an hour and union benefits. You cannot have you cake and wear it to!

Yes there are companies that try desperately to make US merchandise, but they rarely last long, because they can't have any margin in the products they make. Then they don't sell at the volumes that the margins left require to sustain a healthy business. People say they want something and then go buy the cheap one anyway.

I could not find any figures anywhere but I am really doubting that their is a huge difference in regards to labor costs if you are talking about a pair of pants. I am guessing that if I were to pay $5.00 more for a pair of pants and that $5.00 actually went to labor, it would make a huge difference to the worker. Here is an article about Taco Bell having to pay a penny more for a pound of tomatoes to make sure that their workers are paid better. A penny a pound? Big deal. I have also hear that the difference between fair trade coffee and non fair trade coffee is about 25c a lb. on average. My guess is that if the average American, as you put it, were willing to pay around $5.00 more for a pair of pants that we would be able to make those pants here in America with workers that are paid a decent wage. The problem is making sure that the $5.00 extra is not siphoned off by some greedy CEO who see's this as a way to finance their 3rd vacation home. I think curtisp has a good point when he said "You either spend like a serf at Walmart or you pay for high ticket like a lord" in that there is no middle ground anymore. I do agree with your point about fixing clothing so they last a while but I am also thinking that your granddad did not work in an office. Also, I do not have hours dedicated to tailoring my clothes and it will probably cost a lot more to get my pants fixed then it will to buy a new pair unfortunately.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2005Mar8.html

+1 on the New Balance shoes! They come in wide widths, are built well and often cost less than the imports.

[texastorm]

I have always worn New Balance... mainly because I have wide feet. Still I do appreciate the last US athletic shoe maker in existence.

As far as clothing is concerned, while it IS true one could sell pants for say $5.00 more a pair made in the USA. The margin from an imported pair will make the idea of it not attractive to business. The difference between child labor at 1.50 a week and 20 bucks an hour with union benefits cannot be argued about.

The only way I can see it being done is if their was an employee owned factory in the US making pants. With each employee not paid hourly, but paid through net profits. But then without a million dollar a month CEO how would this company ever make it? lol... someone will inevitably get greedy, in that scenario maybe everyone.

It will eventually flip flop back to the US, when the cost of importing becomes more than the cost of making it here, it has been shown that people will make stuff here. You will find we still make a lot of large appliances like washer, dryers and hot water heaters... they just cost to much to ship. But anything small the shipping is negligible. you can probably put about 20,000 shorts in a 40 foot container, and ship that straight from china for 3500 bucks. So shipping is cheap, customs would only add a few cents a piece and brokerage fees etc. So if you bought these said shirts for 1.00 and landed them here for 1.25 you are done. Now lets say you want to make that same shirt here. Lets say you already own the factory for arguments sake. How many shirts can you sew per employee per minute? Believe it or not, much of the final stitching in your clothes is still hand worked in a sewing machine. Lets assume now that you could obtain the fabric to make each shirt for .50 cents. Now you have to make each shirt for around .75 cents labor to keep up.

Your average 8.00 an hour worker needs to get about 16 shirts done from plain fabric to stitched and in the store each hour. (counting a half crap benifits package of course, and the extra SS you must pay as an employer)... that seems doable with technology, but a lot of trouble if you ask me.


Or you could just buy them ready made by the suffering of small children... your choice.

I am not advocating that we give up trying to compete with foreign made merchandise, but as a present day reseller and business owner, I can see little changing in our near future.

[ChaoticGemini]

You guys are missing an important part of this discussion. In order to have American made clothes, there needs to be workers willing and able to make them. I know a couple of manufacturers in the hobby industry that resisted moving production to China. Many people gladly paid extra for their products, but when they could not keep enough workers to sew a quality sail, mass market production was reluctantly moved overseas.

[Simplysnus]

You guys are missing an important part of this discussion. In order to have American made clothes, there needs to be workers willing and able to make them. I know a couple of manufacturers in the hobby industry that resisted moving production to China. Many people gladly paid extra for their products, but when they could not keep enough workers to sew a quality sail, mass market production was reluctantly moved overseas.

I know several towns in Iowa with quite a few production workers who would welcome such a facility, given that their own were shut down. Gotta be kidding me that workers couldn't be found in all of the U.S. so it had to go to China.