Crafted With Pride: A Made-in-USA Directory For The Modern Era
Once a staple in American wardrobes, the “Made in USA” tag has become an increasingly rare (and unaffordable!) sight. As our economies have globalized, the geo-arbitrage of cheap Asian labor has caused the hollowing-out of American manufacturing.
What was once looked on as a point of pride, to wear something made by one’s countrymen, has slowly-but-steadily fallen to the wayside in favor of cheap goods from overseas. And look, I get it, if you don’t care about what you wear (read: a great majority of men), then why would you go the extra mile and spend upwards of 3 times the cost on a garment when you could get something similar from overseas?
The MiUSA vs. Foreign production argument has reached a head over the last few years, as China, Vietnam, et al. have completed the transition into mature manufacturing countries.
China in particular has long been synonymous with producing cheap, low-quality junk, and while reputation still holds in some corners (see: Shein and Temu), reality is a bit more nuanced nowadays. There has been an incredible amount of money invested into the Asian clothing/textile industry, and their top end production is totally legit and as quality as they come.
While this gap in quality continues to close between the East and the West, there remains many reasons why one would choose to shop American-made goods. Personally, three things come to mind: Environmental impact of shipping, labor transparency (or lack thereof), and supporting local industry, to name a few.
But that’s enough of that — this piece isn’t really meant to be about why you should buy domestic. If you’re reading this newsletter, purchasing garments from developed countries is almost definitely something that you give significant weight to already, so why beat a dead horse?
With that in mind, let me introduce you to Crafted With Pride — a directory detailing over over 1400 companies that at least partially produce their goods in the USA, making their book a sort of Yellow Pages for MiUSA clothing:
Crafted With Pride
The goal of Crafted With Pride is pretty straightforward — to remove some of the friction associated with buying domestically. It’s a lot of work finding new brands that are doing interesting things, and to be honest, a many brands make their name on MiUSA manufacturing, only to move production overseas once they have an established following (*cough* Rowing Blazers). It’s refreshing to have a contemporaneous look at the wider manufacturing landscape in the US.
That said, it’s not all dry information: to keep things interesting, the first part of the book, channels the vibe of those Japanese fashion mags (e.g., Popeye), featuring some favored products and style inspiration in full color, highlighting that it IS possible to go full USA.
[Willy if you’re reading this, a quarterly mag showcasing some MiUSA products/styling similar to what you’ve done with CWP would go crazy]
From there, we transition into a bonafide yellowpages — a full directory broken down by product type (e.g., accessories, activewear, etc.). They go even further, breaking down each brand by the state of manufacture, domestic manufacturing companies (and their info so that you can get in contact if you have an idea), union-made clothing spots, and the like.
The section breaking down manufacturing by state was something that really stuck out to me — there are brands in my literal (figurative) back yard that I’ve never even heard of, and they’re out there making some cool shit! There’s just so much out there that you’d never even know about without the help of curators like this.
CWP is the result of years of hard work, performing what I can only imagine was painstaking outreach to literally thousands of brands, both alive and defunct, to get the lay of the land. And to be honest, the final product is rad. Like this is just a rad thing to do. Blood, sweat, and tears were poured into this so that we can make an informed choice to over-consume with a little more moral dignity.
Highly, highly recommend taking a look at Crafted With Pride if you’re into supporting US manufacturing. Also, true to their ethos, they print the books in Rhode Island.
Full disclosure, they sent me a copy for free, but these are my personal views, and I’d ALWAYS disclose if something was a paid ad or anything like that.
You can order your own copy here for $35.
A quick addendum here, but this paragraph from their foreword tickled me. We’re quickly reaching a point where the only way to avoid SEO algorithm slop and AI-generated “content“ is to revert to print:
I’m here for it, flipping through a magazine is much more fulfilling than the instagram doomscroll anyway. Long live physical media!
And for UK readers you can pre-order from the lovely people at Rare Mags. Great price too. Ordered mine. No relationship with RM other than loyal customer.
Thanks for sharing this! Definitely ordering a copy.