This past weekend I was home visiting my nephew, the world’s most magical and amazing boy, and I went to Woodbury Common, the world’s most amazing and magical outlet mall. I grew up near “The Commonsâ€, so it isn’t exactly like Disneyland, but it’s still pretty great when your brother lives but minutes away from so many great designer bargains. I was excited to see that in the time since I’d last visited they opened a James Perse outlet. James Perse makes the best fitting, softest fitting tee shirts I’ve ever put on, and at 68% off, it was kind of like retail sex.
But here is the real gist of this story: (And I have been trying to think of a way to present this without getting too political, or preachy, or called out as a hypocrite) One of the things I like best about these tee shirts is that they’re made in the U.S.A. Any one can do a tour of their closets, and inevitably almost everything you own was made in China. Or Vietnam. Or Mauritius. (Who knew Mauritius was a hotbed of shirt production?) It has become a fact of life that most of what you buy, especially what you wear, wasn’t made anywhere near where you grew up. I wish that were very different.
I look at some of my favorite things that I buy repeatedly or own forever: New Balance 993’s, J. Crew ties, the aforementioned James Perse tees, Alden shoes, Filson bags.These are all Made in America. They last forever, and they look great over and over again. My good friend Peter turned me on to the website www.reactual.com, which is a phenomenal good manufactured in the United States. Take a look, and spend some money. Trust me, this is one time, when I really love to say “What goes around comes aroundâ€.
the Original Colleen
Apr 12, 2012 at 11:02 am
I too look for the Made in America tag and when I do I don’t mind paying a bit more; however usually they are competitively priced and I buy it without hesitation.
Craig Patik
Apr 12, 2012 at 12:24 pm
I’d rather we moved on and became a proper post-industrial nation. Why do we need to manufacture things? We should be focusing on (preparing the generation currently in school for) a service-oriented economy filled with highly skilled workers.
Country of origin has nothing to do with build quality. More likely, the US-based companies have to step the quality up a notch to justify the higher prices (caused by labor costs, taxes, etc).
Pete
Apr 12, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Great post, Eric. Thanks for writing it.