Made In The USA Apparel Trending Fast!
People sometimes say that they don’t care where their apparel is made. But that may not be the case anymore.
As the USA made apparel trend becomes viral, news start to pick up the stories from small businesses across the country. The biggest reason why most apparel companies make their apparel overseas is primarily because of labor costs . If you knew that something you value greatly was out sourced to a faster operation with less quality control and care, and not to mention that standards & regulations of the factory for the work and employees are unknown, would you value it as much? As going green became a trend to try to find a safer and more efficient way to bring products to the shelves, why haven’t we focused on apparel manufacturing coming back to the states? We all say we want to help out the economy and the small businesses, but did you know 98 percent of the clothing purchased in the United States is imported from abroad? Just two percent of clothing bought in this country is manufactured on U.S. soil. This toll came from a great write up and video on ABC News.
In the morning of September 23 2013, an article was published on CNBC about USA made apparel companies including Anton Alexander. This article consists of conversation regarding the difficulties of apparel manufacturing in the states, as well as small business apparel startups that are making it happen in small cities such as Fort Wayne, Indiana.
So what are some added values of why we manufacture all of our apparel in the united states?
Time
When something is across the world, there is a much larger time delay. It takes a long time to get from first sample to production. Realistically it takes 4-6 weeks, where in USA it could be done within 2-3 days if done right. Fashion is in and out as fast as a business can be, therefore if you want the latest thing, time is of the essence. Not to mention shipping time and boat freight .
Unique Style
Most of the production overseas is on a large quantity. Do you want to wear a shirt that 100,000 other people are wearing? The ability to make something here gives a potential for smaller runs with less items, as well as custom orders to make only a few of something. With a unique product such as Anton Alexander, we want to enable limited quantity of each style. By controlling the production all in-house, we can make as little as 1 custom shirt and made to measure for the end user. Most will fit the 12 sizes we offer, but we can easily custom adjust any size.
Quality Control
With huge orders, and the way the contractors get paid, the production goal is to turn units as fast as possible. This drops the standards of quality and overall fit and finish. Controlling smaller orders here in USA will give us 100% control of our production. We purchased all brand new computerized manufacturing equipment, and this will enable us to create the perfect garments without error every single time.
