America under your feet…

One of the biggest challenges today is finding goods 100% made in the USA. People genuinely want to buy goods made here and know there’s a massive quality difference between the “Made in the USA” tag as apposed to the “Made in China” tag. For many families it comes down to price…and that’s totally understandable. But here’s a quick counter to that…lets use a kitchen knife for an example. Walk into any Walmart and buy an 8 dollar standard butcher knife made in China…initially its sharp and does the job. Run it through the dishwasher an average of 3 times a week or 156 times a year…pretty soon the handle starts falling apart…the rivets don’t hold and the cheap chrome plating breaches and you have rust on the blade. You head back to Walmart within 2 years and buy another at 8 or 9 bucks. Over the course of a decade….you end up spending 45 to 50 bucks keeping that Chinese blade in your kitchen. If you spent that same money initially with Lamson & Goodnow you would have had a knife from a company based in Massachusetts since 1837 and a lifetime warranty….your money would have stayed here and your grandkids would be using the same blade 40 years from now.

Massachusetts once clothed the world thanks our textile mills. Ironically today, some of these mills house merchants selling foreign textiles made on the very equipment that was once in these buildings as recently as 30 years ago. We also provided the bulk of shoe production in the United States thanks to Lynn and Brockton.

In my lifetime I do hope to see our industry prosper again. We can compete, and there are many American’s that have a craftsman imbedded in their DNA. There is no reason why our industry has to keep moving offshore. We can do it cleaner and we can produce better quality than our competition. There is a renaissance happening here, children are getting back into science, trade schools are back in the conversation and Wall Street has been taking notice.

There are companies that never left, you just have to dig a bit to find them. The internet has made that easier. Many companies have become creative in moving only portions of their operations offshore to supplement their American factories…and they have had great success. Detroit is making some of the finest vehicles we have seen in years with efficiency that meets or beats the competition. WeatherTech probably makes the best floor mats for vehicles in the world. Alden of New England is the very last union shoe maker in Massachusetts….they actually supplied Harrison Ford his boots for Indiana Jones. New Balance is still making sneakers in Maine and the only company making sneakers in the US.  My good friend Scott introduced me to Red Wing boots many years back…. and they are on my Christmas list this year.

Again, I do not get sponsored for these plugs….it’s just something I’ve grown passionate about. I will be adding a “Made in the USA” section to the site to feature these companies as I find them.

Have a look at the Red Wing factory……then look at their 110 year old Puritan Sewing Machines made here in Boston. PRIDE PEOPLE!!!

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