Proof through the night: Made in USA is still here

The newly renamed Buck Mason Knitting Mills fabric knitting mill in Shillington, Berks County, Pa.

We hang a felt “American Made” banner from the back of our tent at pop-up appearances. Someday when we have a brick-and-mortar location, we’ll have a sign stating unequivocally, “If it’s not Made in the USA, we won’t sell it.”

We’re fully committed to the Made in USA movement, and the Fourth of July offers a particularly poignant moment to take stock of it.

We want to keep growing Stay, of course, but we also want to encourage a broader seeking-out of U.S.-made products by American consumers.

That’s why we created our Made in USA Shopping Directory, which now numbers more than 150 manufacturers and retailers.

Buffalo, N.Y.-based Oxford Pennant is on the list. The company made one of our original products, a felt Hershey pennant, and the aforementioned banner. Oxford offers another banner that quotes Bruce Springsteen: “Nobody wins unless everybody wins.”

We believe to our core that Americans win when we buy American. Supporting American jobs raises standards of living and boosts self-esteem among American workers. That builds stronger American communities and lifts the American spirit.

When Americans make more things, we reduce our reliance on imports, often from countries that don’t have our best interests at heart.

See, everybody wins.

Buck Mason in Berks

It’s one thing for me to say or write those things in the abstract; it’s yet another to be able to point to concrete examples. And I’m delighted to share a couple of recent ones:

• In Berks County, Pa., about an hour from Stay’s hometown of Hershey, apparel retailer Buck Mason has taken over the former Mohnton Knitting Mills, where 56 workers were laid off when owner Stitch Fix shuttered buildings in Mohnton and Shillington.

  “We brought as many people back as we could, and now we’re slowly bringing back more,” said Buck Mason co-founder Erik Allen Ford, according to the June 19 Reading Eagle. “We’ve got about 15 teammates now, and our goal is to get up to 30 or 40 by mid-next year.”

  Buck Mason Knitting Mills, as it’s now called, is producing 10,000 slub or pima cotton T-shirts per month, a figure the company hopes to double by next year.

  The Shillington building, a fabric knitting mill (sewing takes place at the Mohnton factory) is a throwback to the days when manufacturing jobs resided in residential neighborhoods. In fact, the two-story, red-brick Buck Mason building is complemented on the other three corners of Sterley and Elm streets by red-brick homes.

• On a larger scale In Maine, New Balance recently broke ground on a $65 million expansion of its shoe factory in Skowhegan that will add 200 jobs to the 270 already there. When the 14-month project is complete, the factory is expected to produce 1 million sneakers per year.

  Boston-based New Balance employs another 470 people at two other Maine factories.

  “Our Maine associates have proven that high-quality athletic footwear can be produced in the U.S. ,” said Joe Preston, New Balance’s president and CEO. “Our Skowhegan factory expansion ensures their skilled craftsmanship and dedication to continuous improvement will help us meet our significant U.S. and global consumer demand and drive future business growth.”

Clearly, there is demand for Made in the USA products, and there still are many of them out there.

So while you’re grilling hot dogs and hamburgers this Fourth, please consider how you can repay this great country on its 247th birthday. One way is by spending more of your hard-earned dollars on American-made products.

You’ll come out a winner, and the rest of us will, too.