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The Tip is 'Keep eyes open' After reading an article about items made in America I thought about how many times I make purchases without thinking. I'm usually focused on budget and needs. Prior to reading this article on made in the USA products, I rarely thought about the importance of buying made in USA products. This helps create jobs in our country. Now I keep my eyes open and I am surprised how easy it is to find American products. It only takes a few seconds to look. Now I make a point when I am shopping to search for made in America brands. By doing so, I'm able to identify more and more what products are made in America. Even with my eyes open to made in USA I can get discouraged. Sometimes store clerks don't know the country of origin which can be frustrating. If this happens use your eyes to find the origin information yourself. Look at the labels and when you find a Made in USA product tell the clerk so the next time they are asked they will know. Also, when the label is not easily seen I use the other made in America buying tips to help me find made in USA. If the store doesn't carry what you are looking for, use Made in America Secrets to find it and tell the manager about your experience at their store. When enough people are asking for made in the USA products, more stores will begin to carry products that are made here. This technique does work. I also pick and choose the stores I visit. I do this because I have found that some stores are made in America friendly while others are not. Keep your eyes open for the made in USA label and pretty soon you will be able to identify which products are made in the USA. Buying Tip Continued - Read more on Made in America Products by American Apparel Passion, innovation & ethical practices for the clothing industry. That's American Apparel. Our Garment Workers Are Paid Up To 50 Times More Than The Competition A garment worker in Bangladesh earns an average of $600 a year. An experienced American Apparel garment worker can earn $30,000 and receive bene?ts such as comprehensive health care. American Apparel garments are created by motivated and fairly-paid employees who don't just have jobs - they have careers. Our culture recognizes outstanding performance and promotes from within. Most importantly, our workers have a voice and in?uence the direction of the company. At American Apparel we call it Sweatshop-Free, a term we coined in 2002. Unlike Our Competitors, We Make Our Own Product The American Apparel factory is the largest sewing facility in North America. We believe that integrating our manufacturing, distribution and creative processes keeps our company more ef?cient than those who rely on offshore or onshore sub-contracting. By leveraging art, design, and technology at our Downtown LA campus, we are able to pay garment workers fairly AND sell garments pro?tably so we can sustain our business and grow. Everyone bene?ts - customers, workers, and shareholders alike. The New Standard That Others Will Follow There is clearly much more overhead, capital investment and training involved in manufacturing in the USA, as some critics point out. But at American Apparel we passionately leverage art, design and technology to advance our business process and we are con?dent we'll prove that vertical integration is a viable business model that can work even better than the status quo model of continuous outsourcing. It's not just about made in the USA. More importantly, it is about designing a business that does not, at its fundamental core, rely on the relentless pursuit of low cost labor to survive. As wages and transportation costs increase worldwide, we believe our business model of vertical integration to be the path of least resistance. For the record, American Apparel supports free and fair trade, and almost half of the company's 250 stores are outside the USA, allowing the company to export hundreds of millions of dollars of US-made apparel annually. Environmental Commitment American Apparel is also committed to sustainability. We've set the precedent for sustainable and ethical manufacturing in California?the state with the strictest and most progressive EPA standards in the country. By concentrating our entire operation within a few square miles, American Apparel has a smaller carbon footprint than our competitors. We recycle almost all our manufacturing waste?an average of 125,000 lbs of textile and 25,000 lbs of paper, plastic and cardboard per week (over 260 semi truck loads per year). As of 2014, we are virtually land?ll-free. Our solar panels offset as much as 20% of our electrical usage, and we ship the majority of our goods to our worldwide stores via excess space on passenger ?ights and busses, minimizing our environmental impact. Investing In The Future Manufacturing in America requires risk taking and long-term investment. We think it's well worth it. The apparel industry's reliance on low wages cannot be sustained over time, ethically or ?scally. As labor and transportation costs increase worldwide, exploitation will not only be morally offensive, it will not even be ?nancially viable. For us, American manufacturing is not a trend - we've been doing it since the day our company began in Los Angeles ?fteen years ago. We are extremely proud of our model, which provides thousands of good jobs both domestically and internationally. American Apparel's current head count is 6,000 in Los Angeles, with an additional 5,000 working at our stores worldwide. The employees of American Apparel thank you for your support. |
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