I buy socks online from a place that actually makes them in North Carolina.
I don’t understand how they stay in business when they have to compete with China, but they are the BEST socks ever!
I get their Heavy Cushion Boot/Work socks.You wouldn’t believe how thick they are!
I’m a contractor on my feet in my boots 8 hours 5 days a week. I’ve used the same dozen for two years! They are only $12.95 a dozen. Is this a lot more than thin Chinese socks? I really don’t know. I hate going shopping in a store.
I don’t have anything to do with this place financially. I’m in California a long way from N.C…
Would you buy socks from an American manufacturer for a few dollars more?
It is, in my experience, about the same as the very cheapest socks you can get from a Chine sweatshop. (Actually socks seem to come more from Vietnam and Costa Rica rather than China.)
But yeah, the common perception is that we simply have to shut down American factories because it’s cheaper to make stuff in third-world sweatshops. The irrational losers who insist on buying American will pay more and get inferior products, according to this reasoning. The reality is that American-made clothes are often cheaper and always better, as far as I can tell. And while we’re on the topic, I’ll give a shout-out to the San Antonio Shoe Company, which provides excellent American-made dress shoes at great prices.
Good to know, thanks for the link. I care. To trade links with you, Diamond Gussett makes jeans in Tennessee: http://www.gussetclothing.com/
You can sometimes find domestically-made items by googling for aggregators such as madeinusa.org, but I’ve found they are not necessarily up-to-date or easy to use.
Domestically made clothing was one of the selling points for American Apparel. So I visited a store a few years ago, but was disappointed in the quality of the fabric used.
I guess I can see a $20 shirt being made in China. But then I see $200 shirts are made there too. I guess they want to maximize profit at every price level because I think they can make a US shirt and still make a profit at $200.
Regarding that, I thought that this article from the New York Times a few months ago was interesting, in its explanation of why a particular label’s khaki pants cost $550. The article goes into detail about the $54 in fabric and four hours of labor at $13 per hour, and how the roughly $110 in wholesale cost gets marked up to $550 at retail.
Now, none of the clothes I’ve ever bought cost as much as $550 (and actually, I think a week’s worth of my wardrobe costs less than that) but at least it explains to me a little of how the expensive stuff winds up costing what it does.
Here is a place in Iowa that not only offers a good selection of socks made in the USA, but has a program so you can donate socks to our troops overseas.
I sent a dozen or so pairs to my son in Iraq and got good reports back from him and his buddies.
I don’t know if Wilson socks are manufactured in the US, it doesn’t say on the website. However, my husband LOVES them to bits. Severaly years ago, I got him something like a dozen pairs of black over-the-calf socks, and several pairs of white OTC socks. They wear very well. Bill doesn’t like crew or ankle or even halfway up the calf lengths, no, he wants socks that come up to the bottom of his knees.
When I gave them to him, he was very happy, because that meant that he didn’t have to try to find them in stores. Then he got a sad look on his face, and said that he was getting old, since getting socks excited him.
Completely unrelated to SOCKS, but they are an American Made company of pure loveliness : Green Mountain Knitting Bags. I’ve lusted after these bags for a few years.
I’ll also agree with the San Antonio Shoe products, though they are not “great prices” (they’re on the expensive side, though not in the same league as Manolos or whatever). I buy 'em because they have a wide selection of sizes and make shoes that fit my 12-W feet. Munro is another American-made brand of shoes.
I’ll have to check out the NC Sock products. The problem with the website is I can’t tell what the various styles are, or what size feet they fit, and of course I usually don’t buy a dozen identical pairs at once.
We found Critter Gear at the Big E a few months ago. They’re a NH company. My two dogs have been wearing their Critter Gear collars since September and the collars aren’t showing any signs of wear even though the girls like to gnaw at each other’s necks. Not only do they have a good selection of patterns, if you find a fabric you just have to have, they will hand make your stuff in that fabric for no extra charge (well, except you pay for the fabric, obviously). They will also make special sizes for the hard to fit pets.