Brooks Brothers capitalizing on patriotism

[Deleted]

www.brooksbrothers.com/madeinamerica/learnmore.tem?cmp=EMC-20120719_MadeInAmerica&rid=349857047

[mominatrix]

You know, good for them.

Honestly and for true, I believe that something being made here is far more important than it being an "American" company.

...auto industry, I'm looking at you.

[Chirp]

Honest question... why do they dress their mannequins and models in crazy-fug outfits?

I mean really... Holy crazy patterns, Batman!
www.brooksbrothers.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=1197&Product_Id=1680886&Parent_Id=1033&default_color=GREY&sort_by=§ioncolor=§ionsize=#null


Otherwise, good for them with the made in America thing, but I still won't shop there. The thought of paying $100 for a button down or $180 for a scarf makes me twitch.


And, yeah, really with the auto manufacturers. FIL was pissed when I pointed that out. He criticized my car because "That's not an Amur'can car." I rapidly found the sticker on the inside of his door that said "Manufactured in Mexico" and then pointed to the sticker on my back window that says "Proudly manufactured in Indiana" and told him to stick that in his pipe and smoke it... considering he drives an "American" Ford and I drive a "Japanese" Subaru.

[mominatrix]

More than that, I get a little pissed off with high-end clothing companies that pretend to be "American" (Ralph Lauren, I'm looking at you here) that don't produce their products here.


If I go to Old Navy and buy a tee-shirt for $4.95, I don't really expect that the people who made it were paid US minimum wage in a factory that was up to OSHA standards.

...but if I'm paying $49.95 for a tee-shirt, then that expectation shouldn't be all that off base.


This, I have to say, is forefront in my brain right now, as I'm in the middle of purchasing uniform clothes for my kid for next year, and, as it turns out, that school uniforms (at least, by "uniform companies") are one of the areas where clothing manufacturing still occurs in this country. It's fairly easy to find REASONABLY PRICED school uniform clothes that are made in the USA.

Why is that? Why can Dennis ( www.dennisuniform.com ) make kids polos in Oregon and sell them for $17.50, but Lands' End imports theirs (from Bangladesh, China, India, etc) and sells kids polos for $18?

And what's wrong with people saying, "you know, it matters where this stuff is made, and I'm going to vote with my money"?

[heliocentric]

Jul 19, 2012 12:57:14 GMT -5 mominatrix said:

More than that, I get a little pissed off with high-end clothing companies that pretend to be "American" (Ralph Lauren, I'm looking at you here) that don't produce their products here.


If I go to Old Navy and buy a tee-shirt for $4.95, I don't really expect that the people who made it were paid US minimum wage in a factory that was up to OSHA standards.

...but if I'm paying $49.95 for a tee-shirt, then that expectation shouldn't be all that off base.


This, I have to say, is forefront in my brain right now, as I'm in the middle of purchasing uniform clothes for my kid for next year, and, as it turns out, that school uniforms (at least, by "uniform companies") are one of the areas where clothing manufacturing still occurs in this country. It's fairly easy to find REASONABLY PRICED school uniform clothes that are made in the USA.

Why is that? Why can Dennis ( www.dennisuniform.com ) make kids polos in Oregon and sell them for $17.50, but Lands' End imports theirs (from Bangladesh, China, India, etc) and sells kids polos for $18?

And what's wrong with people saying, "you know, it matters where this stuff is made, and I'm going to vote with my money"?

Slightly off-topic, but I am actually really surprised that the uniform company can compete with the overseas manufacturing. Perhaps because they are kind of a niche market (more guaranteed business?) or because they sell directly? Maybe they have low margins, but high enough volume to make up for it? Little to no advertising?

Fifteen years ago I worked for a domestic knitwear company (think cheap t-shirts for places like Wal-Mart). Even then it was extremely difficult to make a t-shirt in the US that would retail for less $7. Domestic manufacturing is expensive.