Since this whole Wuhu flu fiasco started, I've been trying to buy local more and buy American to help out small businesses since they've been hit hardest. It really hit me how difficult it is to actually procure products sold by small businesses that are made in the US. My hair wax, for instance. It took me a whole day of researching to find hair wax that is made in the US and actually sold by a small business and not some mega corp like Amazon or Walmart.
So I bring this question to you gents. How much effort do you put into trying to buy something American made? If so, how do you go about it?
Did our textile industry collapse or something? I can't find any clothes made in the US anymore. I even read a few articles a while back about a lawsuit involving New Balance over their "Made in the USA" logo is misleading. Turns out to qualify for that to be able to slap that logo on your products only a little over half of the product needs to be sourced or made in the US. So most of the work still happens overseas.
I've got some of the USA made New Balance shoes and their packaging claims to be 70% domestically sourced. So it's not perfect, but I do believe they actually physically assemble (i.e. sew or whatever) the shoes together in the USA.
That aside, this pair I'm about to retire is nearly a year old and I'm quite impressed with how well they've held up. I would have bought two pair over that time of the expensive Asian-made shoes I wore previously.
That's just how it works now unfortunately. Nothing is really made from start to finish in one single country anymore.
China cheats, and cheaters win in the global market.
For textiles, you can shop at second-hand stores that are run for the benefit of your community.