4 St ages of Apparel Product ion

Fiber Yarn Fabric Clot hing

Cot t on Combed Yarn Oxf ord Farbric Oxf ord Shirt

The Absurd Journey of American Cot t on

t o t he Oxf ord Shirt you are Wearing Now

Baled Cotton Yar n is Trained

Cotton picked, trucked to yar n mill across country to
ginned, baled in in South Carolina, Port of Los Angeles
Georgia spun into yar n

Yar n is shipped Yar n is trucked

across ocean to to Dying Plant
China and Dyed

Dyed Yar n is Woven Fabric is Finished Fabric is

trucked to textile trucked to trucked to Cut and
mill. Yar n is woven Finishing Mill. Sew factory. Shirt
into fabric Fabric is Finished is made from fabric

Finished Shirt is Shirt is shipped

trucked to port to port of Los
and loaded onto Angeles
cargo ship

Finished Shirt is This is what really

Finished Shirt is Trucked to local
trained to Atlanta clothing store in
happens. This is the
Georgia simple ver sion.

There is a better way.

 Why Made in USA Fabric?

Upland Cotton Pima, Long-Staple Cotton

The Unites States
grows the best 97% of US Cotton Crop is Pima cotton is considered the
cotton in the world. Upland Cotton, higher quality highest quality cotton in the world.
than Asian Short Staple It is grown mostly in California

The apparel industry collasped in the US in 1990s and 2000s. Yarn Mills were the final
holdout and now they are resurgent. Now instead of j obs going overseas, China is
The United building yarn mills in the American South and hiring Americans. Why? Low energy
States has world costs, highly educated workers, amazing infrastructure, world-class cotton crop,
class Yarn Mills. a textile history, onshoring production to US or nearshoring to Latin America

"South Carolina?s textile j obs were once thought gone for good, lost
to China and other low-wage nations. Now, to the astonishment of a
community that was devastated by the bust, China is bringing some
of them back." - Toronto Star 10.16.2016

The current logistics of apparel manufactoring are in complete chaos. The end of the
Multifiber Agreement in 2005 tangled global supply chains. Apparel production now hops
Country from country to country. Lowest bidder wins. This year it is Vietnam, next year
Hopping Cambodia, next Angola. Country hopping was a gut reaction to the end of Quotas, but it
doesn't work is time to move on.
anymore.
"Apparel makers have worked under the assumption that labor costs must
be kept as low as possible in order for garments to be produced at
competitive prices. This widely held belief has caused the industry to
move from country to country as labor costs increasingly erode each
local market?s temporary advantage. One day, and possibly soon, this
j ourney will come to an end." Boston Consulting Group 11.19.2014

The United States has the most one of the most technologically advanced workforces in
the world. But there are not enough skilled j obs to go around. The labor participation rate
in the US is the lowest it has been since the mid 1970s. People want to work, but middle
US Labor Force is class j obs have disappeared. Fabric mills can create solid middle class j obs that offer a
ripe for Fabric livable wage to workers of all education levels.
Production.

"The U.S. labor force is the

smallest it?s been since the
1970s as a share of the adult
population: 62.8 percent
today, down from 66
percent in December 2007,
when the recession began "
Five Thirty Eight