Supply Chain Panic May Prove Why American-Made Matters

It’s not unusual for a company to pepper its regular customers with emails about promotions, new offerings and other tidbits of news. On notable occasions, shoppers will even get one of those heartfelt “A message from our founder” emails. The anxious early months of the pandemic saw quite a few of those, in fact. But no email blast of recent times was anything like the one that San Francisco-based clothier American Giant’s president and founder Bayard Winthrop sent to half a million of the brand’s customers last week. Winthrop was writing about supply-chain issues—hardly a topic as tense and emotional as a pandemic. Indeed, it’s one that most Americans weren’t even aware of until all the nervous talk began earlier this fall that holiday gifts might not arrive on time. Thanks to labor and raw-materials shortages in the Far East—coupled with fully packed container ships bottlenecked from Long Beach to Houston—shipments of most everything are facing unprecedented delays. A September survey by Oracle revealed that 66% of Americans are “worried [the supply chain] will ruin their holidays.” With that backdrop, Winthrop sat down at his computer on Nov. 2 and tapped out a brief epistle of just 164 words. His message was this: American Giant shoppers have no need to worry about Far East supply chain issues—because the brand doesn’t have a Far East supply chain. American farms produce all of the cotton that American Giant uses at its North Carolina factory. “Many of you are reading and hearing about supply chain disruptions that are occurring across industries that will impact your holiday shopping,” Winthrop’s email began. “This will affect most clothing brands and is the result of supply chains they have built that crisscross the globe, chasing cheaper means of production. At American Giant, we have chosen a different path.” The road less traveled Since its 2012 founding, AG’s different path—a true outlier in the apparel segment—has been to source all raw materials from, and do all manufacturing in, the United States. As a result, Winthrop reassured his customers, “this holiday, we will be in stock with our shelves full.” It was a nifty piece of marketing. On top of the message's content, the impact hinged on Winthrop’s sense of timing. There’s never been an opportunity quite this salient to validate a gospel that American Giant has preached from the beginning. Apparel made in the U.S. might cost more (AG’s basic men’s hoodie retails for $114)—but domestic production winds up being better for everyone in the long run. Winthrop could be forgiven for a bit of schadenfreude as he watches his competitors panic. After all, that actually wasn’t his intent. Earlier this week, he told Adweek that his main intention was to remind his customers that they had nothing to worry about. “We’re going to be in stock this holiday. Our shelves will be full—we’re ready for you.” At the same time, Winthrop did see the current panic over supply chain woes as a teachable moment. It's a chance for shoppers to reflect on their addiction to cheap, disposable fashion churned out overseas. It's also a chance for companies to possibly consider moving some of their sourcing and manufacturing back to the U.S. “For brands, the complete loss of control that has been happening over the last six months has been deeply rattling,” Winthrop said. As a result, “brands are asking basic, logical economic questions about risk and reward.” “I'm not out to stick my thumb in the eye of [competitors],” he added. “But I am trying to raise the point that we've got to have a reconciliation here about whether we mean what we say—as a country, as brands—and begin to align our business operations with our values.” The moral side of manufacturing Anyone familiar with American Giant will recognize this as familiar territory for the brand and its founder. Since starting his company, Winthrop has argued that the offshoring of manufacturing is little more than a race to the bottom. Sending production overseas eliminates working-class jobs for Americans while simultaneously enriching the corporate class—just so consumers can buy a pair of jeans for $10. (Yes, fast fashion, he's talking about you.) Those are old arguments, of course. What’s different this time, Winthrop said, is that consumer goods shortages early in the pandemic—items like, say, penicillin or face masks—reminded ordinary Americans of just how dangerously beholden they are to foreign manufacturing. It’s an awareness that Winthrop hopes will be a permanent one. Judging from the torrent of responses (many of them surprisingly emotional) that he’s received in the days after his email went out, his message about manufacturing has certainly captured his audience's attention. “The response that I got from that [e-mail] was really amazing,” he said. “That just tells me that this is really resonating with people. That is going to put this into the front of mind for consumers in a way that brands and retailers are going to have to begin to be conscious of.” These Brands Are Reimagining Sustainable Fashion—and How Pants Fit

Fashion News

Supply Chain Panic Gives American Giant a Rare Opportunity to Prove Why American-Made Matters

A recent e-mail from the founder was not your typical marketing spiel

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara