For Weiss Watch Company, which requires several intricate watch components that are made across the pond, things are also going to get more difficult. “The American government instantly made all American resources significantly scarcer,” Weiss lamented. “This means increased inflation to balance out the demand. American manufacturing has a capacity constraint problem and a lack of knowledge problem that make our supply and output very inelastic. The only machines that are capable of machining precise watch parts are not made in the US. Luckily, we have purchased these, but the cost was already pretty steep before these new tariffs.”
And let’s say the American clothing market really does become centralized in America—that is, the only garments available for a reasonable price are the ones sourced, woven, and sold in the US—does the country even have the infrastructure to support it?
Hurwitz, emphatically, does not think so. “The idea that the underlying supply chain exists entirely in this country is ludicrous,” he said. “There’s not a lot of woven cloth made in this country anymore.” Plus, business questions aside, the state of the country in general is troublesome for Hurwitz. “I’m not sitting in my office with glee like Mr. Burns,” he said. “It’s a little bit horrific.”
De Innocentis, the CEO and co-founder of 1620 Workwear, predicts that, while many customers are loud and proud with their Made in USA workwear, they won’t be as patriotic with their wallets. “What I’ve been saying for the last few years is, everyone says they want to buy ‘made in the USA.’ But nobody wants to pay more for ‘made in the USA,’” De Innocentis told GQ. “In reality, apparel is a commodity. People aren’t willing to pay more for a commodity when it really comes down to it.”
How will the tariffs benefit American-made brands?
De Innocentis calls himself a realist more than a skeptic, and had previously put in five years working in a textile factory in China. When he returned home to start 1620 Workwear in 2016, he understood that creating workwear in America, for Americans, with entirely American material, would present its challenges, “in, probably, a more difficult manner than what they teach you to do at the Nike, Puma, and Adidas of the world. But we’ve always wanted to create our own path.”
He dismissed the initial wave of tariff news—still, once reality set in, his mind went toward the sunnier side of the situation.
“When it actually felt like [the tariffs] were going to happen, I was a little bit nervous,” he conceded. “But in the long term, this is the best thing that can happen for the made in the USA movement. There has to be some pain first. It’s not an overnight thing. There’s going to be a cycle, and if it does come to fruition, best thing for made in the USA.”
Winthrop, of American Giant, provided some optimism as well, saying that with a bit more planning from the Trump administration, it’s not out of the question for the American supply chain to be revitalized.