Let face the facts, American made gear is going to be substantially more expensive. The big cost in clothing is labor and legal US labor is going to cost more than a third world country, substantially more. Unless the folks doing the labor are direct employees, there are plenty of middleman that will get creative on labor sourcing and if the owners are not vigilant they may not even know that the labor is coming from offshore on onshore sweatshops. A sewing floor can be moved quickly and there are plenty of firms around the world with low-cost labor that will grab a contract at or below cost in hopes they can make it up by abusing their workers more or cutting more corners once the initial samples are sent out. In some cases the work is done by prison labor both in the US or in third world country.
Lots of firms try the US made approach but usually it is to build the brand and at some point they have to make money and that is when their formerly silent investors start making suggestions to reduce costs. They start out as suggestions but they soon become demands and unless the founders retain a lot of control, offshoring is inevitable or the company becomes a niche marketer.
If you look at the Burgeon story it hass been well massaged and inspirational. Looking up the founder he has the best of intentions, but he looks like he came from conventional businesses
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michae...-qa-with-rudy-glocker-ceo-of-burgeon-outdoor/
My guess is they have outsourced marketing and whatever firm they are using has decided that the most effective approach is to carpet bomb potential customers in hopes of building brand awareness. I just unsubscribe.
It sounds like a great story and maybe there is a big enough premium market for their goods but when someone drops by Lahout's and wants to buy a piece of gear they are probably going to skip the pricey stuff and buy an offshore lookalike. Look around on the web and there are plenty or folks "influencing" on how they are buying offshore lookalikes of US products that are good enough for their use. Reportedly there is or was a lot of gear built in a particular district in Saigon Vietnam, folks visiting the area could go order custom gear from firms that are making the gear for name brands and once the gear is picked out the customers could pick which logo they wanted and if they wanted a made in USA tag attached.
The only other approach is the niche market where the owner keeps the business small and cuts out the marketing chain and direct markets. ULA Gear started that way and still does so but even with cutting out the retail chain, its pricey stuff. Hyperlight Mountain Gear started out in Southern Maine with a local manufacturing operation but they now are offshoring. Chuck Roast in the Conway area was local manufacturer for years but when they finally closed the business it was reported that they just could not compete with the flood of imports. Ragged Mountain used to produce a lot of their gear locally and it was usually high quality and I still think they do some local production and contract work but most of the brands in the store are offshore. Minus 33 in NH was founded from folks with textile background but they offshore all their gear except for their socks. About the only regional outdoor product firm that I aware of that has stuck with local production is Cabot Hosiery Mills that makes Darn Tuff socks. They supply the US military with socks that have to be domestically sourced. They invested heavilly in automation, so labor is less of a unit cost and make a premium product that is not typically discounted.
I do like New Balance's approach, most of the production is offshore but they do maintain some US production and they sell it at premium as made in USA.
