Bayard Winthrop
Appearances
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
My name is Bayard Winthrop, and I'm the founder of American Giant.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
We are an entirely made-in-America clothing company that started about 12 years ago. And we're primarily online, though we've got six retail stores, but primarily a direct-to-consumer e-commerce business.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
I'm typically dressed head to toe in American Giant as I am today, except for my shoes and my underwear. So everything else I have on my body is American Giant.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
American Giant came out of what had become, I think, a growing frustration of mine, both in terms of my disconnection from the product that I was making and getting further and further away from the men and women that made it.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
But also just kind of a growing concern about the impact of that on America at large and just feeling like I was participating in the abandonment of our ability to make things. And so American Giant kind of came out of that, just sort of a desire to stand in defiance of that.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
It's a good question. I mean, the stuff that was made here, I would say the strongest piece of that capability was in knitwear. Knitwear are T-shirts and sweatshirts, fabric that has some mechanical stretch in it that just kind of gives. Knits in the U.S. have been traditionally very, very strong.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
I knew nothing to start. And that really isn't an overstatement. I knew nothing. I didn't know who to talk to. I didn't know who to ask. And so I began to, you know, do Google searches. And then I started traveling. One day I found myself in a place called Carolina Cottonworks that is in Gaffney, South Carolina, run by a man named Paige Ashby. And I'll never forget it.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
We'd almost given up on the process and Paige said, I'll get this figured out for you. And he began to introduce us to the right knitters and the right places that can sew. And we got turned down by a bunch, but some of them agreed to try. And once that momentum began to build, then it became a function of just lining up the steps.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
And then finally places the cut and sew of that product, places like Eagle Sportswear in Middlesex, North Carolina, that actually bring it finally to life.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
As I began to get into the business, Part of my hope was that, you know, when I was a kid, you could get American-made products at places like Caldor's. And, you know, working class families, families that were throughout the economic spectrum could afford really good made, well-made American-made sweatshirt or American-made t-shirt or American-made blue jeans. That's not available today anymore.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
You really can't. And in our case, I hoped that I was going to change that with American Giant. But eight, nine years in, I began to realize, like, you know what, as hard as I've tried, my cheapest T-shirt is $30, $35. And that's out of reach for a whole swath of Americans. And that was hard for me to swallow because it was a big part of what I was trying to do as a business.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
You know, everyone likes to pound on Walmart, but Walmart has actually taken a stand on this issue. And they've made a real commitment to domestic production.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
You might think on the face of it that I would be an anti-Walmart person, but boy, do I value a company like that that has taken a stand.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
They reached out and said, would you fly out to Bentonville and talk to us? We were having a hard time on the textile side of things. We'd love to, you clearly have figured something out. We'd love to learn from you. And so I went and we had this conversation that began, you know, what ended up being a year and a half long process.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
What they did is they said, listen, we're going to have purchase orders that you can count on. And you can take those purchase orders down into your supply chain and talk to your suppliers that this isn't just words, this is real. And that changed the conversation fundamentally.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
Things like automated label setting machines, buying screen printing machines so we could bring that in-house and have that piece of the business verticalized. Things like that that allowed us to be more cost efficient faster.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
When cloth is knitted, it's typically knitted as like a flat bit of cloth, or you can knit it in a tube. That's called tubular knits. It eliminates the sewing steps that are required, like side seam sewing on the side of your garment. The shirt that you're wearing, likely, if you run your hand down, your armpit down to your waist, you'll feel a sewed seam there.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
And those are two operations that we've eliminated in the shirt because it's already done.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
Well, it's a great question. I mean, I think making stuff in America is really hard. I mean, it's hard because I think that in textiles, the supply chain has become so disaggregated and atomized. On the other hand, I think when you have a framework that provides some consistency of demand and time, it's not so hard.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
It's hard, but possible. And I think it really comes down to, you know, I think I can't stand this question about, you know, I hear, oh, you can't make that in America anymore. It's like, what are you talking about? Like, I hear that all the time, Jess. I hear it on every category. It's like, that's just horseshit. Like, get out into some factories, talk to some people and find out.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
Now, whether you can make it for the same price you can make it in China, that's a different conversation. But can you do it here? Of course, of course you can. Of course you can.
The Journal.
How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S.
If you'd asked me that a year and a half ago, I would have said, no way.