The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) is the reason for the plight of the US denim trade today. Across the US there were more than a dozen denim manufacturers. Now there are just three. Free trade forced American manufacturers to move to cheaper shores or be undercut on price by foreign competitors.

Nafta did not just hit the textile industry; across the US factories making everything from shoes to cars began to close down. The effect of trade deals has turned many areas of once-booming cities across the US into ghost towns. The reliance on a single factory or single industry sometimes cost cities nearly all their jobs when that work moves overseas. Cities in the US have changed from textile towns to data processing centers. Old mills have been turned into loft apartment and studio spaces.

A struggling section of the US is resisting globalization of the economy. Democratic Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton in the past supported free trade deals and called for more open economic borders. She praised the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement while it was being negotiated. But she later said she would not support TPP in its current form though she would want the US to remain a large player in the global economy.