Bayard Winthrop, CEO and Founder of the clothing brand American Giant, is not impressed by President Trump’s mission ‘Buy American, hire American’. Winthrop says the problem is not that it's hard to manufacture in America. American Giant was founded in 2011, and it has remained committed to selling Made-in-USA garments for a price that most would consider reasonable for their touted quality. It makes most of its garments in a factory in Middlesex, North America. The brand has proven that selling American-made clothing can work as long as you make something people want to buy. American Giant found early success with a sweatshirts that was crowned "the greatest hoodie ever made" in 2013, and that success has moved into other categories like women's pants.
Winthrop admits that small tweaks to trade deals like NAFTA could help American Giant, he adds it would really help his business by fixing the other things that every business has to deal with simplifying taxes and health care. He says they are not talking about that in a meaningful way and you're going to find in a hurry that a lot of things like immigration are important to this business in case one took the time to go to North Carolina along with him for six hours and meet some of these people and talk about the actual challenges.
He further adds, he will keep sailing on with American Giant whether lifted or buffeted by the Trump administration's policies. He leaves it on the customers to judge and at some point have someone in Washington says Winthrop.
