DeepSummary
Bayard Winthrop founded American Giant in 2011 with the goal of making clothing entirely in the US, in contrast to the widespread trend of outsourcing manufacturing overseas. Assembling the necessary supply chain and finding US-based factories for each component was an arduous task, eventually leading to the creation of their first product - a hooded sweatshirt.
A viral article hailing it as 'the greatest hoodie ever made' led to a massive surge in demand that American Giant struggled to fulfill for almost three years due to underestimating the required production volumes. Despite the challenges, Winthrop persisted in his commitment to domestic manufacturing, even acquiring a facility to increase capacity.
While more expensive than imported goods, American Giant products represent a value proposition of quality, supporting local communities, and aligning with consumers' values related to domestic production and manufacturing jobs. Winthrop believes achieving competitive pricing requires large retailer commitments to provide the necessary scale.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Assembling a complete domestic supply chain for clothing manufacturing in the US is extremely challenging but possible with perseverance.
- Consumers are increasingly drawn to brands that align with their values around ethical production, environmental impact, and supporting local communities.
- Significant scale and commitment from major retailers is likely needed for domestic apparel manufacturing to be cost-competitive with imported goods.
- Serendipitous connections, media exposure, and good timing played a pivotal role in American Giant's success alongside hard work and commitment.
- Government policies could incentivize or constrain domestic manufacturing practices to uphold labor rights, living wages, and environmental standards.
- Despite higher costs, American Giant aims to deliver superior quality while revitalizing US manufacturing capabilities and jobs.
- Bayard Winthrop's persistence stemmed from a belief that outsourcing American manufacturing decimated lower and middle-class jobs with damaging societal consequences.
- Focusing employee benefits at factory levels, not just corporate offices, emerged as a priority for providing equitable support to manufacturing workers.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “I think anyone, anyone that tells you otherwise is lying. I think luck plays such an important role in any company's success.“ by Bayard Winthrop
- “If you think about, let's just pick an example, car fuel efficiency, we make decisions to say we're going to ratchet up fuel economy standards over time. Our policymakers could easily be doing a similar thing with constraining a little bit at where we allow our brands to manufacture based on some criterion that we can agree on, like human rights records, living wage, environmental standards.“ by Bayard Winthrop
- “I got a handful of brands in my life that I like giving them my money because I admire what they're doing and it aligns with my own values. And I think that is probably behind it is there's this intuitive sense that the amazonification of our lives is not great and that we're getting this disconnected reality from the people and the places that make the things that we need and love.“ by Bayard Winthrop
Entities
Company
Product
Person
Book
Episode Information
How I Built This with Guy Raz
Guy Raz | Wondery
7/1/24
Bayard Winthrop founded American Giant in 2011 with the simple idea to sell clothes made entirely in America at a time when most apparel manufacturing had moved overseas. The first struggle was finding all the components—the cotton, the buttons, the zippers, the rivets; the next was finding people to actually do the work—the dying, the napping, the sewing and the finishing. Once Bayard did all that he ended up with his first product, a plain hooded sweatshirt. But soon after a viral article proclaimed it “the greatest hoodie ever made” Bayard faced a backlog of orders that took him almost three years to fulfill. Today, American Giant has expanded their line to include all the basics: t-shirts, denim, flannel, and accessories, still entirely produced in the U.S.
This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei
Edited by Casey Herman, with research help from Katherine Sypher.
You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.