It’s not easy finding “American made” anything these days, let alone made by union workers. We simply don’t manufacture anything any more. God help us all if the Chinese decide to cut us off. We’ll all be sitting in the dark, on the floor and bare-assed.

OccupySupply has had good luck finding really well made union made hats, socks, scarves, blankets and polar fleece items. But I thought I would put up the list of things we haven’t had much luck sourcing, in case anyone out there has a line on suppliers:

Gloves — The bane of my existence. As I told greenharper today, we’ve only been able to identify two union glove makers in the US: North Star Gloves and The Knoxville Glove Company. Both manufacture very sturdy and well-made work gloves, but they’re not really what we need to keep people warm. We finally went with a family owned glove making company to buy polypropylene self-wicking gloves (similar to the polypropylene base layer clothing we have been supplying to the occupations, our #1 most requested item). They’re designed for people who need to keep their hands warm and dry during activities, however, more than extreme cold protection.  So we still need a heavy duty union made cold weather glove.

Boots — We have a dual problem with boots. There are many great USA bootmakers, and many of them have union facilities:  Red Wing, Danner, Belleville, Matterhorn and Weinbrenner among others.  There is a plentiful supply of leather in the US, there has been consistent  demand from the US military that has kept the industry alive, and (one imagines) the cattle industry has been more successful than others at protecting its products from the ravages of globalization looters.  But leather boots are quite expensive no matter where they are manufactured, and beyond what we can afford in order to equip the number of people we need them for. Moreover, we’ve found that these boot manufacturers won’t sell to anyone wholesale who doesn’t have a storefront, so we’re really struggling to get the price down to the point we can buy them for a thousand or more people.  So we not only need a good union made boot, but also someone with retail shoe connections to advise us on procurement.

Polypropylene base layer — As mentioned above, the #1 requested item from the occupations.  We ordered an initial supply and were told that they were union made, but subsequently discovered they weren’t.  So now we’re extremely careful to check every single manufacturer with the unions first to make sure that we know which union local is actually making things. We were not able to identify any union base layer manufacturers, and ultimately made the decision to buy from Wickers:

All Wickers garments are made in the United States of America! We believe we have a responsibility to keep American workers working. And, a solid manufacturing base makes for a stronger America.

Wickers is firmly committed to keeping our manufacturing right here in the USA where we can best serve our customers….

From the very beginning, Wickers has maintained a firm commitment to American sourcing and labor. Our feeling has always been that the best way to deliver quality product and service was to stay as close as possible to our customers. To accomplish this level of service Wickers established an American based supply chain for its yarn, fiber, knitting, dyeing, and apparel manufacturing.

While we’d love to have a union base layer manufacturer, we simply have not been able to find one and we feel pretty good that Wickers represents the values of OccupySupply.

Sleeping bags — No union manufacturers at any price.  The Exxel company has a reasonably priced, zero degree rated US made sleeping bag (pictured above) that we’re testing out now in 3 different locations, and they are really heavy and nice. But they’re not waterproof, and probably not appropriate for places in the Pacific Northwest that are really struggling to keep dry right now.   So we need a reasonably priced, USA made waterproof sleeping bag.

Outerwear — We haven’t found a really good coat for extreme cold that we’re happy with. We have some good blanket lined work coats that we should be getting next week, and we also have some quilted jackets for colder weather. But the latter are a bit too costly for the number we need, so if you have a line on cold weather coats, we’re still looking before committing to a big purchase.

Cots — We’re starting to get a lot of requests for cots so that people can stay dry and won’t be on the ground.  It’s something that we are just now beginning to source.

Union shops — If you hear of any small union shops that we might not otherwise know about, we’d be delighted to evaluate their products for OccupySupply.  We may also be able to work with them to adapt their products to suit the needs of the occupations  We are ordering sizeable quantities on a regular basis, so we’ve already negotiated several arrangements like this and they may find it well worth their while.

As depressing as it has been to learn that one American clothing manufacturer after another is now defunct, it’s also been a great experience to discover and support those manufacturers that are still here and making great products.  If you can help source any of the above items, we’d certainly love the help.  Let us know what you find in the comments, or drop us a line at fdlmembers DOT gmail DOT com.