Made in America
“Our local electric company... called me up and said, ‘Jack, we need a face mask for our electrical installers in Bristol, Tennessee. They have an idea of what they want it to look like,’” he said. “I called up one of my sewers and asked her to meet me here at the factory. She met me here, and we made one.” “After we made it three different times, the electric company signed off on it then said, ‘We would like to buy 500.’ You see, it just so happened that I had this fabric we were going to make shorts for a customer that canceled their order, so I had this fantastic 100% cotton, blue twill that you can make a face mask out of. I called up four of my sewers back into the factory, and these four sewers made these 500 face masks for the electric company.”
over 7,000 face masks over the internet to people around the country, to individuals, to businesses.” These are 100% American-made face masks made in the same factory his grandfather founded in 1913 in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, in the now-historic building on the corner of Shelby Street and 7th Street in downtown Bristol. Long before the coronavirus hit, Americans had desired everything from clothing to cars to military components to toys to iPhones to medical products to be manufactured on our soil. Sixty percent of respondents in one poll said they would “buy American” even if they had to pay more. As far back as 11 years ago, during the depths of the Great Recession, when Pew asked voters their sentiments on requiring spending in the stimulus plan to be limited to American-made goods, it was very popular. Only 24% believed Buy American provisions would be a bad idea, and the issue was remarkably not politically divisive. Democrats (70%), Republicans (66%), and independents (63%) strongly supported such measures. In the early days of the pandemic, when hospitals were on a hunt for surgical masks to protect doctors and nurses, the public soon realized that half of the world’s masks were made anywhere but here, mostly in China. So far, no polling illustrates whether public sentiment has shifted to even stronger support for American-made products, but you have to imagine it certainly hasn’t shifted toward
This was the ultimate repurpose during an era that has strained our normally purpose- driven lives.
This was the ultimate repurpose during an era that has strained our normally purpose-driven lives. He posted the blue twill masks on Instagram, and within moments, people commented asking how they could buy them online. “I thought to myself, ‘Well, we always overmake’... so we said, yes,” he said. “I allowed the people to buy it on our website, and all of a sudden, I had to call two more workers back because this face mask has just exploded onto the scene. We have sold
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June 2020
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