In 2003, the last denim needle at Levi’s stitched its final American-made jean. As a junior staffer at the iconic brand, I watched in real-time as we shuttered our final U.S. factory. A piece of Americana died that day, sacrificed at the altar of globalism and cheap labor.
The death knell had been sounding for a while. First, NAFTA opened the floodgates in 1994. Then, China secured Most-Favored-Nation status in 2001, and suddenly forced labor became just another “competitive edge.” Levi’s, like many brands, caved under the pressure of price wars and consumer indifference. Americans claimed they loved U.S.-made goods, but when faced with a $30 difference at checkout, they picked the $19.99 Chinese pair over the $49.99 American one.
So offshoring won, and America lost. We didn’t just lose jobs. We lost factories. We lost skills. We lost pride. Today, American apparel manufacturing is a shell of what it once was.
But that might be changing — thanks to one man unafraid to slap the globalists in the face with the cold, hard truth: President Donald J. Trump.
Trump’s unapologetic America First trade agenda is doing what no bipartisan committee, no think tank white paper, and no corporate PR campaign ever could: making American manufacturing viable again. The left howls that tariffs are a tax on the consumer. Maybe. But they also expose the true cost of slave labor abroad and give U.S. businesses a fighting chance to compete on a fair field.
In my own business, I’ve felt the seismic shift. We produce ethical athletic apparel. We manufacture in Peru and Vietnam because U.S. capacity is still practically nonexistent. Believe me, we’ve tried. The factories and trained workers simply aren’t there anymore. But we hold out hope that, under Trump, they will be.
Why? Because tariffs are changing behavior. Peru is eliminating its tariffs on U.S. goods. Vietnam just cut theirs to “improve trade balances.” That’s not coincidence. That’s leverage — the kind Trump knows how to use.
Meanwhile, the cancer of fast fashion continues to rot our culture. Americans buy 68 items of clothing a year, wear most of them fewer than three times, and toss them in the trash. Companies like Shein and Temu flood the market with $5 leggings and $3 tops made in factories that no journalist is allowed to visit.
The modern consumer has been trained to worship cheap garbage. The left wrings its hands about climate change while ignoring that 85% of these cheap garments end up in landfills. Where are the climate warriors when it comes to fast fashion? Silent, as always.
Americans say they want to support U.S. jobs. Polls show they’re even willing to pay 20% more for American-made goods. What they don’t realize is that it takes a lot more than 20% to offset the massive cost advantage of countries that use pennies-on-the-dollar labor.
That’s where tariffs come in. Level the playing field and suddenly American companies can grow. Maybe even thrive. I’m not some ivory tower economist. I’m a business owner trying to make it work without compromising my values. If holding our prices means eating into margins, we’ll do it. Because building something real, something sustainable, something made in America — is worth it.
We don’t just need more tariffs. We need a tariff revolution. The kind of tough, unapologetic policy that only Trump seems willing to push through.
Tariffs aren’t just about trade. They’re about dignity. They’re about middle-class jobs, strong families, and a nation that builds instead of buys. If tariffs bring back American production, weaken fast fashion, and give businesses like mine a shot to make things the right way, I say bring them on.
We tried globalism. It failed. It’s time to bring manufacturing home — and tariffs are how we do it.
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