Rickenbacker: Legendary Guitars and Basses Made in Santa Ana, California

Put on "A Hard Day's Night" and listen to that first crashing chord. Then put on "Mr. Tambourine Man" by The Byrds, or anything off the early Rush records with Geddy Lee's bass growling like a muscle car at a stoplight. Different bands, same badge on the headstock. Rickenbacker has been building electric instruments in Southern California since 1931. Not designed there and shipped in from somewhere else. Built, start to finish, in their own factory in Santa Ana. Continue reading

American Tent: Commercial Event Tents Made in Green Bay, Wisconsin

Buy a commercial party tent from most sellers and you are buying a shipping container. Somebody overseas cut the vinyl, somebody else stacked it on a boat, and twelve weeks later a 40x80 pole tent shows up at your dock with a bill of lading and nobody to call when a seam is wrong. American Tent sells the opposite of that. They cut and sew their tents in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and they put the pitch about as plainly as a Wisconsin company can: Continue reading

Argonaut Cycles: American Made Custom Carbon Bikes Built in Bend, Oregon

Almost every carbon fiber bicycle in America comes from the same handful of factories in Asia. Not similar factories. The same ones. Brands you think of as rivals are frequently sharing a molding line and arguing over paint. Argonaut Cycles builds no more than 200 bicycles a year in a shop in Bend, Oregon, and their founder has a line about why that is worth the trouble. "We never outsource. We know the name of every person who touches our frames." Continue reading

Spot Hogg: American Made Archery Sights and Releases Built in Harrisburg, Oregon

There is a line at the top of the Spot Hogg website right now, and it is not a sales pitch. "Due To High Demand Orders for Sights and Releases Ship in 4 - 6 Weeks From The Time of Order." Think about what that admits. In a world where a brand can have a container of sights on a boat by Tuesday, here is a company telling you to wait a month and a half. They could fix that tomorrow. They would just have to send the drawings somewhere else. Continue reading

Axe Equipment: American Made Engine Stands and Spray Washers Built in Council Grove, Kansas

Everybody who has spent time in a shop knows the sound. You have a big block hanging off a bargain engine stand, you go to rotate it, and somewhere down in the base the tubing groans and the whole thing takes a half inch step sideways. Nothing falls. This time. But for the rest of the build you find yourself standing a little off to one side. Axe Equipment has a photo of one of those stands on their engine stand page, orange and skinny with a block hanging off it, and the caption under it is short and to the point: "This cheap engine stand was made offshore. Not all engine stands are created equal." Continue reading

Brinkley RV: American Made Travel Trailers and Fifth Wheels Built in Goshen, Indiana

There is a word RV owners use for their first year with a new trailer. They call it the shakedown. What it actually means is that you handed over six figures, and now you get to spend twelve months discovering everything the factory missed. Ask around any campground and you will hear the same list. Trim that pops loose on the second trip. Wiring nobody can trace. A slide that groans. Somewhere along the way the industry decided that was normal and moved on. Continue reading

Ferox Gear: American Made Hunting and Shooting Gear

Every hunter has a story about the moment a piece of gear quit on them. The zipper that let go at 11,000 feet. The pouch that shed its stitching somewhere between the truck and the ridge. The rifle cover that soaked through in the first hour and stayed that way for three days. None of it happens at the range on a nice afternoon. It happens on day four, in the dark, when you are cold and tired and there is nothing to do about it. Continue reading

Grace Alley: Veteran Owned, American Made American Flags

Flip over the header of the American flag hanging off your porch right now. What does it say? If there is no country of origin sewn into that white band, you may be flying an imported version of the one symbol that should never be imported. Big box stores stack pallets of foreign made Old Glory every June and sell them at a beach ball price, and nobody checks the label because who would think to. Continue reading

Mountaineer Brand: American Made Beard, Body and Bald Head Care

Go grab whatever bottle is sitting in your shower right now and flip it over. We will wait. Chances are you cannot pronounce half the ingredient list, and the fine print at the bottom points somewhere a very long flight away. That is just the normal state of the personal care aisle, and it is exactly the thing Mountaineer Brand set out to fix from a kitchen in West Virginia back in 2013. Continue reading

Guardian Bikes: American Made Bicycles Built in Seymour, Indiana

Here is a number that ought to bother you a little. Roughly 97% of the kids bikes sold in America come from overseas. Nearly every first bike, every training wheel wobble, every scraped knee on the driveway involves a machine that was welded and boxed on the other side of the planet. And then there is Guardian Bikes, which decided that was a ridiculous state of affairs and went and built a bicycle factory in Seymour, Indiana instead. Continue reading