Tactical Gear Sewing

It won’t make headlines, but the landscape for defense suppliers just changed. DoD acquisitions generally fall under the Berry Amendment or Buy American Act. These guidelines require 100% of raw components and manufacturing labor to be derived in the U.S. However, the rules are different now. A recent determination made by the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy ruled that the Buy American Act “component test” is inapplicable to acquisitions of commercially available off-the-shelf items (COTS).

What does this mean???

The raw materials that go into certain finished products don’t have to be Made in the USA. This is a huge shift in policy. I’m sure a lot of analysis went into this. It’s a very fine balancing act supporting the current needs of our country while still adhering to the principle of self-defense. The reality today (which I am very well aware of) is that it is very difficult to make a 100% Made in USA product. There is simply not a strong enough textile base in this country anymore. Across the entire spectrum of textile components (fabric, velcro, fasteners, molded plastics, thread, etc), there is only a tiny fraction of suppliers there once was. My frustration grows day by day as more businesses exit textiles and smart people leave the industry for good.  

The Dept of Defense is certainly recognizing this and clearly is frustrated by how difficult it is to buy items that otherwise are common in the marketplace. In these times of global threats, our military can’t go without the supplies they need. And they need them fast too.

Back to my world…When I am presented with an opportunity to make an item, often the biggest challenge is not making the item (we can sew as well or better than anywhere on this globe), but sourcing the components. Leave the price differences aside. The bigger effect of  a ravaged textile base is fewer choices, higher minimums, and longer lead times. You can’t find what you need or get it when your customer has to have it. This doesn’t work well for government entities that like to take a long time to make decisions.  When the decisions are finally made, they need it yesterday. No one will solve the bureaucracy issue. Instead, more frequently than not,  I get to explain the bad news and look like the bad guy.  

It’s important to remember that the ruling applies to off-the-shelf items only, not the significant amount of items that are made custom for our U.S. military. So we’re only talking about a smaller segment of the DoD budget. Selfishly and from a short-term perspective, this creates more opportunities as a finished product manufacturer. However, long term it’s going to make things even more difficult for our  manufacturing supply base, and for me, making the custom items. That’s not good news for our country.  

Obviously, there’s not a perfect decision. Soldiers can’t go without.  While long term, we need to ensure we have the manufacturing base to defend ourselves against the growing threats of this world.

I’d love to hear what you think.

I’ve often pondered and more often asked by prospects and customers why we choose Chicago for our sewing facility. Well, the simple reason would be that the company founders chose it, all the way back in 1921. But many things have changed since then, and it’s worth discussing why it still makes sense today.

Co-location with your customers is ideal for almost any business. But for us, we have a widely-dispersed national customer base. In fact, many of them are on the coasts: California, Florida, Virginia, Washington, the list goes on…Meanwhile, we’re sitting right smack in the middle. As it turns out, the numbers of customers on the east and west coasts have remained relatively balanced. If we were to shift to one coast, we would be at a significant coast disadvantage trying to serve the other. So we’re making a cognizant compromise to appeal to both. Consequently, we try to make up for any difference by running a tight ship. Fixed costs are maintained low so we can ride the ebbs and flows of a made-to-order business.

But in reality, why would a California customer chose us over someone in their backyard? Well, several do and here’s why. Just like our founders played a big role in our location, the birth and formation of the US textile industry on the East Coast has a lot to do with it.

The portfolio of raw goods that we work with are not freight-friendly (unless you’re the freight company, I guess). It’s expensive to ship heavy, oversize rolls of nylon, canvas, webbing, and foam. Assuming a Berry compliant product, chances are a West Coast cut and sew shop is ordering their materials from a mill in North Carolina, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Georgia, etc. That’s a long way to ship bulky goods. Being here in Chicago, it’is a much shorter trip. We take those bulky goods, convert them into compactible soft goods and ship them the rest of the way in their new form. Essentially, it helps level the playing field with our West Coast competitors. At the same time, you can see it puts a West coast competitor at a significant disadvantage if the ship-to address for the finished goods are back East

Having said all of that, we’re not in a commodity business. By definition, a sewn product is a hand made product. The level of craftsmanship displayed in the sewing plays the biggest part. And that’s clearly an advantage of being in business for over 80 years. Yet, I’m always asked price first. That’s a discussion for another post sometime. Have a great day!

I recently received this email from a soldier in Afghanistan. He reached out to us looking for a custom cover for his vehicle in Afghanistan. We are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to help out soldiers from time to time. After he received them, he sent the following email. It’s awesome to be able to tie our passion for sewing to something as important as supporting our troops. 

Please tell all of the employees (or those that you can) that we are so very thankful for your support.  It means the world to us to know that the people at home believe in us and our mission.  Trust me when I say that we are helping these people one day at a time and that the tools that you give us are being put to good use.  Its fantastic knowing that GREAT American products are being used abroad by GREAT American people. Sleep easy, we’re on watch. 

V/R,

LT. Williams

Parade recently published a a short article on what products are still Made in the USA. Unfortunatelty, sewn products did not make the list. I’m working on changing that.

Here’s a link: http://www.parade.com/news/intelligence-report/archive/whats-made-in-the-usa.html

It’s a reasonable question in these times when so much of the textiles world is focused in the Far East. I spent much of my time at this year’s Shot Show in Orlando confirming my convictions. This is how I make my living after all. So I set out to talk to my Made in USA vendors of nylon, velcro, snaps, buckles, zippers, and others.

I made my rounds and clearly re-affirmed my belief that when it comes to durability, abrasion resitance, breakage, and IR reduction, you can’t beat Made in the USA mil spec product. The reality is that when you buy or look at something made in Vietnam, China, or elsewhere, they look good to the eye. But does in hold up in the theatre? Most of it wouldn’t hold up through two weeks of training. Going to play paintabll this weekend? Knock yourself out champ.

Our men and women in the battlefield know that you wouldn’t put your life on the line with this stuff. So many of our military are engaged in training the forces of other countries around the world. Ask them if they would trade gear with their co-horts. Only if it was their last day on tour and it was an act of sympathy.

If only I could be a fly on the wall at the DSCP, Natick, and other hubs of Department of Defense procurement. For reasons that are unclear to me and plenty of others in the industry, there have been several delays in awards of contracts. I know of several companies that have had an excruciating wait to hear on these contracts.

I don’t expect that the contracting officers care, but there is a lot of cost and pain for those companies in wait. How do I hold capacity in my plant for an indefinite time? While other work slows down, can I afford to keep my staff at high levels waiting for a contract? Can I afford to let them go and not have them when I do get the award? How will I deal with an expedited delivery that will inevitably be demanded because the government has waited so long? These are the questions that business owners and managers struggle with. With the slow down in the consumer and commercial markets, now would be a great time for a steady stream of government work in our factories. But many people are waiting. You have to wonder if some of them will be able to hang on long enough?

I have good news for our President. He voiced yesterday concerns about cost overruns on defense items. Well, the government is also saving money in their spending by their implicit “hands off” approach to enforcing Made in the USA standards.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of reading a government solicitation, they are usually a minimum of 25-30 pages long. Primarily because the document will reference a whole laundry list of applicable rules (or FARS as they call them). These FARS would cure anyone’s insomnia and are probably only read by some low-level attornies who are forced to by their bosses. Long and short, in many cases, they state whatever you’re going to provide to us, has to be made in the USA. That’s not true for all government purchases (e.g GSA), but most of the ones I work on.

I’ve participated in many, many bids over the years. Because it is a public process, we are able to see the winning bid amount on almost every contract award. I can not tell you how frequently I am stunned by the price and they don’t even raise an eyebrow from the contracting officer.  Over an over, contracts are awarded to unknown entities whose price is 20% or more less than the next closest price. In the business world, these quotes are classified as outliers. Most seasoned purchasing agents would conduct some research in such case. There’s usually a reason why they’re so much less. But that doesn’t happen in most government procurement offices.  

Do they really believe they are getting Made in USA product? Of course not. ”It’s not our job to verify the source of the product, we only ask the vendor to confirm that they are meeting the requirements of the contract.”

Are you kidding me? That can’t possibly be the standard, but I’m sorry to say, this is the case in many, many situations.

Something needs to change. Our government either needs to stand up and say we really don’t want Made in USA, but we really want the lowest price. Or they need to put some teeth into auditing the claims of these suppliers who know the game and are bastardizing the system. It takes 5 minutes on Google to determine if a company has a factory, a workforce, or any experience providing such an item. This is a small playlot that we contract sewers play in these days. Why come I haven’t heard of these entities that keep winning these bids with prices that flat out aren’t possible using USA labor and materiasls. 

So Mr. President, I promise you that you are saving quite a bit of money on your purchases. Made in China worked for Walmart, and it’s apparently working for the government too. It’s time for someone to stand up and support those of us who play by the rules, employ hard-working people in America, pay our taxes, licenses, fees, and the rest that is piled on. Or change the rules and let everyone play the same game. I can import too. This wink-wink scenario is growing old and costing Americans jobs.

Some might be amazed how often I get this question. Of course, the answer is an emphatic YES!

At our company, Bearse USA, we feel very fortunate to be able to survive and thrive in the topsy turvy world of manufacturing. We took our share of lumps for awhile, but we believe strongly in what we’re doing today.

During the late 90’s and early 00’s, we endured several tough conversations with our customers. The typical one sounded something like this, “You know, you make great product and you deliver on time, but…we’re going to China because we can get it for 50 cents on the dollar. There’s a lot of pressure on us from our executives and we need to do what we have to do.”

That was then. We were a company unprepared for the globalization of our industry. It took some serious introspection.

My Dad worked here for over 40 years and retired in 1999. When he comes down here now, it’s barely recognizable to him. New products, new machines, new capabilities, and a lean and mean efficient office. We invested a lot of time, money, and emotion to make this happen. It required some hard decisions and a few leaps of faith, but it worked, and we’re not looking back.