After decades in business, and still big in Japan, Goodwear USA has perfected the art of basic apparel.
Stephen Liquori’s passion for sportswear began in high school after he took a class about silk screen printing.
“I was on the track team, and I said to my buddies, ‘Give me your white undershirts,’ and I printed up a track logo on them,” said Liquori. “I took them back to the locker room and they went crazy saying that this was so great.
“In the late 1960s and early ‘70s there was Russell Athletic, Champion and a couple of others who were decorating for the schools and universities, but it was nothing like the printed sportwear industry that came about in the late ‘70s.”
Liquori was on the fast track in this new type of apparel industry and in 1983 he founded Goodwear USA, making T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, polos, shorts, totes and sleepwear. Goodwear USA apparel is an entirely made-in-America brand that contracts with select American factories for its manufacturing needs.
Liquori had become weary of the low-quality, thin fabric, cheap T-shirts that had flooded the market and he wanted to produce his own premium heavyweight t-shirt. To this day, the 100% cotton, classic fit crew neck Goodwear USA t-shirt is the engine that propels this American-made brand.
“We start with the yarn. We purchase the yarn, we contract the knitting, we contract the finishing, and we ship it,” said Liquori. “Go back to 1999, 2000, 2001, we had seven factories making product for us because our unit production was really high.
“We’ve had relationships of 25 years with some people, other people 10 or 15 years, and they love us because this is all we do: Made in USA. You get a lot of retailers that will shift and go offshore, and they hurt domestic manufacturing.”
Liquori operates Goodwear USA with a team of about five employees, but the company creates hundreds of jobs in the factories that do its manufacturing.
“By the late 1980s I decided to make this heavyweight t-shirt which we still make today,” he said. “The same shirt, the same pocket T using the same fabrics, and they caught on in Japan in the late ’90s.”
Liquori was the merchandiser for the San Francisco Marathon in 1990 and some of his goods were being sold at the Hilton gift shop and the San Fransico Airport shops. A Japanese fashion importer saw the t-shirts and sent them to Japan where they became a coveted item.
“It was about eight years before we really exploded, and in 1998-99 we shipped a million units over to Japan in one year,” said Liquori. “That’s when we had to have the seven factories because no one factory could take on a million units.”
Exporting American-made t-shirts to Japan became Goodwear USA’s primary business until the Covid-19 outbreak hit in 2020.
“We were anywhere from 50- to 80% exporting to Japan, but now it is less than 20% because of the strong dollar and weak yen” said Liquori. “Our primary business now is online, direct to consumer.
“We always were about making things in America. We’re not making a commodity type t-shirt. Our stuff is sewn differently, sewn with cotton thread. It’s a nice shirt; a nicer product and we charge for it. If we were just doing run-of-the-mill stuff, we would get killed by the stuff that comes out of Honduras, El Salvador and China.”
Liquori’s venture into American-made sportswear and running sports may have been inspired by his younger brother Marty Liquori, a famous American miler who in 1967 became the third American high school athlete to break the four-minute mile. Marty Liquori is best known for his duels with Jim Ryun, the American Olympian who also ran a sub four-minute mile in high school.
The elder Liquori attended Boston University and the Goodwear USA headquarters is in Essex, Massachusetts, a small town located 26 miles north of Boston.
Liquori has managed to continuously make American-made sportswear for 42 years and grew Goodwear USA into a multi-million-dollar business.
But he realizes the present limitations that confront clothing and footwear manufacturers in the U.S.
“Apparel is 3% of what is made in the U.S. and to say I think we can move the needle to 10%, I say there is no way,” said Liquori. “We have to have the sewers, and we just don’t have the sewers. The U.S. once produced 98% of all apparel products.
“As many immigrants come in and stay here is the extent. New York City was a great manufacturing city. A lot of it went South and Los Angeles came along. You have got to have the people.
“We have a lot of immigrants in Massachusetts. They are landscapers, they are in restaurants. They are a critical part of the economy.”
Before launching Goodwear USA Liquori was silk screen printing for major brands like Nike, New Balance, and Reebok. But in his heart, he wanted to create a top-of-the-line T-shirt that feels great on the body and lasts for many years. Many of Goodwear USA shirts can be purchased for both men and women in the $35 to $60 range. Goodwear USA apparel is available at select retail outlets across America and around the world, but are also sold online at www.goodwearusa.com.