From the Kardashians to an HBO comedy, all your manufacturing policy essentials are here.
This is it, everybody: The Alliance for American Manufacturing’s last blog post for 2018. It’s time for meditation and reflection and reflection what makes this blog friggin’ great – the gratuitous references to President Trump’s past life as a pitchman.
No: What it's really all about, actually, is the legitimately interesting articles about issues related to manufacturing that we crank out. With that in mind, we've got a list of the top five blog posts, (based on number of pages views) from AAM in 2018.
The blog will be back with more content in 2019. Until then: Let's review!
Number 5
HBO’s Silicon Valley Takes On Big Tech’s Love of Offshoring — and Pokes Fun at Made in USA
If you’ve seen an episode of Silicon Valley, you know the show has a take-no-prisoners approach to its satire. The series skewers every aspect of tech culture, and this season, it has zeroed in on the valley’s long history of using overseas sweatshop labor to manufacture its trendy high-tech gadgets.
And in this week’s episode, it even went after the current state of American manufacturing.
Number 4
HGTV’s Home Town Stars Team with the Factory Man on American-Made Furniture
Undeniably, there was a lot of money to be had.
The question was, were they, the stars of HGTV’s hit show Home Town, willing to compromise their commitment to America’s small towns and manufacturing for a fat paycheck?
Number 3
The Next Generation of Factory Workers Prepare to Take the Helm
The faces of steel are getting younger.
In recent years, the median age of a steelworker at America’s mills has been estimated to be in the 50-to 55-year-old range. The dramatic slowdown in the American steel industry prevented some new hiring and caused layoffs, leaving the mills to depend mostly on workers with experience of 30 years or more.
But as the steel industry rebounds, many tenured workers are retiring, and the inevitable changing of the guard is taking place. Younger workers – some with college degrees – are discovering that a modern steel mill provides jobs in advanced manufacturing that also come with good pay and benefits.
Number 2
REVIEW: Just How Good (or Bad) is Khloe Kardashian’s Good American Clothing Line?
Keeping Up with the Kardashians is harder than it seems. Every time you turn around, the family is promoting, creating, and advocating… so, you may have missed that Khloe Kardashian launched her own clothing brand, Good American, in 2016.
Like many women in America, co-founders Kardashian and Emma Grede often struggled to find a pair of jeans that fit. So, they set out to establish their own denim line with a clear goal: promoting extreme inclusivity of all body types. The new line featured products in sizes 00 to 24, a much wider range of sizes than the average clothing brand offers. …
Along with body positivity, Kardashian promotes her clothing brand as "American-made," which we were excited to hear about! However …
And Number 1
After 2012 Controversy, Ralph Lauren Opts for American-made 2018 Winter Olympics Apparel
After coming under fire for outsourcing Team USA’s Summer 2012 Olympics apparel in China, Ralph Lauren contracted Imperial Stock Ranch in Shaniko, Ore., to begin weaving together a supply chain that would outfit America’s Olympians in Made in America clothing from head to toe, starting with the sheep who provided the wool needed to knit Team USA’s sweaters for the 2014 Winter Olympics.