NGM Blog Central - Sew Far Away - National Geographic Magazine

“Apparel always chases the low-cost needle.” The garment industry tagline explains why more than 90 percent of clothing sold in the United States is made offshore, says Mike Todaro of the American Apparel Producers’ Network. U.S. apparel manufacturing started in New England and New York in the 1800s, shifted to Pennsylvania, then headed south after the turn of the century to states where labor was cheap and unions were weak. From there, it jumped the border to even cheaper labor pools in Mexico and the Caribbean.

The rush to China began in the 1970s, remembers Bud Konheim, CEO of Nicole Miller, a women’s wear designer. “We could do something for half price, so we did. Everyone went, like lemmings.” Using tariffs and quotas to stem the hemorrhage has its limits. “They’re easy to get around,” Todaro says. Is the offshore shift irreversible? “We’re beginning to hear that some production is coming back,” he says. “But it’s more feeling than fact.”

—Cathy Newman

GARMENT DISTRICTS
Nearly a third of U.S. apparel imports came from China in 2008. Asia and Latin America rounded out the top ten.

1 China (32% of imports)
2 Vietnam (7.3%)
3 Indonesia (5.63%)
4 Mexico (5.61%)
5 Bangladesh (4.8%)
6 India (4.3%)
7 Honduras (3.6%)
8 Cambodia (3.3%)
9 Thailand (2.4%)
10 Hong Kong (2.2%)