Reshoring the outdoor apparel industry: An interview with J. Brandon of Ascent Douglas

This interview is part of my Glocal Interview series.

President Obama, with his American Job Act, isn’t the only one focusing on job creation. Below J. Brandon of Ascent Douglas – a movement to bring outdoor apparel manufacturing into Douglas County Nevada – offers some interesting insights into how one community is trying to create jobs.

What’s in a job? For every $1 of sales related to manufacturing, there is a $1.40 return throughout the U.S. economy. This is opposed to overseas manufacturing in which for every $1 of sales there is a 58-cent output.

###

Where are you a local?

I live in Gardnerville, in Douglas County, Nevada. I’ve also lived in Silicon Valley, the Pacific Northwest, Las Vegas, and as a child, very briefly in Southern California. I was born in the UK.
J.Brandon3
What is the economic situation currently in Douglas county?

Nevada’s economy suffered more than the rest of the country in the past few years. Prior to that, we were the fastest growing state. Houses were popping up by the tens of thousands in Las Vegas, the construction industry was raging, and people were moving here from all over. Although Douglas county is very rural and more than 400 miles from Las Vegas, we saw a lot of that here as well. Housing construction fueled the economy. It disappeared almost overnight and suddenly a lot of people were out of work.

In November 2007, the unemployment rate in the US, in Nevada, and in Douglas County was 4.4 to 4.6 percent. By June 2008 it was 5.7 percent in the US, 6.3 percent in Nevada, and 6.8 percent in Douglas County. Unemployment in the US peaked in January 2010 at 10.6 percent. In Nevada it was 15.3 percent. In Douglas County it was 16.7. Since April 2010 the rate has been under 10 percent in the rest of the country. It’s still above 13 percent in Nevada and 14 percent in Douglas County.

One of my neighbors has lived in his house for more than 20 years. He used to run a small excavating company. He could pick and choose what jobs to take and was winding down toward retirement. Now, he has sold his equipment and drives an 18-wheeler between Reno and Sacramento five nights a week.

But we are optimistic. We get to live in a beautiful place with a portion of Lake Tahoe in our county. Our mountains reach up to more than 10,000 feet above sea level. We can snowboard at a world-class resort and go for a mountain bike ride in the high desert on the same day. We have four distinct seasons, 300 days of sunshine a year, and tremendous amounts of accessible public land. At night we can step out into our back yards and see the Milky Way, watch for shooting stars, and listen to coyotes.

What is Ascent Douglas doing and how does the outdoor apparel industry factors into that?

That scenery and that big outdoor lifestyle are some of our strongest assets. For many of us, it is why we moved here. That’s true for me. I left Silicon Valley and came here to work as a backcountry guide.

So Ascent Douglas is an effort to share what we love with other folks. Many, if not most, outdoor equipment companies are started by people who are very passionate about the outdoors. You’ll often find these companies located in small towns with big outdoor lifestyles right out the back door. Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, Inc. expressed that in the title of his book, “Let My People Go Surfing.” Patagonia makes outdoor clothing and gear and is headquartered in Ventura, California with great surfing right nearby. Its service and distribution center is here in Northern Nevada.

The subtitle of Mr. Chouinard’s book is “The Education of a Reluctant Businessman.” Ascent Douglas aims to educate people in the outdoor equipment industry about the opportunities in our community. We’ve got a ready workforce, affordable housing, low costs of doing business, and you might even be able to see a bald eagle fly right by your office window.

That appreciation for the outdoors often shows up in the values and ethics of these companies. They tend to work hard to minimize waste and are generally fairly clean industries. Their customers tend to be well-informed and concerned about how their buying decisions affect the world they live in. Companies that foster that sense of connectedness tend to be pretty good corporate citizens. These are the kinds of businesses we would like to see in our community.

Outdoor apparel is more technical than simple tee-shirts and jeans. It’s also sold in smaller volumes and the companies that make it are often much smaller than other clothing companies. So the market is more volatile, the risks are higher, and the decision makers are much closer to the end user and easier to talk with. All of these factors help make outdoor clothing and gear an attractive market for our efforts.

With wages in some countries being less than a dime an hour, how is “Made in America” even possible?

American companies have spent the past few decades moving manufacturing offshore. Most of them made that decision because of cheaper labor. Many are discovering that cheap labor can be very expensive.

Harry Moser retired as the president of a company that makes machine tools for industry. He lives near Chicago. His father and grandfather spent their entire careers in the Singer Sewing Machine factory in New Jersey. Mr. Moser founded a non-profit called the Reshoring Initiative . He travels the country talking about why reshoring is good for America. More importantly, he talks with individual companies about why it might make sense for them.

The Reshoring Initiative offers a free tool called the “Total Cost of Ownership” model. It compares the costs of manufacturing in 17 countries based on 29 factors and can predict costs five years into the future. Labor costs are just one data point. Total costs account for things like travel time to manage offshore suppliers, inventory expenses while product is in a container crossing the ocean instead of in your warehouse ready to be sold, increased costs for quality assurance, the risks of intellectual property theft, and more. For many companies and many products, offshore manufacturing turns out to be very expensive.

At the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow in Salt Lake City recently we sponsored a panel discussion called “Made in America: The New Push to Reshore Production.” One of our panelists was Kaushal Chokshi, the founder and chairman of Quickstart Global. Mr. Chokshi has been managing international businesses for more than 25 years. He mentioned that when he travels to Mumbai, India his hotel room costs several times more than a hotel room in San Francisco. He wrote recently that property in Shenshen, China costs three times as much as property in Austin, Texas. He also predicts that advances in manufacturing technology will make it even more expensive to have huge inventories traveling by container ship to get to the end user. His forecasts show that customer demands and easy mass customization will bring at least final assembly much closer to the final purchaser. This would happen even if the cost of manufacturing offshore did not increase. And it is going up.

###

I have no idea if the apparel industry wants to move to Douglas county, but, after reading J. Brandon’s description, I want to!

 
22 comments
Amber says:

I’ve been browsing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any
interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me.
In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you did,
the net will be a lot more useful than ever before.|
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Well written!|
I’ll immediately take hold of your rss feed as I can not in finding your email subscription hyperlink or
e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly let me realize in order
that I may just subscribe. Thanks.|
It is perfect time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to
be happy. I’ve read this post and if I could I wish to suggest you some interesting things or suggestions.
Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article.
I want to read even more things about it!|
It is perfect time to make some plans for the longer term and it is
time to be happy. I’ve read this submit and if I may I want to counsel you few attention-grabbing things or suggestions.

Perhaps you could write subsequent articles regarding this article.

I desire to read even more things approximately it!|
I’ve been surfing on-line greater than three hours today,
but I by no means found any interesting article like yours.
It’s pretty value enough for me. In my view, if all website owners and bloggers made excellent content as you probably did, the internet might be much more helpful than ever before.|
Ahaa, its nice conversation on the topic of this piece of writing at this place at this blog, I have read all that, so at
this time me also commenting at this place.|
I am sure this article has touched all the internet people, its really really pleasant article on building up new blog.|
Wow, this paragraph is pleasant, my sister is analyzing these things, thus I am going to inform her.|
Saved as a favorite, I love your site!|
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you writing this article
and also the rest of the site is also very good.|
Hi, I do think this is a great web site. I stumbledupon it 😉 I am going to revisit yet again since i have book-marked it.

Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and continue to help other people.|
Woah! I’m really digging the template/theme of this blog.
It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very difficult to get that “perfect balance” between usability and appearance.
I must say you’ve done a awesome job with this.

Also, the blog loads super fast for me on Chrome. Excellent Blog!|
These are really fantastic ideas in on the topic of blogging.
You have touched some nice points here. Any way keep up
wrinting.|
I like what you guys are usually up too. This sort of
clever work and exposure! Keep up the good works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to our
blogroll.|
Hello! Someone in my Myspace group shared this site with us so I came to take a look.
I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to
my followers! Wonderful blog and wonderful design and style.|
I really like what you guys tend to be up too. This kind of clever work
and exposure! Keep up the excellent works guys I’ve included you guys to my personal blogroll.|
Hey there would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re using?
I’m looking to start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time
selecting between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and
Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and
I’m looking for something completely unique.

P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!|
Howdy would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re working
with? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different web browsers and I must say this
blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you recommend a
good hosting provider at a honest price? Thanks a lot, I appreciate
it!|
Everyone loves it when people get together and share thoughts.
Great blog, keep it up!|
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it.
Look advanced to more added agreeable from you! However, how could we communicate?|
Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to be running off the screen in Ie.
I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with browser compatibility but
I figured I’d post to let you know. The style
and design look great though! Hope you get the problem resolved soon. Kudos|
This is a topic which is near to my heart… Many thanks!
Exactly where are your contact details though?|
It’s very simple to find out any matter on web as compared to textbooks, as I found
this post at this website.|
Does your website have a contact page? I’m having a tough time locating it but, I’d like to send you an e-mail.

I’ve got some recommendations for your blog you might be interested in hearing.
Either way, great website and I look forward to seeing it improve
over time.|
Hola! I’ve been following your blog for a while now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out
from Huffman Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the good work!|
Greetings from Ohio! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to browse your blog on my iphone during lunch break.
I love the info you provide here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home.
I’m surprised at how quick your blog loaded on my cell phone ..
I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, awesome blog!|
Its such as you read my mind! You seem to know so much about
this, such as you wrote the book in it or something.
I think that you just can do with a few percent to power the message house a bit, however instead of that, that is great blog.
A great read. I’ll certainly be back.|
I visited several sites but the audio quality for
audio songs existing at this web page is really marvelous.|
Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one
and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam responses?
If so how do you prevent it, any plugin or anything you can suggest?
I get so much lately it’s driving me insane so any assistance is very
much appreciated.|
Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular article!
It’s the little changes that make the most significant changes.
Many thanks for sharing!|
I really love your website.. Pleasant colors & theme.
Did you build this site yourself? Please reply back as I’m trying to create my own personal site
and would love to know where you got this from or exactly
what the theme is called. Thanks!|
Hello there! This post could not be written any better!
Looking through this article reminds me of my previous roommate!

He continually kept preaching about this. I most
certainly will send this article to him. Fairly certain he’s going to have a good read.
Thanks for sharing!|
Incredible! This blog looks just like my old one!
It’s on a entirely different topic but it has pretty much the same page layout and
design. Superb choice of colors!|
There is definately a great deal to find out about this topic.
I like all the points you’ve made.|
You have made some decent points there. I looked on the internet to find out more about the issue and found
most individuals will go along with your views
on this website.|
Hello, I read your blog regularly. Your humoristic style is
witty, keep doing what you’re doing!|
I simply could not leave your site before suggesting that I actually enjoyed the
usual info a person supply in your visitors? Is going to be again ceaselessly to inspect new posts|
I needed to thank you for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoyed every bit of it.
I have you book-marked to check out new things you post…|
What’s up, just wanted to tell you, I liked this post.
It was practical. Keep on posting!|
I drop a leave a response whenever I like a article on a blog or I have something to contribute
to the conversation. Usually it’s triggered by the fire displayed
in the article I read. And on this article Reshoring the outdoor apparel industry: An interview with J.
Brandon of Ascent Douglas | Kelsey Timmerman. I was moved enough to post a thought 🙂 I
do have a couple of questions for you if it’s okay. Is it only me or does it look as if like some of the comments look
like they are coming from brain dead visitors? 😛 And, if
you are writing at other online social sites, I’d like to keep up with anything new you have to post.
Could you list all of your public pages like your
linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?|
Hello, I enjoy reading through your post. I like to write a little comment to support you.|
I always spent my half an hour to read this blog’s articles or reviews all the time along with a cup of coffee.|
I every time emailed this website post page to all my contacts,
since if like to read it afterward my friends will too.|
My coder is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less.
I’ve been using Movable-type on various websites for
about a year and am concerned about switching to another platform.
I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress posts
into it? Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!|
Hi! I could have sworn I’ve visited this site before but after going through a few of
the articles I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely pleased I discovered it
and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back frequently!|
Great work! This is the type of info that should be shared across
the net. Shame on Google for no longer positioning this publish higher!
Come on over and visit my site . Thank you =)|
Heya i’m for the first time here. I found this
board and I find It truly useful & it helped me out much.
I hope to give something back and help others like you helped me.|
Hi there, I do believe your site could possibly be having browser compatibility problems.
When I look at your web site in Safari, it looks fine however when opening in I.E., it has some
overlapping issues. I merely wanted to give you a quick heads up!
Aside from that, excellent blog!|
A person essentially assist to make seriously posts I’d state.
That is the first time I frequented your web page and so
far? I amazed with the research you made to make this
actual submit amazing. Excellent job!|
Heya i am for the primary time here. I came
across this board and I find It truly helpful & it helped me out much.

I hope to provide something back and aid others like you aided me.|
Hi there! I simply would like to give you a huge thumbs up for the excellent information you have
here on this post. I will be coming back to your web site for more soon.|
I every time used to read post in news papers but now as
I am a user of net therefore from now I am using net for content,
thanks to web.|
Your way of describing the whole thing in this paragraph is actually nice, every one be able to without difficulty be aware of it,
Thanks a lot.|
Hello there, I discovered your blog by means of Google even as searching for a similar matter, your site got here up, it seems to
be good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.

Hi there, simply become aware of your weblog
thru Google, and found that it’s truly informative. I am going to be careful for brussels.
I will be grateful should you continue this in future.
Numerous folks can be benefited from your writing. Cheers!|
I am curious to find out what blog system you’re utilizing?

I’m having some small security issues with my latest site and I’d like to
find something more safe. Do you have any suggestions?|
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout
on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a great
blog like this one today.|
I’m really impressed along with your writing talents and also with the structure for your weblog.
Is this a paid topic or did you modify it yourself?
Anyway stay up the nice high quality writing, it’s rare to look
a nice weblog like this one nowadays..|
Hi, Neat post. There’s an issue together with your
website in web explorer, would check this? IE nonetheless is the marketplace leader and
a big component of other folks will leave out your excellent writing due to this problem.|
I am not sure where you are getting your information, but great topic.
I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more.
Thanks for wonderful information I was looking for this info for
my mission.|
Hi, i think that i saw you visited my site thus i came to “return the favor”.I’m trying to find things to enhance my site!I suppose
its ok to use a few of your ideas!!\

Having look at this we thought it had been quite enlightening.
I appreciate your finding tthe time and energy to place this information together.
we once more pick personally spending too much opportunity robot learning and commenting.
Although just what, it actually was still worthwhile!

For a few of our early design conferences exactly where it is known as
eco-friendly building materials the Napoleon III
design. These were primarily existen-huts, a kind of strengthening
and also newer building sorts appeared.

What is upwards, I look over the websites regularly. Your
crafting looks are witty, continue carrying out what you are doing!

The article articles implies that you will be very smart as well as capable of
creating interest-capturing articles or perhaps studies.
Maybe you write for any other individuals? Allow me to make up
you in your work (on some kind of hourly factor, per
quick blog post, .an such like).

First thing that renders the cell Rampage Hack
means special as well as different coming from different cheats was their web browser as well as operating-system being compatible.

Si se considera un precio medio de 200 euros con el fin de cualquier
juego de reposici deborah se llega that un desembolso dentro de gomas de eight hundred the best
one.000 euros, y adem ð… sin ahorro de flammable..nike operating application

I have been exploring through-line more than 3 days because
of belated, yet we never ever found any sort of intriguing write-up including your own. It is beaitiful costs enojgh for me.
Within my see, whether all wweb people plus webmasters produced close information content as you
most likely did, the net will likely be so much more helpful than ever.

Often I actually do perhaps not see write-up about websites, nevertheless I would like to say that this compose-up really
pressured us to have a look at and also do so! Your writing preferences
has been astounded me personally. Thank you, rather big posting.

just booty says:

Big article.a lot thank you once again. Superb.

the time to learn or maybe look at the contents to webpages we have
now connected to underneath the

It’s likely to be ending of mine time, except prior to
end I am reading this article remarkable write-up to improve my know-the
best way.

This style will magnificent! You certainly know how to keep your readers entertained.
Between your wit as well as your videos, I found
myself practically relocated to begin my own weblog (nicely, virtually…HaHa!) great job.
I truly cherished what you needed to say, and most which,
the manner in which you introduced information technology.
Too cool!

On each week-end, we all colleagues collectively accustomed watch tv show,
since fun can also be vital in daily life.

I’d like to order some international money genuine junior products lolitas
that is rght Loli, Brazilian ladies is gifted!
fantastic scene!

AracelyLFode says:

Fantastic items by you, man. I have think about your stuff previous
to and you might be simply too fantastic. I really like what you might have received on this site, really like what you are saying and the way
in which through which you say it. You are making it entertaining and you still take care of to stay
it smart. I can’t wait to read a lot more of your stuff.
This really is actually a terrific site.

Se você aprecia arte, mas não troca por nada o contato com a natureza, Inhotim é o seu museu! Seu acervo museológico é reconhecido mundialmente por suas 500 obras, de mais de 100 artistas de 30 países. Obras de brasileiros como Tunga e Cildo Meireles dividem espaço com nomes como Matthew Barney e Victor Grippo. Há inclusive obras criadas especialmente para a coleção do Instituto, que se fundem com as características naturais do lugar, chamadas de instalações site-specific. Em Inhotim, não existe um caminho estabelecido para percorrer. As trilhas correm o parque sem começo ou fim e as obras e plantas raras se espalham por todos os cantos. E o melhor: é possível interagir com a maioria das obras. Caminhe sem pressa e vá a bordo de um calçado bem confortável!
timberland sneaker http://www.timberlandshoesformen.com/

Soclikes says:

Great content! Interesting article!

I think this is one of the best blog for me because this is really helpful for me. Thanks for sharing this valuable information for free…
Best Interior designer in patna

Cooper Davidson says:

Thank you for this interview! I like it. Do you have the video version? You could publish it on instagram and get some views from this site https://viplikes.net/buy-instagram-live-video-views

lolop says:

Thanks to the author’s comprehensive description, I learnt everything I needed to know about my topic after reading this post. I published a review that you may read on the https://bit.ly/3butzoG. Thank you so much for your time and attention.

Let your voice be heard!

Leave a Reply to Soclikes Cancel reply