0 Comments Share Email Print By Al Lewis
DENVER (MarketWatch) — David Antosh is a third-generation blue-jeans maker.
His company, Round House Manufacturing, is based in Shawnee, Okla., about 45 minutes east of Oklahoma City on Interstate 40. It’s a tiny town where if you lay people off, or spin them silly in a corporate boardroom, you might have to actually see them in town the next day.
And to make matters more emotional, they might still be wearing their Round House jeans, as they have for generations.
Round House began in 1903, outfitting Shawnee railroad workers who serviced steam locomotives in round houses. It was always locally owned. Antosh’s grandfather bought it in the 1960s, and his father runs it today. Find out more about Round House.
It is a company that refuses to say, “Sorry, you can all go home now. We just hired a contract manufacturer in China.”
David Antosh of Round House Manufacturing.
Round House gets its denim from cotton mills in Texas, and its buttons, rivets and zippers from suppliers in Georgia. It employs about 80 people in two factories, making overalls, work aprons, jeans and caps. Its products sell in about 2,000 retail locations across the U.S., including farm and ranch suppliers, Western-wear stores, and even some of the two great walls: Wal-Mart and Walgreen.
“Out of all our 108 years, the most success we’ve ever had has been in the last couple years,” says Antosh, who is 30 years old.
Round House has proudly defied all the hopeless banter about how American-made products can’t compete with goods made abroad.
Cheap foreign laborers are now commanding higher wages, and rising energy costs are making it less feasible to make widgets in one hemisphere and then ship them to another. And then there’s the infinite complexity of the global supply chain, and with it the large chance that something will go horribly wrong.
Add it all together and a pair of Round House jeans retails for about $29 — not terribly out of line with other brands that are sewn together in China, Mexico and just about anywhere but the U.S.A.
“A lot of people assume that nobody makes jeans here in the U.S.,” Antosh says. “If it were impossible, we wouldn’t be here.”
Round House has been booming because the nation’s ongoing economic decline — and its stubborn 9% unemployment rate — has spawned a growing number of consumers who want to buy products made in America, Antosh says. The company also donates 10% of its profits to charities that reflect its values — spinning the money around where it may do its customers some good.
For anyone frustrated with America’s direction in a globalized economy, it may be just as well to throw on a pair of Round House jeans as join the tea party or Occupy Wall Street movements.
“I get tons of email every day from people who are excited about this,” Antosh says. “They say they’re going to spread the word...tell everyone they know.”
Round House is not only outfitting America, but it’s selling its apparel abroad. Its biggest foreign customer is Japan.
Antosh says that when he visits Tokyo’s exclusive Shibouya shopping district, he sees well-heeled people strolling about, not only in his jeans, but his overalls.
“It’s the strangest thing,” he concedes. “They’re selling for hundreds of dollars in the boutique stores in the fanciest part of Toyko.”
We need to stop relying on the govt to turn this economy around, Buy American products, Savings bonds and local services. Give them as Christmas presents this year! 
DENVER (MarketWatch) — David Antosh is a third-generation blue-jeans maker.
His company, Round House Manufacturing, is based in Shawnee, Okla., about 45 minutes east of Oklahoma City on Interstate 40. It’s a tiny town where if you lay people off, or spin them silly in a corporate boardroom, you might have to actually see them in town the next day.
And to make matters more emotional, they might still be wearing their Round House jeans, as they have for generations.
Round House began in 1903, outfitting Shawnee railroad workers who serviced steam locomotives in round houses. It was always locally owned. Antosh’s grandfather bought it in the 1960s, and his father runs it today. Find out more about Round House.
It is a company that refuses to say, “Sorry, you can all go home now. We just hired a contract manufacturer in China.”
David Antosh of Round House Manufacturing.
Round House gets its denim from cotton mills in Texas, and its buttons, rivets and zippers from suppliers in Georgia. It employs about 80 people in two factories, making overalls, work aprons, jeans and caps. Its products sell in about 2,000 retail locations across the U.S., including farm and ranch suppliers, Western-wear stores, and even some of the two great walls: Wal-Mart and Walgreen.
“Out of all our 108 years, the most success we’ve ever had has been in the last couple years,” says Antosh, who is 30 years old.
Round House has proudly defied all the hopeless banter about how American-made products can’t compete with goods made abroad.
Cheap foreign laborers are now commanding higher wages, and rising energy costs are making it less feasible to make widgets in one hemisphere and then ship them to another. And then there’s the infinite complexity of the global supply chain, and with it the large chance that something will go horribly wrong.
Add it all together and a pair of Round House jeans retails for about $29 — not terribly out of line with other brands that are sewn together in China, Mexico and just about anywhere but the U.S.A.
“A lot of people assume that nobody makes jeans here in the U.S.,” Antosh says. “If it were impossible, we wouldn’t be here.”
Round House has been booming because the nation’s ongoing economic decline — and its stubborn 9% unemployment rate — has spawned a growing number of consumers who want to buy products made in America, Antosh says. The company also donates 10% of its profits to charities that reflect its values — spinning the money around where it may do its customers some good.
For anyone frustrated with America’s direction in a globalized economy, it may be just as well to throw on a pair of Round House jeans as join the tea party or Occupy Wall Street movements.
“I get tons of email every day from people who are excited about this,” Antosh says. “They say they’re going to spread the word...tell everyone they know.”
Round House is not only outfitting America, but it’s selling its apparel abroad. Its biggest foreign customer is Japan.
Antosh says that when he visits Tokyo’s exclusive Shibouya shopping district, he sees well-heeled people strolling about, not only in his jeans, but his overalls.
“It’s the strangest thing,” he concedes. “They’re selling for hundreds of dollars in the boutique stores in the fanciest part of Toyko.”
We need to stop relying on the govt to turn this economy around, Buy American products, Savings bonds and local services. Give them as Christmas presents this year!