Company: All American Clothing Co.
Address: 1 Pop Rite Drive, Arcanum.
Telephone: (888) 937-8009
Website: www.allamericanclothing.com/
All American Clothing Co., the growing Darke County manufacturer of denim wear made in the USA, is launching a new line for the holiday season as sales continue to climb.
All American expects revenues to rise by 30 percent this year from the 2012 season. Although the privately held company doesn’t provide sales figures, expectations are that 89,000 items will ship this year and approximately 25 percent to 30 percent of the sales will happen during November and December.
The company shot to national fame in 2012 during the uproar over fashion designer Ralph Lauren making U.S. Olympic Team uniforms in China. Lauren recently annonced that he’s using U.S. apparel manufacturers for the 2014 Olympic Team.
This year, online holiday shoppers and visitors to the company’s showroom in Arcanum may select from a new line of Western-style button-up shirts, lightweight denim jeans for men, and a collection of patriotic-themed T-shirts.
All American co-founder B.J. Nickol and Marketing Director Logan Beam are making the interview rounds of satellite radio shows, including the popular Extreme Truckers. There are plans for an appearance on a new television show to be called “American Made.”
It’s under development by actor John Ratzenberger, who played the mailman character on the hit television show Cheers.
In a telephone interview, Ratzenberger said All American fits the bill for his show.
“I look at manufacturing as an art form. I want to elevate it and dispel the myth that manufacturing is a dead-end job,” he said. “Kids coming out of high school don’t realize there are great jobs with manufacturing.”
Other media personalities like Glen Beck have embraced Made in USA. Beck has featured All American products and even launched his own line of jeans, 1791 Supply & Co. Retail giant Wal-Mart is has pledged to run Buy American campaign to find an additional $50 billion in domestic products over ten years.
The momentum is all great material for All American, which already has a decade under the Made in USA label. B.J.’s father, Lawson, left his job as sales manager for a jeans manufacturer in 2002 when the company started making the jeans in Mexico.
He began All American and launched an online store to sell the brand as a price-competitive alternative to the denim imports featured by the better catalog retailers. Shipping is free for orders of $99 and higher. Returns are free, too.
The company purchased a manufacturing facility in El Paso early this year as demand rose. It also sources some of its clothing production at a Cadiz, Kentucky plant.
Nickol’s “traceability” system, highlighted on the company website, lets buyers track the origin of products to the U.S. cotton field and farmer. They company’s headquarters is a 45,000-square-foot factory complex just outside Arcanum that houses warehousing, the showroom/retail store, and offices. Only 25 percent of the complex is occupied, so there’s plenty of room to grow.
This year is the first full year in the Pop Rite facility and everything is on track for expansion. “It’s about growing and creating more jobs,” B.J. Nickol said.
B.J. Nickol said there are a dozen fulltime employees at the complex now with plans to hire up to five seasonal employees.
Ratzenberger said he grew up in Bridgeport, Conn., surrounded by people who made and invented things.
“For me that was the world. Those were my heroes,” he said. ““Manufacturing is to America what spinach is to Popeye. Somebody had to build the ceiling before Michelangelo could go to work.”
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