|
I was born in 1959, and so many things I grew up with, that were made here in the USA are gone. The factories who made them, gone. Moved to another country. Employing other people to make them. The link below has 18 things that left our shores.   #1. Rawlings Baseballs: They’re THE supplier for Major League Baseball. Born in 1887 in St. Louis, Missouri. Their founders, George and Alfred Rawlings. In 1969 Rawlings moved their factory from Missouri to Puerto Rico, then Haiti. Now they’re in Costa Rica. I guess baseballs are no longer as American as apple pie.  #2. Gerber Baby Food: Oh, my! I grew up eating Gerber. My kids did too. Gerber was born in 1927 in Michigan, that state up north. They merged with a Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, in 1994. Nestle bought them out in 2007, but my link said Gerber is no longer made in the USA. CORRECTION: Yes, it is. Bonus source #1 said Gerber’s still made in Ohio and Florida. In Canada and Europe too, but source #2 said you’ll find Gerber around the world. In Mexico too. Bonus Sources: Where Is Gerber Baby Food Made and How Quality Standards Ensure Your Child's Safety Where is Gerber Baby Food Made: A Comprehensive Guide to Manufacturing and Distribution - Weston Wellness  #3. Etch A Sketch:. I had one growing up, and so did my husband. Etch A Sketch was born in Bryan, Ohio. The company, Ohio Art, moved its factory to Shelnzhen, China in 2000. It’s a pity . . . something created by Buckeyes is now made in China. #4. Converse: Tennis shoes? It’s true. Converse was born in Massachusetts in 1908. Chuck Taylors in 1918. By 1997 they’d sold over 550 million pairs, but in 2001 the boom went bust, and factories closed in the US. The last one, in Mission, Texas.  Now Chucks are made in Indonesia, but I wondered about Converse, so I googled. If you buy anything with a Converse label, they’re made in China, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. Not in the USA. Converse became part of Nike in 2003. They’re both American companies, in name only. Their headquarters are in the US, but their shoes are made somewhere else. Bonus Sources: Where Are Converse Made? In The US? - The Men Hero Is Nike an American Company? - Shoe Effect  5. Steel Rebar: Have you heard of rebar? I hadn’t, so I googled it. Rebar is a special steel bar or mesh made from small steel wires. Its purpose—to strengthen and stabilize concrete and other materials. You’ll find it in platforms, walls, floors, and ceilings. If you’re in construction, you use rebar. You can buy some kinds in the US, but you have to import the others. Bonus Source: What Is Rebar and Why Is It Used? - Handyman's World  #6. Shirts: The major manufacturers have left the country. The last one, C.F. Hathaway shut down their factory in Maine in 2002 after 165 years of doing business. There are still small shirt makers in the US, but the big guys are all gone.  #7. Mattel: It’s the largest toy company in the world, the stuff of my childhood. Mattel shuttered its last US factory in 2002. Now China makes about 65% of Mattel’s toys. That includes Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, Polly Pocket, American Girl, and so many more. Mattel’s headquarters are in California, and it has factories all over the world including China, Mexico, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Like everything else, production is cheaper overseas. Bonus Source: Where Are Mattel Toys Made? - AllAmerican.org #8. Minivan Chassis: I know what a minivan is but had no idea about the chassis. It’s the bottom of a car, where the rubber meets the road. Think wheels and axles. I used Legos to teach my second graders about them, but I never used the word chassis. Car companies stopped making them here in 2003.   #9. Vending Machine Parts: The key parts of my favorite machine aren’t made in the USA anymore. Two of them – the bill and coin dispensers. Tomorrow: Four more products no longer made in the USA  #10. Levi Jeans: If you’re American, you’ve probably worn Levis. They were an icon here for 150 years, until December of 2023. That’s when they moved their factories to Latin America and Asia. What’s Latin America? I looked it up. It’s the parts of the Americas that once belonged to the Spanish, Portuguese, or French colonial empires. So, what’s that? Basically everything south of Mexico, including Central and South America. Plus, the islands of the Carribean. Bonus Source: Latin America can also be defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish, Portuguese or French colonial empires.  #11. Radio Flyer Wagons: Everyone I know, including my children grew up with a little red wagon. They were all made in the US until 2004. That’s when Radio Flyer closed its plant in Chicago and moved to China.  #12. Television: I grew up with TV. I went from black and white to color. From a small screen to the huge ones we have today. In the 60s TVs were made in the USA. Not anymore. The last American manufacturer, Five Rivers Electronic Innovations, closed in 2004. Now, TVs are made somewhere else. So, who makes TVs? The AI list included South Korea, China, Vietnam, Poland, India, Mexico, Russia, and Indonesia. But I found A FEW made in the USA. 1. Silo Digital is in Chatsworth, California. It specializes in LED TVs, and it’s been the leading ‘manufacturing scene’ (whatever that means) in the USA for the last 10 years. 2. SunBrite TVs are based in Thousand Oaks California, but they have plants in North Carolina and Texas. Their specialty, TVs for outside places, but they have indoor ones too! 3. Element Electronics sounds like a hybrid to me. They have an assembly plant in South Carolina to make their Smart TVs, but their Android and Roku units are made in Asia. 4. Sharp Electronics Corporation, really? They started in Montvale, New Jersey in 1962, but they are a subsidiary of Sharp from Japan. My source said, ‘you really can’t get televisions that are more “Made in America” than Sharp!’ If that’s true, why didn’t my source list the plants in the US? 5. Toshiba is another Japanese subsidiary that has some assembly lines here in the states. They do carry the Made in the USA label, but they don’t name the states they’re in. 6. Seura is an American brand found in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Bonus Source: TVs Made In the USA: American Brands Complete List [2025]  #13. Cell Phones: My original link said that in 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold world-wide, and NOT ONE was made in the USA. So, where are they made? I googled, and here’s the Top Ten list: 1. China once made 80% of the world’s phones, but it dropped to 50% in 2023 when some companies left the country. 2. India is where business went. Phones are now their 5th largest export. 3. Vietnam was in 2nd place, until India passed them. Now it’s in 3rd place, and they make 10% of the world’s mobile phones. 4-10. These six countries make the remaining 20% of mobile phones. In order…the US, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom. How did the US get into 4th place? Maybe other countries make the parts, and Americans assemble them, but that’s a guess. Bonus Source: The Top 10 Mobile Manufacturing Countries (Updated 2025) (US) - MobilityArena 4. Key Railroad Components: Manganese turnout castings and weld kits aren’t made in the US anymore. I needed three images to explain them. The picture below shows a Manganese Turnout. Manganese is a kind of steel strong enough to withstand the pounding of trains and the grinding of rocks and minerals against it. Do you see a turnout in the photo? That’s where 2 sets of tracks cross. It’s the only place a train can switch from one track to another.  The photo below is a welding kit. It has 4 key parts. Top Right – Crucible. It’s used for melting metallic elements before they can be cast. Crucibles have to have a higher melting point than whatever’s inside. Top Row Left – Sand Mold. There are 3 pieces for each rail type and 3 different kinds of rails.  Bottom Left – Igniter. It has a wind resistant design, and it produces temperatures as high as 1500 Celsius. Water boils at 100. YIKES! You need 1 igniter for each weld. That’s where you melt 2 pieces of metal together. Bottom Right – Welding Portion. That’s the metals—aluminum and iron oxide powders, that are put into the crucible then melted together.  Put it altogether, and this is what rail thermite welding looks like. I hope welders use protective equipment to stay safe and keep their cool. Bonus Sources: Cast Manganese Steel Crossings: Applications and Benefits - MFG Shop Rail thermite welding | Railroad Thermite Welding | Welding Kit And Crucibles Available  #15. Dell Computers: Dell’s last major plant in the US closed in 2010. Now they outsource their production to Asia. Why? To stay competitive, in other words to keep prices down. American workers in the 2000s made too much money. That made Dell computers expensive, so they sent their factories overseas where they could find cheaper workers.  #16. Canned Sardines: The little fish that are great on crackers, they aren’t canned in the US anymore. They’d been an American product from 1875 until April 2010. That’s when the last cannery, Stinson Seafood from Maine, shut down. Where do canned sardines come from now? More than half are from Morocco, a country in Northern Africa. They produce more than 850,000 tons each year. That’s a lot of tuna! Bonus Source: Most of the world's canned sardines come from this country  #17. Flatware: Oh, that’s silverware! My link said Sherrill Manufacturing, the last plant in the US, stopped production in 2010 because of economic troubles, and that they hoped to restart their business again. Surprise! Flatware is still made here in the US, and I found four companies that do it. The first, Liberty Tabletop, and it’s made by Sherrill, in Sherrill, New York. Yes, they’re back in business again! Farmhouse Pottery is also in New York. Wallace Silversmiths are in Wallingford, Connecticut, and Knock Flatware is in Newton, Kansas. Three cheers for flatware made in the USA! Bonus Source: The 4 Flatware Made in The USA 2024 (Complete List)  #18. Incandescent Light Bulbs: Invented in the USA, but the last big factory closed in September 2010. Why? Congress passed a ban on them that began in 2014.
I googled if incandescents are made here, and it turns out it’s still a political thing. In 2023 the Biden administration put in a controversial regulation—They banned General Service Lamps too, AND incandescent light bulbs couldn’t be manufactured or sold here either. If a business refused to obey, they’d forfeit their stock. OUCH! In January 2025 President Trump signed an executive order about energy efficiencey, AND the government is reevaluating light bulbs. So…the good old incandescents might be back, or not. But if they are, you might still need new lamps to use them. BTW, this isn’t a complete list of products, but we’re in a period of change, so maybe, some will come home again. Bonus Source: Are Incandescent Light Bulbs Coming Back?
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWhen I write, I can only have one voice in my head, mine. A little noise is fine. But too much, or worse yet, WORDS, and I must change rooms or pull out headphones. Then I can write on! Categories
All
|
RSS Feed