I’ve been keeping an eye on 1620, a Made in USA Work clothing brand. With the beginnings of Spring finally shining through, their new Stretch NYCO Work Shorts are right on time.
The shorts are made from Cordura’s new stretch NYCO, a nylon and cotton blend which is 10x more abrasion resistant than canvas.
Features:
– 13 inch length
– Gusseted crotch
– PFC free durable water/oil/stain repellent finish
– Cargo pocket
– Extra-large zippered back pocket with angled top for ease of entry
– Dual-purpose knife clip area that also reduces any chance of the pocket tearing
– Left hand watch pocket compatible with XL size mobile device
– Military-spec shank button, YKK zippers, 3/4″ wide belt loops
– Modern fit
Available in sizes 30-40. color is Meteorite.
www.1620usa.com/products/work-short-black
Tags: 1620
Too bad “Made in the USA” carries a hefty price tag. A bit pricey for “work” pants.
damn. ouch!
Well, buy American, or pay for your neighbor to be out of work. Either way, it costs.
Both you & SShink make valid points. Every consumer will have a tipping point when price will outweigh the perceived value of a US made product. At some point, the price associated with the Made in America moniker will be too much for the market to bear. As a consumer, it can be tough to spend against market principles in order to prop up USA businesses.
I mention this not to asperse anyone. I’ve been thinking about the intersection of Capitalism & Patriotism quite a bit lately, and have not come to a conclusion I’m comfortable with.
Completely understand and agree…practice buy USA whenever feasible.
$228 for a pair of double knee work pants and $198 for shop pants is out of the reach and out of the mindset of most Americans who would actually use them for work – Regardless of the awesomeness of 1620’s, $200 is almost 6 pairs of USA made Carhart work pants.
You’re comparing apples and oranges. Carr hart makes them from cheap fabrics.
Or buy Carhartt’s Made in the USA pants and save a bunch of money. You left that part out, SSD.
“Made in the US” has only a little to do with it. As people have noted, you can have affordable clothing made in the US.
These are boutique, small volume items, hence the high markup.
I frankly think the business plan is unsustainable. Seriously, who is going to buy these at $200? No really, tell me who?
They will go broke .
They need a cult following (ala PDW or TAD, which they don’t have) if they think they can sell non-technical clothing at such high prices.
I don’t see a happy ending for a lot of the companies featured here selling high-end, “semi” tactical clothing.
They are actually Work Clothing.
Made from cotton and not a performance fabric.
I wouldn’t sweat the price, Propper or 5.11 will come out with the same thing in a few months at a E-5 price, not a O-5 one.
Here we go again… if its out of your price range please don’t bitch, i think we all hear it enough here and the materials featured here aren’t found anywhere else so… Honestly when it comes to items like this you pay for what you get and if the perceived value doesn’t match your eye’s perceived value than go elsewhere. Maybe step your game up then you can by all those cool outdoor research or crye items you know your lusting for too! 😉
and fyi, 5.11 is all made in china except maybe their patches so try again!
there stuff is also cheaper for a reason and country of orgin isn’t the main driver! 5.11 stuff is far from Beyond quality or anything similiar if you like comparing apples to oranges…
Someone saying he won’t pay that much for a pair of shorts doesn’t mean its out of his “price range.” It means he doesn’t think that’s a good use of his $200.
(By the way, “you get what you pay for” is not always true. Sure, it’s often true with technical gear – by that I mean performance/outdoor wear from OR, or Crye or Arc’teryx. But as SSD said, these are work shorts. Are you really getting 10x the value of a pair of Carhartt cargo shorts?)
I’m looking at this from a business standpoint and don’t see how they can survive.
It might be interesting in 5 years to search for all the companies that caught flack here for things like $150 hoodies and $100 flannel shirts with sleeves on the pocket and see who is still in business. As I said above, unless you can cultivate a cult following, I don’t see a long future for these companies.
*pockets on the sleeves.
We also make pants that sell for $128, our gear is on the level of an Arctery’x LEAF product, and it is not cheap to make these pants with these fabrics, it is best of the best type stuff not for everyone. It is not supposed to be.
As for the sustainability of our business, the response has been really good. And we are growing every month, with an insane return customer rate. Is it challenging? Yes. We are just two guys. But we are not going, anywhere.
Yes, Carhartt has a duck canvas USA pant for $50, and they are a great brand that can afford to make a lot less margin on that product, and they own manufacturing facilities. We respect the hell out of them, they have sold more American made pants than almost any brand, ever. We are doing our thing and guaranteeing our products as well. Our fabric lasts that much longer than canvas, so when you go through a lot of canvas pants (as some of our customers do), you can spend more $ in the long run. We both have long careers making things overseas, could we have done this here and made more $? You bet your ass, but we chose not too. We chose to source fabrics locally and sew locally, and support our community and other American businesses and workers. At the end of the day, in the 60’s 99% of the clothing you bought was made here, in the 90’s still almost 50% of the clothing you bought was made here, now it is less than 2%. We can barely sew here anymore.
You can hate on us, you can bitch about price, trust us we are seasoned and have heard it all. But when you get the feedback on our product and see people wanting to step up and spend more supporting us, and read the emails thanking us and see the groundswell of support for US made, well that is what it is all about. I mean how many times have you dropped $200 on a Friday night on the sauce? 🙂 If any of you guys have any questions or want a discount to try gear, or just hate on us, hit me up josh@162usa.com
Stephen, thanks for the press. We really appreciate it. And trust us guys, when we get bigger and can make stuff at better prices we will create gear at price points for everyone.