He bought a $5 bill’s worth of beanies, sold them, bought more, and, eight years later, he’s manufacturing American-made knitwear in Detroit for brands you’ve heard of. Josh York, founder of Soft Goods, joins AAM President Scott Paul to talk about building a cut-and-sew factory in Corktown from scratch, teaching himself to sew off YouTube, and ruining roughly 100 T-shirts before one came out right. Josh also gets candid about the things most founders won’t say out loud: that sourcing domestically started as a practical decision, not an altruistic one; that he didn’t believe the business would work until year eight; and that after years of convincing buyers why American-made costs more, the market finally shifted and customers now come to him.

👉 Learn more about Soft Goods: https://softgoodsmfg.com

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America!

https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

Soft Goods: https://softgoodsmfg.com

AAM Resources & Links

2025 Made in America Holiday Gift Guide: https://bit.ly/2025Gifts

Sign up for our daily newsletter, Daily Digest: https://bit.ly/4iWbJga

or our bi-weekly: https://bit.ly/4rXmh2Q

Check out our Made In America Directory: https://bit.ly/4oUQRY7

You can also listen wherever you get podcasts

Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3XQ7glr

Spotify: https://bit.ly/48PXG7d

Socials

X: @KeepItMadeInUSA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanmanufacturing

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanmanufacturing

What does it take to build a musical instrument company in America — with no woodworking background and a fear of power tools? Zack Munsell went from a sales job with “no passion” to founding Friendly Banjos, maker of a color-coded, easy-to-play banjo built for kids and beginners. Today, he joins AAM President Scott Paul, and shares his winding, cross-country journey learning from America’s artisan banjo makers, the painting that reshaped his entire mission, and why he was determined to build an affordable instrument in the United States. They discuss how Zack partnered with Massachusetts-based Magic Fluke to manufacture the banjo with locally sourced materials, went viral on TikTok, launched on Kickstarter, and how learning to make music became part of his own healing journey.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America!

https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

https://www.friendlybanjos.com/

AAM Resources & Links

Sign up for our daily newsletter, Daily Digest.

or our bi-weekly version, ManufactureThis

Check out our Made In America Directory

You can also listen wherever you get podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Socials

X: @KeepItMadeInUSA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanmanufacturing

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanmanufacturing

#MusicalInstruments #BanjoBuilding #EntrepreneurJourney #MadeInAmerica #Craftsmanship #KickstarterSuccess #MusicEducation #ArtisanCraft #HealingThroughMusic #ZackMunsell #HandcraftedMusic #SupportLocalArtists

Russ Warner just wanted an extra $400 a month for a car payment and to hang with his kids. Instead, a single TikTok from an Ohio teenager racked up 50 million views, buried his made-to-order skateboard business under 600 orders a day, and turned a Utah garage operation into a real American factory. AAM President Scott Paul talks with Russ Warner, founder of Ghost Boards, the maker of custom transparent acrylic longboards handcrafted in Utah. Russ shares how he and partner Brent Johnson went from cutting boards on a machine shop’s lunch break to selling $965,000 in boards in a single month, and why he still refuses to send manufacturing overseas. He discusses building fully customizable, made-to-order boards with no minimums, reaching a customer base that’s 68% female, and landing in retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue and Ron Jon Surf Shop.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America! https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

Ghost Boards: https://ghostboards.com

Resources & Links

Sign up for our daily newsletter, Daily Digest.

or our bi-weekly version, ManufactureThis

Check out our Made In America Directory

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America! https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

You can also listen wherever you get podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Socials

X: @KeepItMadeInUSA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanmanufacturing

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanmanufacturing

AAM President Scott Paul spent 15 years hunting for a Western shirt actually Made in America. He never found one — because almost nobody was making them. Carter Baldwin was on the same hunt, going back to his college days in ’90s Austin, and eventually decided to make the shirt himself. Brazos Fine Shirts is the result: 100% cotton, mother-of-pearl snap, made in the Los Angeles Garment District — and it took roughly six years, a career’s worth of DTC marketing know-how, and one catastrophic run of 1,000 shirts with the snaps pressed on backwards to get there. Carter walks Scott through why a Western shirt takes 24 hand-cut pieces and can’t be automated, how NAFTA hollowed out El Paso’s garment district, and how Post Malone’s stylist found the brand a month after launch.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America! https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

Brazos Fine Shirts: https://brazosfineshirts.com

Instagram: @brazosfineshirts

Detroit didn't just build cars. During World War II it built the machine that helped win the war.

In the final installment of our three-part series on American manufacturing history — marking the 250th anniversary of the United States — AAM President Scott Paul visits the Detroit Historical Museum to walk through the story of the “Arsenal of Democracy” with the Detroit Historical Society's Director of Collections, Jeremy Dimick.

They trace how the Motor City's auto plants pivoted to produce a B24 bomber every hour and more than 90% of America's M1 helmets, and how that effort remade the city of Detroit.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America! https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

Detroit Historical Society & Museum: detroithistorical.org

AAM Resources & Links

Sign up for our daily newsletter, Daily Digest: https://bit.ly/4iWbJga

or our bi-weekly: https://bit.ly/4rXmh2Q

Check out our Made In America Directory: https://bit.ly/4oUQRY7

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America! https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

You can also listen wherever you get podcasts

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-manufacturing-report/id1213359909

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3jAoV4AHejHd36wSjSEPMs

YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0ETr3PZq7dHqAqlkiB17jvFe4gAtpLSf&si=uFmYHrp7lfxHepY6

Socials

X: @KeepItMadeInUSA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanmanufacturing

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanmanufacturing

America turns 250 this year, and the steel that built the modern nation was forged on the banks of the Monongahela. In Part 2 of our three-part series on 250 years of American manufacturing, Scott Paul tours the Carrie Blast Furnaces in Pittsburgh with Ron Baraff of Rivers of Steel. They trace how the region’s last pre-WWII blast furnaces poured thousands of tons of iron a day for Carnegie’s Homestead Works across the river; how the Bessemer converter made steel cheap and scalable enough to raise skyscrapers, lay railroads, and float a navy; how steel jobs forged the American middle class and drew Black workers north in the Great Migration; and why the lessons of this “man-made volcano” still matter as America fights to bring manufacturing home.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America!

https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

Rivers of Steel: https://riversofsteel.com

Carrie Blast Furnaces -Tours & Visiting: https://riversofsteel.com/experiences/tours/

Resources & Links

Sign up for our daily newsletter, Daily Digest

or our bi-weekly version, ManufactureThis

Check out our Made In America Directory

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America!

https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

You can also listen wherever you get podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Socials

X: @KeepItMadeInUSA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanmanufacturing

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanmanufacturing

America turns 250 this year, and the story of how it learned to make things starts in one stone building on the Blackstone River. In Part 1 of our three-part series on 250 years of American manufacturing, Scott Paul tours Old Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, with Park Ranger Allison Horrocks. They trace how Samuel Slater carried England’s guarded textile technology to America in his head, how Moses Brown and William Almy financed the first successful water-powered cotton mill, why the Blackstone River Valley became the country’s first industrial corridor, and the human cost — including child labor — behind the birth of the factory system.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America! https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park: https://www.nps.gov/blrv

Old Slater Mill - Ranger-Guided Tours: https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/ranger-guided-tours-slater-mill.htm

Resources & Links

Sign up for our daily newsletter, Daily Digest.

or our bi-weekly version, ManufactureThis

Check out our Made In America Directory

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America! https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

You can also listen wherever you get podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Socials

X: @KeepItMadeInUSA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanmanufacturing

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanmanufacturing

America invented the circuit board but now makes less than 4% of the world's supply. Team AAM goes behind the scenes of the documentary "The New Frontier," hearing from Wesley Sprecher of Blue Water Components, Jesse Vaughan of Summit Interconnect, and Sean Kincaid of K&F Electronics on why the collapse of domestic PCB production is a national security crisis — and the fight to rebuild it before America loses the capacity for good.

👉 Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

Watch The New Frontier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z3r-aUeuo4

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America! https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

The New Frontier (film): https://newfrontierfilm.com

Blue Water Components: https://bluewatercomponents.com

Summit Interconnect: https://summitinterconnect.com

K&F Electronics: https://www.circuitboards.com

Resources & Links

2025 Made in America Holiday Gift Guide

Sign up for our daily newsletter, Daily Digest.

or our bi-weekly version, ManufactureThis

Check out our Made In America Directory

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America! https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

You can also listen wherever you get podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Socials

X: @KeepItMadeInUSA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanmanufacturing

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanmanufacturing

American manufacturing needs workers — and veterans need a path back to work. Today, AAM President Scott Paul speaks with Dr. Martin Anselm, Director of the Center for Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly (CEMA) at the Rochester Institute of Technology, about a four-week veteran training program that’s placing underemployed and unemployed veterans into high-demand electronics manufacturing jobs. Dr. Anselm shares how the program combines hands-on lab time with industry-recognized IPC certifications and a workforce readiness week, why employers are hungry for trained technicians, and how the “gray tsunami” of retiring baby boomers is reshaping the U.S. electronics workforce.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America!

https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

https://www.rit.edu/cema/

Resources & Links

Sign up for our daily newsletter, Daily Digest.

or our bi-weekly version, ManufactureThis

Check out our Made In America Directory

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America!

https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

You can also listen wherever you get podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Socials

X: @KeepItMadeInUSA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanmanufacturing

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanmanufacturing

What started in a garage with pipe from the hardware store is now a 90-person factory shipping nearly a thousand wind chimes a day. Today, Scott Paul speaks with Luke Croushorn of Wind River, the Manassas, Virginia chime maker that has been handcrafting wind chimes, birdhouses, and garden decor since 1986. Luke shares how founder Mike Throne built the company from Florida craft fairs into a national brand, why Wind River invests in redwood, a custom aluminum alloy, and hand-assembled craftsmanship, and how the company's long-term employees, multilingual workforce, and tagline "Inspiring Harmony" reflect its commitment to quality, community, and American manufacturing.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more stories on U.S. trade policy, buying American, and protecting American jobs.

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America!

https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

Guest Resources

https://www.windriverchimes.com

Resources & Links

Sign up for our daily newsletter, Daily Digest.

or our bi-weekly version, ManufactureThis

Check out our Made In America Directory

And sign our petition to bring shipbuilding back to America!

https://act.americanmanufacturing.org/ships

You can also listen wherever you get podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Socials

X: @KeepItMadeInUSA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanmanufacturing

Instagram: www.instagram.com/americanmanufacturing