The Manufacturing Report

What if an American-made handbag could create a job that moves with a military family? Military spouses face unemployment rates roughly five times higher than the national average. Lisa Bradley, co-founder and CEO of R. Riveter, knows that challenge firsthand. So, in 2011, she and her co-founder built a company around it: American-made handbags whose parts are sewn by military spouses working from home, wherever their families are stationed.

Lisa tells AAM President Scott Paul how R. Riveter went from hand-stitching in an attic to a Kickstarter, a retail store with sewing machines running in the back, and a 2016 "Shark Tank" deal with Mark Cuban. She shares how R. Riveter finds and trains remote riveters, why every part is stamped with its maker’s number, and the heirloom line that turns a loved one’s military uniform into a handbag.

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

Guest Resources

R. Riveter: https://www.rriveter.com/

R. Riveter in AAM’s Made in America Directory: https://www.americanmanufacturing.org/made-in-america/r-riveter

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

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While America is charting its way through a crisis like no other, we’ve rediscovered the value and importance of making things right here. Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul chats with policy makers, manufacturing experts and factory workers to find out.

The Manufacturing Report has featured interviews with Ben and Erin Napier of HGTV’s hit show “Home Town”, American Giant CEO Bayard Winthrop, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the stars of “Working Man” (2019), and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage among others.

Erie Meyer was shopping for U.S.-made steel-toed boots for her brother when she kept finding Amazon and Walmart listings with "Made in USA" in the title and "imported" buried further down the page. The former Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief technologist joins Scott Paul to talk about what happened when she started asking the retailers' AI shopping assistants what they knew about “Made in USA” fraud. What Erie found left our jaws on the floor. Listen in as Scott and Erie dive deeper into the findings of her explosive Columbia Law School report and what should happen next, from FTC and state AG enforcement to a private right of action for consumers.

👉 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

Made in America, Hidden by AI (Columbia Law School, Center for Law and the Economy): https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/law_economy/9

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

Hundreds of pro ballplayers are wearing belts made in a Texas town of 3,000 people. Matt Hadden is the third-generation president to run Pioneer Fit, a company his grandfather started in 1979 selling sports gear out of the back of his trunk in Nebraska. He joins AAM President Scott Paul today and shares how the business grew by taking on the custom work no other manufacturer wanted, and how one question from an employee — "Why don't we make baseball belts?" — opened that market in two seasons. He's also candid about what making things here costs: Pioneer's belts can run twice the price of an import, and both of the company's patents have been knocked off. He explains why he still buys American leather and American buckles anyway, and what that choice means for the people who work alongside him in the 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

Pioneer Fit: https://pioneerfit.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

At the height of a Washington, D.C., summer heat wave, members of the United Steelworkers came to town for the union's Rapid Response Legislative and Policy Conference — four days of talking legislation with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. AAM Media Relations Director Cat Adams grabbed a mic and went down to hear from the people who actually build things.

Tire builders, welders, assemblers and machine operators talk about the first day they walked onto a factory floor, what their first paycheck bought, and what these jobs did for their towns. Scott Paul and Cat unpack what that means for trade enforcement, for the USMCA review now underway, and for whether Congress treats manufacturing as a drumbeat or a photo op.

Workers heard in this episode:

- Anthony Elrod - Goodyear, Topeka, Kan.

- Diana Caspersen - Speed Queen, Ripon, Wis.

- Bonnie Reese - Assembler, BAE Systems, Pennsylvania

- Corey Ingram - BAE Systems, York, Pa.

- Will Wilkinson - USW staff representative, Wyoming

👉 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

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

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