How We're Bringing Jobs Back to North Carolina

Free trade allows nations to be more efficient with their respective production for products in which there is a comparative advantage. However, when it comes to the textile industry, we are very passionate about doing business the right way because of what has happened so close to home.

We're passionate about making socks the right way because we’ve been to the small American communities that housed the massive textile mills throughout the 80s and 90s. Sadly, these mills and communities are shells of what they used to be. This is a result of greedy companies that only seek to make the largest profit possible, at the expense of wrecking American communities by outsourcing for cheap labor. At Ruck Sox, our socks aren’t cheap because we believe they shouldn't be. Here's what that means to us: It’s not cheap to make socks in America, it’s not cheap to use merino wool, it’s not cheap to make the best rucking sock for our military, and it’s not cheap to stick to our values... but it's what sets us apart.

As humans, we also can't forget the human rights violations occurring daily in the countries where textile manufacturing has been outsourced to. In Bangladesh, 45% of industrial jobs are in the textile industry but those jobs only account for 5% of the country’s national income, with most workers only making $80 per month (Ajaltouni, 2021). Let’s not forget about China either. Not only is China committing genocide of the Uighur population according to a formal legal opinion (Landale, 2021), but they’ve also forced Uighurs into labor camps (Xu et al., 2020), many of which are manufacturing apparel for your favorite major brands (Ajaltouni, 2021). When you get a chance, take a look at where most of the clothing you own is made. It's time for that to change, and it's time to wear American.

We are calling on all Americans to stand up and make their apparel purchases patriotic statements. At Ruck Sox, every pair of socks purchased is a statement that you care about rural American communities. Together, we will bring textile jobs back to North Carolina where they belong.

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Ajaltouni, N. (2021, June 17). Eliminating human rights violations in the textile industry. ID4D. Retrieved April 24, 2022, from https://ideas4development.org/en/eliminating-human-rights-violations-textile-industry/

Landale, J. (2021, February 8). Uighurs: 'credible case' China carrying out genocide. BBC News. Retrieved April 24, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55973215

Xu, V. X., Cave, D., Leibold, D. J., Munro, K., & Ruser, N. (2020, March 1). Uyghurs For Sale | Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Uyghurs For Sale. Retrieved April 24, 2022, from https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale