1993 Bobbin Magazine – A Sports Winning Attitude 

1993 Bobbin Magazine – A Sports Winning Attitude 

A leading performance sportswear manufacturer, HIND Inc. is a working example of successful 100 percent U.S. production. By Susan S. Black (Bobbin Editor at the time), Bobbin Magazine 1993

“ONE YEAR AGO,  Greg Hind, the 46- year-old founder and chairman of HIND Inc., made good on a promise that most of his competi­tors labeled a dangerous business experiment: He finished bringing all of his $30 million-plus company’s apparel manufacturing jobs back to the United States.

In deciding to pull the plug on production in Asia and Latin America, Hind, who has always done a major portion of his pro­duction in the United States, had two goals in mind. One, he wanted more direct control over the fab­rication of his products, and two, he had a strong desire to create fair-pay­ing jobs for U.S. workers.

Some people told Hind that 100 percent domes­tic production couldn’t be done, but today this leading manufacturer of performance sports apparel is quieting its critics with these results: Spring sales are projected at 150 per­cent higher than last spring’s, and jobs have been provided for apparel workers in three relatively remote areas of the United States (San Luis Obispo, CA; Wenatchee, WA; and Hugo, OK.)

Says Hind: ‘People say that they must contract their work offshore to make a profit. But what is really driving these jobs overseas is the unwillingness ofthB great majority of U.S. apparel firms to take on the chal­lenge of manufacturing their products in the United States at com­petitive prices.’

Like many apparel manufacturing firms, HIND originally went off­shore because it was unable to find U.S. con­tractors for some of its products. But poor work­manship, the lack of qual­ity and inventory control, and, finally, what it con­sidered exploitation of workers, caused the com­pany to reassess its posi­tion.

‘I feel that finding opportunities for exploit­ing labor is basically fol­lowing the course of least resistance and realisti­cally has only short-term benefits for a limited num­ber of people, as opposed to building a solid base for future expansion of what should be essentially an American industry,’ says an emphatic Hind.”

Download and read the entire April 1993 Bobbin article here >> “Bobbin-1993

Additional national stories sharing HIND History can be found here: HIND In The News

—-

GH Sports is Formerly HIND Performance and is proud to continue the tradition of manufacturing high-quality run, cycle, swim and fitness apparel in San Luis Obispo, California.

GH Sport’s history can be explored here.

If you have a HIND or GH Sports story to share, we would love to hear from you.

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *