Thank you for coming to our site and purchasing originals by 67 Designs.
You are likely reading this article as a result of clicking on the link in your Order Confirmation email. We appreciate you taking the time to learn more about our mission. After all, through your purchase you are part of a much bigger movement that is nothing less than the stabilizing and then growing of the American Manufacturing industry around consumer products.
At a time when we are under full-on assault from those that think it cool to simply imposter and steal while lazily importing knock-off copies, we know that it can be hard to justify a little extra cost for genuine and original products made by Americans. Our team truly appreciates that you have purchased from us and that we can continue to innovate and manufacture here in the U.S.A.
It is within the 67 Designs’ DNA and our mission—maybe even a social mission—to manufacture in the US and contribute to the American manufacturing renaissance that among other benefits will transfer knowledge to a new generation. Without that transfer, American capacity - especially in the area of tool and die making - may never recover.
Read on to learn more about the facts the multi-decade challenges American manufacturing has faced and the way that your purchase of a 67 Designs product can be a part of a change in our country.
In the 1980s, the US was the largest maker of machine tools. By 1990, production was half the amount as overseas companies backed by State level strategic support took share. From 1998 to 2010, the number of US tool and die makers declined 44%. Since 1998, more than a third of U.S. tool, die, and mold establishments have closed, as evident in the table above (2).
Manufacturing companies in the US are slowly disappearing, which means that jobs in the US are also disappearing. The retiring generation and all their skills and knowledge is not getting replaced fast enough.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US manufacturing industry may lose 736,000 jobs by 2026.
In this lies the real issue.
In a small number of years and without active involvement on the part of US consumers, there will be a severe lack of knowledge on how many consumer and industrial goods are actually made. And this dearth of real skills and knowledge will ooze beyond US manufacturing. It is already showing up in supply-chains critical to the defense of our country.
Many Americans will be without work, without pay and without purpose. Let alone be able to provide salaries to workers so that they can purchase a home and feed their families.
So, what kind of capabilities does 67 Designs have to bring toolmakers and machinists back? We can and do buy from companies across the US and ideally within our home state of Texas whenever we can. We also employ Americans at good wages in good conditions and we train them in manufacturing skills.
https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/employment-by-major-industry-sector.htm
The fact of the matter is: we need to create more demand for workers that have valuable tooling, machining, casting and plastics skills.
The change comes from more consumers who as part of their selection criteria seek genuine original American made products vs imports and knock-offs.
Sure, unit production costs are higher for US manufacturers as our products are made without any Nation State subsidies - as they are in many producer countries. US manufacturers are almost always businesses that are generally operated privately or by families with production teams under 50 people (3).
According to the BLS, the unemployment rate in the US was 8.4% in August 2020. With the population being 382.2 million in 2019, this means that 32,104,800 people are without work. By looking at the chart above, between 2019 and 2029, manufacturing will decline a whole 40%.
With the pay for tool and die makers being $21.99 an hour on average—about three times the federal minimum wage, buying from US manufacturing is our way of bolstering the companies that employ these skilled engineers and machinists before they retire and their skills are lost forever from these shores.
We know that our increasing purchasing power is employing skilled engineers in our country, and we hope all 67 Designs' customers and prospective customers will join us in our mission to keep skills here and transfer them to a new generation - before it's too late.
(4)
We encourage other US companies to hire Americans and support American manufacturing skills transfer to a new generation.
This needs to be a priority for our political leaders in State Capitals and Washington DC, but it also needs to be a priority for consumers, entrepreneurs, investors and financial institutions.
Once we tackle our own domestic struggles and return to strength through employment in manufacturing, we can start turning to those abroad, as we would like. However, an unstable social foundation at home is incapable of holding others up for very long.
It is truly imperative that we buy from and manufacture in the US whenever it's possible. When it is not possible, then look to like minded overseas companies that do not use child labor, slave labor, forced labor camps and do not steal intellectual property.
Purchase American made products designed and manufactured using American made molds and dies made in the US by American workers.
Be a part of the movement for more US manufacturing and turn away from the copycats and imposters that can only prosper through deceptive trade practices and the subsidies of other Nation States and sold through platforms like Amazon and eBay.
(1-4) Canis, B., The Tool and Die Industry: Contribution to US Manufacturing and Federal Policy Considerations. Congressional Research Service. March, 2012.
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