Not as omnipresent as Filson bags but just as authentic, J.W. Hulme has been making high quality leather and canvas in Minnesota for over 100 years. Te company is probably best known for selling its waspy wares to outdoorsy outfitter Orvis in the late 80s and 90s. Eventually, the relationship with Orvis came to an end, but J.W. Hulme continues to supply nice looking and well made goods in their unique style. It goes without saying that the goods don’t come cheap and that there are companies out there making similar products, but with J.W. Hulme you are paying for high end materials and fabrication. These bags require more of an investment up-front, but I have to think they will literally last a lifetime. If I were you I would start breaking one in now, your son will thank you.

American Heritage Leather Duffle

Canvas Briefcase

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Impatient shirt lovers rejoice! The good people at Hamilton — America’s oldest family owned shirt maker — today unveiled Hamilton 1883, the Texas concern’s new collection of ready-to-wear men’s wovens. The 1883 range is a casual and comfortable compliment to Hamilton’s custom shirt making operation which has been turning out high quality American made shirts in Houston for over 125 years. While the custom route is always a wonderful journey, the styling and details in the 1883 line are a welcome new addition to the company’s line-up.

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Speaking of footballs…

The official NFL footballs are still made in right here in the USA — by Wilson Sporting Goods in Ada, Ohio. Every year during the lead-up to the Super Bowl the networks send a camera crew out to the sleepy Northwest, Ohio town (any Ohio Northern grads in the house?), to document the old ladies in their smocks making footballs.  The folks at Horween took some great pictures on a visit to the factory which you can see here.

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Saturdays and Sundays in the fall only mean one thing, football. Back in Ohio it is basically all people care about (not so much in Cleveland this year, but we are having a rebuilding decade). Recently I discovered Original Leather Head footballs, the perfect companion for chilly fall afternoons. Designed and crafted by Paul Cunningham (a former photo editor at Major League Baseball), Leather Heads are hand-sewn in New Jersey from American leather (via Horween in Chicago and Prime in Maine) and like many heirloom quality goods, they only get better with age. The footballs are so good looking my only dilemma is whether to use it or not. Maybe the solution is to buy two; one to use, one to just look at??

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Northern Minnesota’s Bemidji Woolen Mills is one of America’s last functioning woolen mills. There used to be hundreds of mills like Bemidji, Pendelton and Woolrich scattered throughout the U.S., but these days companies making fabric of any sort in this country are few and far between. The town of Bemidji — who claims the title of “first city on the Mississippi River” — seems like it is the perfect place to wear BWM’s seriously classic woodsman gear. Good to see a company like Bemidji Woolen Mills still doing its thing, making nice looking and rugged clothing all in the United States.

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When GM announced the closing of the Moraine, Ohio assembly plant in June of 2008, Dayton area filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar set to work on a documentary about the impact of GM’s decision and the effect on the factory workers and the local community. The resulting film The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant — which aired on HBO earlier in the month — is a moving look at a group of hard working Americans. The Last Truck focuses on the people that worked at Moraine Assembly and does a good job of getting beyond blue collar Midwestern stereotypes. As the Dayton Daily News points out, the Dayton area has a automotive manufacturing history that dates back to World War I when native Charles Kettering invented the electrical ignition.

Update: Get it while the gettin’ is good — HBO took the videos off of YouTube. Look out for the film on DVD soon.

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Not too far into the bio on the Schott website you will find this sentence: “We are a true-blue, real-deal, piece of Americana.” It really can’t be put any better, so that is all I really need to say. A few weeks back I took a little trip out to the Schott factory in New Jersey to see the nearly 100 year old company in action. After seeing the facilities and meeting the good people from Schott, I left with a renewed sense of appreciation for a company with devotion to not only quality, but to the people and place that made them what they are. It takes a lot of sticktoitiveness to resist the call of overseas labor and continue to manufacture domestically.  I also left with the feeling that my life was not complete without a perfectly worn-in Perfecto leather motorcycle jacket. Schott Bros. Inc has been making quality outerwear for motorcyclists and military men in the New York City area since 1913 when Irving Schott founded the company on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Still to this day a family run business, Schott is doing what they do best, making a good product at a fair price. So do yourself and your fellow Americans a favor and buy a Perfecto.

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More than an other category, denim inspires people to dizzying madness. Take for instance the North Carolina based Raleigh Denim; the husband and wife team behind the brand — Sarah and Victor Lytvinenko — who over the past year have quietly built a loyal following among denim lovers and retailers like Barneys and Steven Alan. I first learned about Raleigh a few months back when my buddy from Cone sent me a list of new brands for The American List that are using the mill’s denim. I was intrigued, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago when Victor and Sarah stopped by my office to give me a guided tour of the product that I was really convinced. There are a lot of denim brands in this world and I found it amazing that all of the design, development, pattern making, sourcing and even the construction is done by hand by Victor, Sarah and a small staff from their workshop down south. The folks at Raleigh pride themselves on the fact that 98% of what goes into the company’s jeans are from North Carolina. In fact, Victor even seeks out the original machines that are used in the production, traveling around the North Carolina and Tennessee border looking for old factories and needle towns. And he is into it. Victor’s eyes would light up when talking about an old chain stitch machine or another vintage mechanical acquisition. It was like a kid talking about his baseball card collection.

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A new addition to The American List is Maryland’s C.R. Daniels, which sells a variety of goods under the Dandux label. The company manufactures all different sorts of canvas and molded plastic items; everything from conveyor belts to the plastic seats for Black Hawk helicopters. So if anyone gives you shit about your canvas tote bag, just let them know that is was rolling off the production line right next to part of a damn Black Hawk, that outta shut them up. The basic black and natural canvas bags are priced at  an affordable $26.95, have a killer Dandux label and are all made in the USA — you can’t beat it with a stick. All of the Dandux canvas goods can be seen here.

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What’s not to like about a collection of oxford shirts and ties. Lucky for us Mr. Mark McNairy is not content with just making footwear. The North Carolina bred designer stopped by my office this week to give me a preview of his collection of SS10 oxford shirts and ties that are launching at Capsule next week in Las Vegas. The line includes a selection of button-down shirts in white, pink, yellow, blue, stripes, and a group of mix-matched fabrics. The tie selection consists of bows and neck ties in emblematic and repp stripe silks. There are also some nice looking madras options — which will be in my rotation next summer. Since McNairy is ACL’s non-official yet oh-so-official spiritual adviser, these quality goods are all made in the USA with liberty and oxford cloth for all.

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It doesn’t get better for me than the Levi’s Vintage Clothing collection. The garments are produced to exact historical specifications, almost becoming new dead stock jeans. If you live in Europe or Japan it has been easier to get your hands on a pair of Levi’s LVC than if you live in the States. Well friends, times they are a changin’. LS & CO recently formed a specific group (called “XX” meaning “extra strong”) to consolidate the company’s premium businesses. This new division will be headed up by the well respected Maurizio Donadi, who is a veteran of both Diesel and RRL. Safe to say XX is in good hands. Along with the new focus on the premium market, you will see that LVC  is going to have a more consistent presence in the land of the free, which is how it should be.

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You have to hand it to the folks at RRL, when they do something they do it right. Through my thorough detective work I got my hands on photos of a limited edition pair of bench-made leather boots. As one would expect from RRL, all of the bona fides are present and accounted for. Made in the USA from Horween leather with vintage deadstock Cat Paw heels. The super small quantity (multiple dozens) will be available mid to late August at RRL stores for $750. Rumor is each shop will get a few pairs and that is it, so if you want them you have your work cut out for you. More photos after the jump.

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