In case you don’t follow Cotton Bureau as closely as I do, it might surprise you to learn they decided to stop printing on American Apparel shirts, and have switched to a company named Next Level.
Ever since I bought my first shirt from Cotton Bureau, I’ve been a big fan. In fact, I even beta tested the new shirtstock.[1] Before even receiving the shirt to test, I was hesitant to endorse Cotton Bureau’s decision. Here’s why:
- American Apparel has been one of the biggest t-shirt brands for the past twenty years. (And I’ve always thought the quality of their shirts was better than anything else out there.) I was scared the Next Level shirts were going to feel different, and not in a good way.
- The trend with indie-hipster-internet-friendy shops like Cotton Bureau has always been to focus on American manufacturing and jobs. Why would a small company in the heart of Pittsburg want to outsource their production to a non-American locale? That’s awfully backward thinking.
Having said that, let me address my previous concerns:
-
The move to Next Level has not led to a drastic drop in quality/feel of a Cotton Bureau t-shirt.[2] On the plus side, the Next Level shirt fit my torso much better than some of the American Apparel ones from Cotton Bureau have.
Cotton Bureau explained as much in some of their posts regarding the switch: Next Level looked to be a way to implement more consistent t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. And that’s important, because buyers shouldn’t have to make size decisions based on the material.[3] So, to recap, most of my American Apparel Cotton Bureau shirts have fit better than Next Level t-shirt, but the Next Level Cotton Bureau shirt I have fits much better than the poorest fitting American Apparel Cotton Bureau shirt. (Got it?)
So, everything is okay. I like the Next Level t-shirts almost as much as the best-fitting American Apparel ones.
-
As far as I can tell, moving to Next Level was not about outsourcing labor/production to a cheaper locale—it was for consistency (as previously stated) and long-term security for Cotton Bureau. If you take Cotton Bureau’s word for it (I do), the fact that Next Level manufacturing does not take place in the US was a necessary tradeoff. Cotton Bureau wanted Next Level, and Next Level has non-US manufacturing. Plain and simple.
As fond as I am of American Apparel, I can imagine my feelings weren’t shared by Cotton Bureau. American Apparel has been all over the news lately, and the writing on the wall has been that on their current trajectory, American Apparel as we know it was not going to be around forever. A few days ago, that premonition came to fruition.
Again, everything is okay. Cotton Bureau is no longer tied to American Apparel for future endeavors. American Apparel can go by the wayside, while Cotton Bureau continues to flourish.
At the end of the day, I can’t see any of this mattering that much. True, these are the early days of Cotton Bureau + Next Level, and maybe all the Next Level t-shirts in the pipeline will be terrible? Anything could happen.
But if I’ve learned anything from giving Cotton Bureau my business over the past couple years, it’s that they put quality materials and design at the very top of their lit of priorities. Moreover, their customer service is outstanding, and they wholeheartedly stand by their products.
The shirtstock is changing, but Cotton Bureau isn’t. (Now go out and buy some stuff from them.)
Why did they bestow such an honor upon me? It couldn’t be because I buy so many shirts from them, could it? No, I didn’t think so. ↩
Boy does that sentence sure make it sound like I’m about to follow up with a big fat “BUT.” Just keep reading. ↩
Yeah, I was in that camp. I found the “100% cotton” American Apparel Cotton Bureau t-shirts fit perfectly. The “tri-blend” and “poly cotton” ones, however—not so much. I had to size down for those. ↩