From October 21st-27th, the entire home furnishings industry descends upon a small town called High Point in North Carolina. Nestled between great furniture towns like Thomasville and Hickory, North Carolina is undisputedly the original birth place of American furniture and textile manufacturers. Droves of retailers, wholesalers, and interior designers congregate at High Point in October for the largest home furnishings market in the United States.
What brought me for the first time to this market was the hype around the emerging trend and rebirth of "Made in America" throughout the entire textile and furniture industry. I was intrigued to find that the hype was true and that the signs of this emerging trend were everywhere. From the flags that dotted the road and the retail fronts, the Made in USA signage, and the highly promoted 16,000-square-foot "Made in America Pavilion" to showcase domestically made products such as furniture, lighting, rugs, wall art and accessories.
Many companies touted the launch of their new American-made lines and their intent to expand furniture operation in the U.S. or reopen plants that were shuttered when production shifted overseas.
I can still remember the vivid images of huge furniture factories being shuttered, boarded and abandoned as entire work forces where laid off and manufacturing jobs were moved overseas. Michael K. Dugan talked about this in his riveting book published in 2009 called, The Furniture Wars: How America Lost a 50 Billion Dollar Industry and the impact of globalization on the American furniture business. The American furniture industry went from making 'world class' products to shutting down plants and outsourcing hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs overseas over the course of 5 years.
A new study from the Economic Policy Institute found that America has lost 2.8 million jobs to China in recent years because of failed trade policies and North Carolina was listed sixth on the list of states deeply affected. North Carolina once bustled with a lively domestic textile and furniture industry that for many years felt the deep scar of outsourcing, depleting towns and people's livelihoods.
The story of the North Carolina textile and furniture industry is steeped in centuries of American pride, craftsmanship, innovation, quality and excellence. The industry supplied hundreds of thousands of good paying, quality manufacturing jobs to many North Carolinians. As their jobs were outsourced and the factories closed, many found themselves unemployable, poverty stricken and entire towns completely decimated. Abandoned factories, chained fences, boarded windows, empty retail stores became common place.
The American textile and furniture manufacturers that survived this bleak period found that the mid to high end of the market was a place that was difficult for the Chinese to compete with. Companies like, Duralee, Hickory Chair, Lee Industries, Vanguard Furniture and Habersham found a niche that they were able to capitalize on and dominate. American consumers wanting customized, quality products with short lead and delivery times were much better suited for these American companies than the one size fits all, imported versions.
"It was do or die time for American furniture and textile manufactures. We knew that we could compete and beat importers at their own game if we stayed committed to excellence, customization, quality and design," said Norman Coley, president of Lee Industries. Lee Industries is still a family run and operated business out of North Carolina that started out in 1969 and is fiercely committed to keeping their products, "Made in USA." Lee Industries expanded to the old Conover Chair manufacturing building and currently has three manufacturing facilities in Newton, North Carolina.
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