I recently picked up Crafted With Pride. It is basically a directory for brands who actually manufacture stuff in America (with a section for Canada, too). There are many many tiny brands making great stuff that you’ll never hear about because they dont advertise. It’s not “BIFL” necessarily as much as it’s “buy local”, but obviously there’s a lot of overlap in those sentiments. A lot of them are literally 1 man shops.
The book is just clothes, bedding, shoes, bags, and other accessories. It’s arranged by category, but there’s also an index by state.
The appendices are great, though, because they also have a section for private label manufacturers (so you can have stuff made if you want), material suppliers (including a dedicated “union-made” section), repair shops, advocacy groups, and educational groups.
The appendices are mostly aimed towards businesses, but I’m going to go through my copy and mark which suppliers sell direct to consumer.
I wish they had an online index, cause that would make it way easier to search for stuff, but this book is clearly a labor of love from a small team, so I understand they want to make some money on sales. If you want me to look anything up for you (e.g., a leather goods company in Alabama), leave a comment here (or message me) and I’ll get back to you.
I know I’m weird, but I’d be much more willing to pay $40 once for access to a maintained searchable website, than a book that goes further out of date every year.
Hell, I’d pay a $20 annual subscription for that.
Out of curiosity. Are there any companies that make swords and/or other practice weapons? Wooden or unsharpened metal.
That’s a little out of scope: the catalog is all stuff you’d wear for the most part. There is a section for companies that make costumes, though, ranging from stuff you’d wear to a ren fair to serious re-enactor clothing.
There’s also a decent amount of leatherworkers who do sheaths.
I wish I had an equivalent resource for tools, because there’s still a good amount of small businesses making tools.
