SEAMS Member Spotlight: Unionwear
In our latest edition of SEAMS Member Spotlight, Unionwear, is highlighted. Mitch Cahn, President of the company, answers our questions.
Company headquarters: Newark, N.J.
Year founded: 1992
Primary specialties:
USA-made embroidered baseball caps, hats, backpacks and duffel bags, full-bleed sublimation-dyed tote bags and drawstring backpacks, and embossed padfolios.
Number of employees: 143
Company history:
Unionwear’s journey began in 1992 when Mitch Cahn left a career in finance to introduce baseball caps to the fashion market. Cahn acquired the assets of a shuttered hat factory and rehired six of its workers. Unionwear secured contracts with major brands such as Polo, Izod, Nordstrom and Nieman Marcus to cut and sew excess fabric and woven labels into logo baseball caps.
However, by 1994, the rise of inexpensive manufacturing offshore prompted Unionwear to pivot to Headcase, its own line of baseball caps made from 100% hemp. While successful as a novelty, hemp did not hit its stride for another two decades. By 1998, Unionwear found its niche in serving labor unions with USA-made, union-labeled products, a move that would define the company’s identity.
The company experienced significant growth in 2000 due to the expansion of e-commerce and political campaigning. The Gore campaign’s decision to source union-made merchandise from Unionwear opened doors to the political arena, which became a core segment of the business.
Over the next decade, Unionwear expanded its offerings and customer base, tapping into military contracts in 2008, when an increase in the federal minimum wage helped level the playing field for companies like Unionwear that were already paying high wages. Strategic investments in lean manufacturing and the acquisition of a bag factory further diversified
Unionwear’s capabilities, allowing them to produce a wider array of products, including bags and accessories, and re-enter the fashion market.
In recent years, Unionwear has demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted major events and supply chains, leading Unionwear to quickly pivot to manufacturing essential items like hospital gowns and face shields. When the demand subsided, the company strategically shifted its focus back to government contracts, becoming the baseball cap supplier for the Army, Marines, National Guard and Coast Guard. By adapting to evolving market demands and embracing its core values, Unionwear has not only survived but thrived, rehiring its workforce and solidifying its position as a leader in American manufacturing.
Markets served:
- Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard
- Fashion businesses looking for domestic contractors
- Political campaigns and organizations
- Labor unions
- Federal, state and local government
- Veterans’ groups
- Brands focused on worker rights and environmental sustainability
- Companies requiring small batch customization and quick delivery
- Domestic manufacturers (automotive, food and beverage, construction, tech) and other organizations seeking USA-made promotional products for messaging consistency
Company challenges and opportunities:
“Our greatest opportunity lies in the upcoming perfect storm of USA-branded events: the 250th anniversary of U.S. Armed Forces and “Made in USA” in 2025, followed by USA250, World Cup and Winter Olympics in 2026, competitive presidential primaries in 2027, and USA-hosted Summer Olympics and a presidential election in 2028.
“We have plenty of opportunities with the improvements in automation that lie ahead of us. The higher a company’s labor cost, the more they benefit from automation.
“Challenges always include managing the cost differential with imports, but we’re addressing this through educating our market on the total cost of ownership, plus investments in automation and innovation. Our new AI-powered design tools and automated production facilities have reduced the cost gap by 75% while improving delivery speed and customization options.
“More recent challenges have been in the shrinking budgets of the federal government and nonprofits, as these represent a large portion of our business.”
Company differentiators:
Externally:
- Only union-made baseball cap and padfolio manufacturer in the U.S.
- Largest selection of hat styles online – in the world
- Low-cost domestic producer of tote bags and drawstring backpacks
- Pre-assembly decoration capabilities (embroidering panels)
- Leader in automated production facilities
- Only self-service 3D online design tool for bags, and only AI background designer for bags.
Internally:
- Union workforce with competitive wages and benefits
- Investment in cutting-edge technology and automation
- Commitment to domestic manufacturing
- Culture of innovation and problem-solving
Thoughts on Made-in-America movement and strategy:
“The Made-in-America movement has slowly gotten stronger since 2008 – as a result of the premium paid for domestic goods over import goods steadily and very slowly shrinking. As the relative cost for domestic goods shrinks, more people will consider buying domestic products. During this time demand for domestic goods has corelated closely with engagement with the “USA” brand, such as during the Olympics, World Cup and presidential elections. Unionwear has invested heavily in the upcoming perfect storm of events – the 250th birthday of the USA, the USA hosted World Cup, and the USA hosted Olympics.
“These investments include in automation to reduce costs, in AI design tools, and other AI investments designed to make it easier for buyers to buy domestic goods, and in stock and print on demand programs designed keep delivery expectations for our goods in line with those of importers.
“Our strategy also includes educating distributors about the growing market for domestic products and the total cost of ownership. Supply chain issues, rising freight costs and tariff uncertainties are making domestic production increasingly competitive. We’re positioned to capitalize on this trend through our automated facilities and ability to deliver quickly on customized orders.”
Biggest challenges and opportunities for manufacturing in the USA:
“Unionwear has built a culture of innovation focused on solving the challenge of competing with imports. The company expanded market share by targeting sectors valuing USA-made products: first government, political campaigns and unions, later nonprofits and domestic manufacturers.
“To succeed, we calculated how much these markets valued ‘USA-made’ and reverse engineered manufacturing to meet price points needed to sustain volume. This required strategic investments in lean manufacturing, mobile cloud ERP (to rigorously measure output), and eventually AI and robotics. We developed a proprietary ROI decision tool incorporating factors like management attention and opportunity cost, giving confidence to make outsized bets on untested technologies.
“Technology investments primarily highlight product and process features favoring domestic production over imports, and we have leaned heavily on strategic partnerships with academia and state government. While importers must select finite SKUs to import in bulk then decorate domestically, Unionwear revolutionized this model by creating a website with 125,000 SKUs for on-demand hat manufacturing. This strategy tripled sales within two years (mainly by owning the long tail on product feature searches) while eliminating custom order, configured price quote, and product development expenses.
“In tote bags, Unionwear identified that imports couldn’t accommodate ‘full bleed’ printing since designs needed to be printed before sewing. The company developed robotics technology to solve this limitation with domestic production and incorporated AI to generate background designs, making it easier for resellers to offer capabilities previously unavailable with imports.
“The company’s market confidence has led to investments in growing overall market size through educational viral videos on import costs, a campaign celebrating 2025 as “Made in USA’s” 250th anniversary, and successful lobbying to require DoD recruiting giveaways be USA-made.”
Business outlook and growth plans:
“Our outlook is exceptionally strong. We’ve positioned ourselves as the only option for large scale domestic production for most our products. Automation and continuous improvement have been bringing our costs down faster than our labor costs are increasing. We see engagement with the USA brand increasing in coming years and expect demand for USA made to be strong so long as the premium to import pricing continues to shrink – which it should with help from tariffs and the relative advantage automation brings to high labor cost environments.
“Unionwear’s growth plans are based on continuing to automate different product categories that we are already in, and using AI to steadily feed its website virtual samples – both blank and decorated, ready to be produced on demand. We are launching a direct-to-consumer web store of USA made gear for the USA’s 250th birthday and are already planning our merch strategy for the World Cup, Olympics, and the next presidential election.
On business conditions and industry health:
“Unionwear has all but left the fashion business, and now we consider ourselves part of the promotional products industry, which is suffering now as uncertainty is keeping companies from investing in promotional goods. However, tariffs are likely to help domestic promotional products more than most, since they are a larger portion of the end selling price of the goods than most retail goods, and rely more heavily on China than the fashion business.
“In addition, it is much easier to make a ‘USA made’ sale to a business than to a consumer, since all businesses have branding situations to consider. Using an imported product to
promote your goods is often frowned upon, especially during certain events and for certain companies like those promoting their own goods as Made in USA.
“The promotional products industry is at an inflection point. Supply chain disruptions have exposed the risks of over-reliance on imports, while automation is making domestic production more competitive. The industry will see increased demand for USA-made products during the upcoming series of national events (2025-2028). Brands that successfully align with the ‘Made in USA’ message will have significant advantages.
“Uncertainty also helps domestic goods since resellers work on tight margins, and they don’t have to worry about unexpected tariffs or political or climate risk causing them to miss merchandise orders for events.”
On the value SEAMS brings to your company:
“Based on Unionwear’s unique position as a union-made, USA manufacturer and military contractor, here are 10 specific benefits you’d gain from SEAMS membership:
- Network with companies handling Berry Amendment contracts
- Discover new automation solutions specific to sewn products
- Access to vetted domestic suppliers as backup sources
- Technical resources for process improvement
- Network with brands looking to reshore manufacturing
- Early insight into industry trends
- Updates on trade policies affecting domestic manufacturing
- Collective voice on Made in USA policies
- Networking at industry-specific events
Additional comments:
“What sets us apart is our ability to combine traditional American manufacturing with cutting-edge technology. When it comes to hats and bags, the answer to “do you have” or “can you make” is always yes – and we probably already have a SKU for that with graphics, descriptions and pricing. Our recent innovations, like our AI-powered design tools and automated production facilities, demonstrate our commitment to keeping American manufacturing competitive while maintaining our union workforce and high-quality standards.”