Good morning, I am Eric Henry, President of TS Designs based in Burlington, NC.
Since NAFTA we have lost over 100,000 textile and apparel jobs in North Carolina.
At TS Designs we want to be a different company, a company based on a triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit. We print t-shirts, 90% of them are domestically made and 60% are made in North Carolina.
North Carolina is the 4th largest grower of cotton in the US and we export 50% of that cotton, so last year we launched a new brand, Cotton of the Carolinas. The Cotton of the Carolinas shirt is grown, made, and sold entirely in North Carolina. Our t-shirts impacts 700 jobs in North Carolina at 6 different companies. We go from dirt to shirt in 750 miles when an average t-shirt can travel 17,000 miles!
It is the only apparel line that is completely transparent for the consumer all the way to the farmer. When you get one of our shirts you can connect directly to Ronnie Burleson, the cotton farmer, and the other 5 companies that are involved in making this t-shirt.
Our t-shirts do cost more, but hopefully one thing that we have learned from this record unemployment in a jobless recovery is that there is more than just low price.
For more information about Cotton of the Carolinas, go to the website. cottonofthecarolinas.com