10 May, 2012

Trying To Support Local Industry Is Tough

If you want to try and support locally made baseball cap manufacturers, you’re going to have a hard time achieving this. There used to be some factories around, but with the competition from China and now the speed of manufacture, this type of industry has all but died out. It used to be that getting baseball caps embroidered out of China took 10 to 12 weeks, but with the cost of air freight dropping and their speed increasing, you can now get them as quick as 3 to 4 weeks. Their low cost labour means it’s impossible for local manufacturers in Australia to compete.

It’s a shame about this, but one bright spot is although the cap might be made in China and not Australia, a lot of embroidery is still done locally. We have a company we have used for over 10 years and support them whenever possible. Although time frames have speeded up for overseas delivery, many people still need baseball caps within a few weeks and that’s where local production kicks in. From time of order we can get baseball caps produced in one week if needed and because of this and the time demands, at least we know there will always be an embroidery manufacturing base in Australia.

The Caps Only Team