TaylorWelden:
There are some phenomenal US-based softgoods factories that I know of and use. For the sake of their sanity, I won’t post their names on a public forum. I receive forwarded emails from them a lot, from people who come to them with an idea, and they simply tell them to see an Industrial Designer first. After the idea has been designed through and through (factories aren’t very interested in doing the developing/designing, they want a final design to make a bunch of units from so they can make profit), then they want people to come back to them with that design and a serious well-thought out manufacturing budget before beginning prototyping.
If you’re really serious about it, I have some names, but I’ll keep them hush for now.
That being said, their quality is top notch, turnaround time is way faster than China, communication barrier is zero, there isn’t a 12 hour delay on calls, etc, etc. They also create US jobs, and stimulate the US economy. US money goes to a US factory, those workers spend their money presumably within the US, US citizens (and people from all around the world) spend their money on the final product. With the aforementioned other benefits, it seems to be a win win.
Then again, if you want 100,000 units on the cheap, and don’t mind a little headache, go Asia.
Hey @TaylorWelden I have been doing some research on North American manufacturing and I am really trying to find something close to the Canadian west coast as I am based in Vancouver. I have done the overseas thing, but would ideally like to find something in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, but really any help would be fantastic