My Special, Made in the USA, Holiday Shopping List
My online searches for “made in the USA” do not result in attractive, unusual goods, but mostly in jeans and t-shirts displayed on websites that aren’t exactly easy on the eyes. Well, I’ve done all of the hard work for you! I’ve found and tested truly special items that are 100% designed and made in the USA. I have listed them here so you can easily find and purchase them this holiday season, because these items and their creators are truly deserving of your hard-earned, limited money.
How did this happen? I have had, for several years, a personal policy of not buying items made overseas whenever a domestically made equivalent is available (even if it costs more and requires effort). This often inconvenient, totally PITA constraint (as often happens with constraints) led me to things I would not otherwise have found. These items are special, and “special” is a concept that seems to have fallen by the wayside, but that I think many of us want more of. I’m all about special, and this list has a lot of it.
Without further ado, here it is…
My Special, Made in the USA, Holiday Shopping List
A general recommendation is to visit Etsy and use the local search option to find people (yup, real human beings!) near you who make things you might be interested in.
Ceramics and Home Decor
- Pewabic Pottery (Detroit, MI) – I particularly like their coffee mugs, ornaments, and tiles, two of which are on our kitchen wall.
- Heath Ceramics (Sausalito, CA) – I have given their Shallow Salad Bowl as a gift 10 times (and those are the times I remember), and we also have one of our own.
- Sporck Tileart (Leelanau, MI) – This is art that the fisherman you love will love. I am partial to the Leland Fishtug tiles, as so much of my childhood was spent in Leland.
- Transit Design Bus Scrolls (Traverse City, MI) – It is more difficult than you realize to choose between your own custom design and those the designer provides! Transit Design also has an Etsy shop of the same name.
Cards and Stationery
- Elevated Press (Ann Arbor, MI) – Our save-the-date cards and wedding invitations came from here, and ready-made items are also available (though I can attest that custom letterpress business cards make a wonderful and unexpected gift). Elevated Press also has an Etsy shop of the same name. Don’t worry if you know nothing of design: Michelle, the proprietor, has talent to share and terrific customer service.
Hand Tools
- Lie-Nielsen Toolworks (Warren, ME) – True heirlooms, these tools are top of the line. They will be treasured by any woodworker who receives one (and woodworkers can always use a block or shoulder plane). I was the proud recipient of a bronze plane from my grandfather one year and hope to die with it in my hands.
- Tools for Working Wood (New York, NY) – They sell many brands of tools, but the Made in the USA brand to pay attention to is their Gramercy line.
Shoes, Clothing and Accessories (for men and women)
- Cydwoq (Burbank, CA) – Shoes, bags and belts for men and women, designed AND manufactured in Burbank, CA. I’ve had my pair for three full years and the soles still aren’t worn. They’re not cheap but then, they’re not cheaply made, either.
- Ramblers Way Farm (Kennebunk, ME) – The softest wool clothing that is machine washable – and produced from a network of participating, all-American farms. Order soon, as some of my favorite things (like the women’s henley shirts) are already on back order for a few weeks. There’s nothing I like sleeping in more than their “long Janes” when camping, either.
- Red Ants Pants (based in White Sulphur Springs, MT; manufactured in Seattle, WA) – At long last, work pants made for women that fit better than any other pair of pants I own! (Don’t worry, they make them for men, too.) I wear these pants each and every time I work or volunteer at The Crucible, and anytime I’m woodworking, and get compliments each time (and questions from other women on where to buy them). They also sell one of the most beautiful belts and belt buckle I’ve ever seen, handmade in Montana.
- Cordarounds (San Francisco, CA) – Pants, jackets, bags and more, predominantly for men, but they have a few things that can fit women. Their site can be a bit of a pain to use for shopping (it’s not easy to find size charts, for instance) but it’s worth doing.
- Wolfbait and B-Girls (Chicago, IL) – Alas, they have no online store, but if you live in or will be visiting Chicago, you need to go here! Absolutely everything in the store is locally designed and made in Chicago. In addition, the shop owners, Jenny and Shirley, each have clothing lines that they design, make and sell on premises. I bought clothes there years ago that are still in top-notch shape (and, thank God, still fit!).
If you know a knitter…
- Lorna’s Laces (Chicago, IL) – Indescribably delicious yarn. If you don’t know what to buy, purchase your favorite knitter two skeins of their Shepherd Sock yarn and a book about sock knitting. Available at local retailers near you (I highly recommend you use their site to find your, or the knitter for whom your buying, local yarn shop).
- Art Fibers (San Francisco, CA) – Spring for a cone of Golden Chai silk. ANY knitter will be glad to have it, and it has enough yardage for a knitter to make anything out of it (even a sweater).
- Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles (Virginia, Minnesota, and Chicago) – This kit has almost any needle size and configuration any knitter will ever need. It has saved me countless trips to the yarn store – and money spent on individual needle sets which, at $6-$10 each, suddenly don’t make a $50 kit seem too bad at all.
- Halcyon Yarn Wooden Cable Needles (Bath, ME) – When I saw a knitting circle friend with these, I knew I needed them immediately. The notches in the needle keep the yarn from slipping and are easier to manage than the usual wrinkle-in-the-middle cable needle design.
Health and Beauty (AKA Product)
- Cardigan Mountain (New Hampshire) – I love everything the proprietor makes, but her holiday soaps are my favorites. I order them every year for myself and gifts. For years, my frustration with naturally made soaps was that they didn’t lather, but these are fabulous. The site also has a steal on Fair Isle mittens hand knit by the owner’s mother and many other gifts made in New England.
- Twig Soap and Green Daffodil Soy Candles (Ferndale, MI) – I purchased dozens of soy candles as guest favors for my wedding, and have about six of them in my house. Enjoy! Spruce is my favorite scent for the holidays and seems equally loved by men and women.
- Fiddlebump’s Apothecary (Davison, MI) – The most reasonably priced natural products I’ve found, anywhere. I really think the proprietor should charge more! We love the Manly Skin Food at our house. I steal it from my husband for my under-eye anti-wrinkle magic.
- In Fiore (San Francisco, CA) – Before you see their prices, don’t say I didn’t warn you: In Fiore embodies the terms “deluxe” and “treat.” Yes, their solid perfumes cost $65 each, and this may seem insane to you. I have one. I gave another as a birthday gift to my best friend. And let me tell you, she and I can both attest that there’s nothing more special than pulling a heavy-enough-to-mean-something, burnished, mirrored compact out of your purse on a stinky-ass plane during a 12-hour flight and suddenly feeling sane and civilized all over again. I cannot think of a nicer stocking stuffer that is a gift unto itself than their travel sizes.
Consumables (food, wine, spices and more)
Because so many Americans are fortunate enough to truly have everything already, why not make something we need to do (eating) more special?
- The Spice House (Chicago, IL) - Just go straight to their gift boxes and the packaging work and challenge of selection is done for you! Their gift boxes have been some of my most popular gifts, not just for Christmas but for wedding showers and housewarming parties. You probably don’t want to know where a lot of your spices actually come from. Remember, just because an ingredient label says something is” distributed in” the US doesn’t mean it’s made here. All spices are made at The Spice House. I know this because I lived down the street for four years.
- Wine Garage (Calistoga, CA) – Get a jug! We served Bordeaux jugs at our wedding (by putting one jug on each table at the end of the night, which made our video MUCH more interesting) and now have to pick up wine jugs for various guests each time we’re in Calistoga.
- L. Mawby Vineyards (Suttons Bay, MI) - Though I live in California with a father-in-law in Calistoga, Napa Valley, the best sparkling wine I’ve tasted is from here. Our favorites are at the drier range of their spectrum, especially the one named Wet. Oh the irony of our lugging a case of this home on the plane this past July, just to save on shipping, FROM Michigan to California. We are sure everyone thought the case of wine was going the wrong way but oh, it wasn’t.
- Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams (Madisonville, TN). – AND BACON. They forgot the “and Bacon” after the “Hams.” That’s one of the things you need to order from here. You may just create the best Christmas morning on record by giving Benton’s bacon as a gift, taking it away from the recipient, and tossing it into the frying pan.
For the Cyclist
I do NOT own either of these, and these are the only items on the list for which this is true. I have, however, tested both, and cannot decide between them!
- Renovo Bike Frames (Portland, OR) - Definitely targeted at the serious athletes among us, so if you know one of those…
- Sweetpea Bicycles (Portland, OR) – Designed for women. I don’t own one of these, but only because I’m still riding my mom’s 1979, made-in-Detroit-of-very-heavy-steel-that-drags-me-backward-down-San-Francisco’s-hills Schwinn. Hence the bike shopping.
Guilt-and-Carbon Offsets
- TerraPass (Earth) – We’ve lived happily (in urban areas, where it’s easy) without owning a car for more than six years. We see our fellow smug San Franciscans, also not owning cars, participating in car share programs, keeping the thermostat low (if their apartment even has heat and a thermostat), walking and cycling, thinking we’re so earth friendly and… flying 3,000+ miles a few times a year to visit our families or go build homes in New Orleans or go on vacation to some increasingly exotic location… and polluting more than ANY car owner. Yeah, that’s the truth. Flying is pretty much the worst thing you can do, and not owning a car doesn’t even begin to make up for ONE long flight. Ask your family to buy some indulgences offload some of your guilt by buying you a Terrapass, or do the same for the liberal bleeding heart treehugger in your life.
[...] I truly do not need anything else and they’re the best socks in the world. They’re made in the USA so I’m allowed to have them, the pairs I have now were purchased in 2007, I wear one pair each day, I walk at least three miles [...]
Found Money « Penny Pinching and My Two Cents
March 30, 2011