Remember when we told you about that new company that's selling men's underwear made in America? ABC News liked the story and did a feature on it, adding information about the Pennsylvania company that manufactures the boxers and briefs. It's called Fessler USA, in Orwigsburg, and it expects to add jobs this year.
The manufacturer told ABC that they were impressed with the energy and vision of Jake Bronstein, the New York designer who wanted to sell underwear made in the USA.
Reports ABC:
“He didn’t just come to us with a product and a desire to make money. This guy wants to be a business partner of ours and wants to make this company better,” Brian Meck, vice president of sales and marketing for FesslerUSA, said. “That has really resonated with everybody and creates a passion, a belief and a desire with everyone at the company to make it succeed. It’s unprecedented for any start-up we’ve ever worked with in the fashion industry.”
With manufacturing secured, Bronstein turned to Kickstarter, a website where people are able to support a variety of projects, to raise funding and create demand. Within days the response exceeded his expectations.
Bronstein’s initial goal was to raise $30,000; to date he has raised more than $190,000 and in the process has became the most highly-funded fashion project in Kickstarter’s history.
“If this builds up and grows the way that it should, we will hire ten to 40 employees over a 12 to 18 month period,” Meck told ABC News. FesslerUSA currently employs 110 people...
As the company attempts to scale up, Bronstein said he believes the key to attracting customers is quality.“I’d like to say Made in America is better, but it will only be better if we make it better,” Bronstein said. ”I think I’ve convinced a lot of people to buy an American brand of underwear, but we’re really fighting to send them something else instead, which is their favorite pair of underwear that happens to have been made in America.”The video above is a little dated; since then Flint and Tinder raised $190,000.
