We've added curated and vintage selections to our store
What evolved into the introduction of Stay Apparel Co. in 2017 began with some occasional blog posts I wrote for my public relations business.
Around the Fourth of July and Christmas, I would feature cool U.S.-made products, many of which I had bought and used myself.
But it grew into much more than that, borne out of a desire to play some small role in the Made in the USA movement, and by fall 2016 I had debuted our first original products: a Hershey felt pennant and a Hershey pom knit hat.
We launched Stay a year later, with an emphasis on place-specific tees, but we’ve also produced everything from sweatshirts and ball caps to canvas bags and dog collars.
We have every intention of continuing to offer original clothing and accessories. However, we’ve heard enough comments from people who say they don’t need another T-shirt to realize that we can apply our laser-focus on Made in USA to a broader spectrum of products to accommodate a wider audience of shoppers.
My wife, Sara, and I were on one of our regular walks in downtown Hershey during the holiday season when we had the epiphany that Stay should add a curated selection of household and gift items. (We’ve also added vintage pennants and postcards, which I’ll write about in a future post.)
In essence, we’ve come full circle, offering the kinds of items that inspired us in the first place. These are special products from special brands. It’s a little bit like becoming teammates with a ballplayer you worshiped in your youth.
Stay gets to be in the same starting lineup as Pennsylvania-made Zippo lighters, for goodness sake! Zippo offers a lifetime guarantee, which is saying a heck of a lot when you’ve manufactured more than 600 million lighters.
Thirty curated items from eight states
Trenton Mills, in Trenton, Tenn., maker of the World’s Best Dish Cloth, has been around since 1884. Rada Manufacturing Co. has been making cutlery in Waverly, Iowa, since 1948.
We’re starting with some 30 items, including multiple color options for several products, from a range of states that also include Maine and California, Indiana and Texas, Iowa and Tennessee.
We are particular about what we sell. In most cases, we have first-hand experience with these products, in some instances going back years. Sara and I, with our kids, toured the American Whistle Corp. factory in Columbus, Ohio, more than a decade ago. I still have the whistle with a blue Safe-T-Tip that I got on the tour; we’re selling one just like it.
Last fall, I bought an EZ-Duz-It can opener after requiring six stitches to repair a cut that resulted when our crappy imported can opener couldn’t do the job.
I bring my Flowfold backpack with me to every Stay pop-up appearance. We’re offering Maine-made Flowfold dopp kits in three colors. They, too, come with a lifetime warranty.
I’m a recent convert to Wolff scissors. The way the ergonomic design fit my hand, and the blades cut through paper, I knew we had to offer them. They’re great for light and heavy-duty materials, are dishwasher safe and can be sharpened.
Each of these products represents top-notch American-made quality, practicality and timelessness. We’re stocking small quantities to start, but given domestic sourcing, we should be able to restock quickly.
We hope you love these items as much as we do. If you have suggestions for other U.S.-made products that you think would be good additions to our inventory, please let us know by sending an email to hello@stayapparel.com.