President Donald Trump initiated a global trade conflict with the goal of encouraging jobs and factories to return robustly to the United States through the imposition of tariffs on other countries.
While many business leaders remain skeptical or doubtful of this approach, Sanjeev Bahl offers a more optimistic perspective.
From his Los Angeles factory, Bahl oversees about 250 workers who sew, cut, and finish denim jeans for brands such as Everlane, J. Crew, and Ralph Lauren, producing roughly 70,000 pairs each month. He believes that manufacturing can indeed make a comeback in the U.S.
However, this operation’s success depends heavily on Saitex’s much larger manufacturing and fabric facility in southern Vietnam, where thousands produce 500,000 pairs of jeans monthly.
Trump’s tariffs have disrupted supply chains, impacted businesses, and forced corporate leaders to confront a critical question: does the U.S. have what it takes to bring jobs back home?
In many sectors, this transition could take years or even decades. The U.S. currently lacks many essential components of a manufacturing ecosystem, including skilled labor, training, technology, and governmental support.
“There are some very harsh realities,” said Matt Priest, CEO of the U.S. Shoe and Footwear Distributors and Retailers trade group.
Trump’s strategy is also marked by uncertainty. Last month, he stated that the administration does not intend to manufacture sneakers and T-shirts domestically. Yet, the upcoming higher tariffs set for July target countries producing apparel and footwear for the American market. Vietnam, with a 46 percent tariff, is among the hardest hit.
These tariffs, designed to incentivize companies to relocate production to the U.S., were recently ruled illegal by the U.S. International Trade Commission. This decision was temporarily stayed by another court to allow time for reviewing the government’s appeal. Amid ongoing legal challenges, the president has vowed to pursue alternative methods to reshape trade rules.
Trump’s policies have exposed the logistical and geographic challenges of closing the gap between where many products are made and where they are consumed. This divide became especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when strict health measures in Asian countries shuttered factories. Once reopened, backlogged orders combined with congested shipping routes hampered the flow of goods across thousands of miles.
For executives like Bahl, the turmoil sparked by trade policies has underscored the urgency of managing global supply chains.
“The widespread fear and uncertainty brought on by COVID-19 were unforeseen,” Bahl said. “Nothing could have helped us except the survival instinct.”
In response, Saitex opened a factory in Los Angeles in 2021. Since Trump announced his intention to impose steep tariffs on Vietnam, Bahl has considered how much more production could be shifted to the U.S. He estimates the company might increase U.S. output to 20 percent from the current 10 percent.
He envisions Saitex as a potential model for other apparel companies. “We could be the catalyst to prove that manufacturing can return to America,” he said. Yet, his experience also highlights the significant challenges involved.
There are no U.S.-based fabric mills at the scale required by the industry, nor large suppliers of zippers and buttons. Operating a factory is costly, and labor shortages pose a major hurdle.
U.S. factories currently struggle to fill roughly 500,000 manufacturing jobs, according to Wells Fargo economists. To restore manufacturing employment to its peak level from the 1970s, as Trump has occasionally suggested, would require opening new factories and hiring 22 million workers—while 7.2 million people are currently unemployed.
Strict immigration policies have further exacerbated labor shortages.
Factory jobs shifted overseas to countries like Vietnam, which benefit from a growing, young workforce eager to lift themselves out of poverty. For the vision Trump promotes—millions of factory jobs returning to the U.S.—immigration would have to play a key role.
Steve Lamar, CEO of the American Apparel and Footwear Association, notes a disconnect between a “romantic notion of manufacturing” and the availability of American workers.
“Many people say we should make more clothes in the U.S., but when asked, they don’t want to work on factory floors themselves or have their children do so,” he explained.
“The problem is there simply aren’t enough people,” he added.
At Saitex’s Los Angeles facility, most workers come from countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Approximately 97 percent of the apparel and footwear Americans buy are imported due to cost considerations. Firms that manufacture entirely in the U.S. include Federal Prison Industries, also known as Unicor, which employs inmates to produce military uniforms often below minimum wage, Lamar said.
Other companies produce some clothing lines domestically, such as New Balance and Ralph Lauren, or experiment with making small batches in the U.S. to test designs before placing larger orders abroad.
Mass production in the U.S. is challenging, largely due to labor costs. Bahl points out that a sewing machine operator in Los Angeles earns about $4,000 per month, compared to $500 in Vietnam.
At Saitex’s Vietnamese factory, established in 2012 in Dong Nai province near Ho Chi Minh City, over a dozen production lines operate six days a week in a well-organized facility.
On a recent day, hundreds of workers moved denim panels swiftly through sewing machines, creating the impression that the fabric briefly flew through the air. Sophisticated machines assist by sewing labels on multiple shirts simultaneously or laser-etching distress patterns on jeans. Nearby, a robotic spray carousel mimics a worker’s precise motions when applying finishes to denim.
“The production speed is significantly higher in Vietnam,” said Gilles Cousin, plant director overseeing the sewing section.
Bahl argues that if the goal is to bring jobs back, tariff exemptions should be granted to companies like Saitex that are already increasing U.S. manufacturing. American factories cannot expand without importing many components used in final products. Saitex ships bales of U.S. cotton to Vietnam, where its two-story fabric mill processes the fluffy fibers into yarn and then rolls of cloth. This fabric is then dyed and shipped back to the Los Angeles factory.
Until there is greater momentum among U.S. manufacturers, fabrics, zippers, and buttons will need to be imported.
Relocating production from overseas would require massive investments. Saitex has invested about $150 million in Vietnam, where its factory recycles 98 percent of water, air-dries denim, and employs technology to reduce carbon emissions and labor-intensive processes. In the U.S., Saitex has spent roughly $25 million. These long-term commitments take at least seven years to recoup.
Ultimately, if Trump maintains the original 46 percent tariff on Vietnam and Saitex cannot mitigate the financial impact, the company would need to seek other markets for its Vietnamese-made goods, such as Europe, which currently receives about half of its exports.
“But then,” Bahl asked from Los Angeles, “what will happen to our factory here?”
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