Wisconsin-based company produces stainless steel cookware that is perfect for any kitchen.
360 Cookware is different from other brands. First, the cookware is made from high quality stainless steel, so it is built to last. Second, it’s Made in America.
The cookware is manufactured in West Bend, Wisconsin by Americraft Cookware, and has been called one the finest cookware brands in the industry. Americraft Cookware broke ground on its factory in August 2004, and established the 360 Cookware brand six years ago.
Americraft President and owner Bryan Hurley runs the Americraft factory, while his wife Beth Hurley runs the 360 Cookware line. Hurley says he chose to make everything in America because he never thought there was another option he could live with.
“When we opened we did so with a team of people who had 30 and 40 years a piece of experience in making high end cookware that had all been laid off due to the fact that the company they dedicated their lives to sent all of their jobs to China,” Hurley said. “While we are only a 10-year-old company, we have over 500 years of cookware making experience in the building.”
“I simply feel that if we aren’t making and buying American we won’t be American much longer." Bryan Hurley, president and owner of 360 Cookware
The company employs more than 9,000 Americans through various vendors and suppliers, who help them provide their customers with their quality stainless steel cookware. American workers also handcraft the cookware items that are used in kitchens all across America every day.
“Keeping it in America is more important to us then profits,” Hurley said. “When we started the difference in cost to make a pan in the U.S. vs China was 60 percent more. Nowadays it’s less than a 40 percent difference but I wouldn’t stop making what we make in the U.S. if there was a 100 percent difference.
“I simply feel that if we aren’t making and buying American we won’t be American much longer. Sometimes I think there should be a country named profit so that all the companies that care about nothing else can move there and call it home. I care about our people, and they care about the product they make.”
The future is bright for 360 Cookware — but there are challenges.
“Costs are more favorable and we become more competitively priced every day. However there is still a challenge in getting our message across to the consumer who only sees the price,” Hurley said. “Unfortunately when you look at one of our pans from a distance while it sits next to a cheap Chinese piece of junk, it’s hard to see past the price difference as the price tag doesn’t tell you that my pan is the last pan you will ever buy, uses one-third the power and water of conventional cookware, and comes with a lifetime guarantee versus the cheap one that will be in a landfill in less than three years.”
The updated design and technology of the cookware is perfect for the next generation of cooking aficionados. If you’re a budding chef or want to build your recipe list, 360 Cookware provides recipes, how to videos, and a new user guide right on its website.
“I guess the best news is that it’s finally ‘cool’ to be a red, white, blue, and green,” Hurley said. “We are the greenest cookware factory in the world, U.S. owned and operated and we produce a product your kids will fight over when you’re gone!”