Posted by aburke on 05/06/2011

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Jon Wye: This week we had the opportunity to chat with chat with Jon Wye, a Washington, DC native who has been designing and manufacturing a unique line of American-made clothing and accessories since 2004. The Jon Wye Company’s  tagline is “we make awesome”, and after checking out Jon’s distinctive products and learning about how passionate he is about keeping his entire line made-in-the-USA—we’d have to agree.

The products

In 2004 Jon Wye tried his hand at making belt buckles using wax molds, and has since designed and an entire line of buckles and graphic leather belts using an innovative manufacturing process he developed himself.  He has also expanded his line to include men’s, women’s and kid's t-shirts, guitar straps, wallets and even a line of  “Fred Fred” dog collars, inspired by his loyal pet.

The benefits of staying local

Though his brand’s reach has now expanded well beyond a single DC location to include a full-service online store and booths at numerous artisan shows such as NYC's Grand Central Terminal Holiday Fair, Jon and his assistant Jeff Ball still make all of their products in their DC workshop. 

Though Jon admits that refining his manufacturing techniques has not be an easy process, he takes pride in the fact that he still makes everything he sells locally and with American-made materials—and his customers have noticed: “We've always marketed as American-made. Simply put, when customers/fans find out that it's made in the USA, it makes it a lot easier for them to buy.”

Jon has also noticed that his customers become even more excited about his products when they learn that they are made in DC—a city not generally known for its clothing industry: 

Not only are customers proud that it's made in the USA, but people are ecstatic that the item they are wearing are made in their city, a city not know for manufacturing goods.  And when we are on the road selling outside of DC they are happy to know something tangible comes out of DC... not just politics. 
 

Making Awesome in America

What really sets Jon Wye apart from other local manufacturers though is not just his unique product line, but his perspective on collaborating with local artists to create quality, American-made goods:

"We make awesome" is our tag line.  It doesn't just mean that we made cool stuff, and we do, it's about how we go about doing it.  We have a section on our site called "The Collective" where every artist we work with is credited to the products they participated in designing.  We use our minds to refine our production processes so we can compete globally.  We manufacture locally.  We market directly to customers through our story, passion, and as many local craft festivals as we can rather than attempting to sell them on how "cool" we are. But we are pretty cool, at least all the amazing people I get to work with everyday.  ”

Click here to shop the entire Jon Wye Collection