A Message to the Youth of America from Wickers.Com

Nov. 1, 2011 - PRLog -- So many of our loyal customers know with every purchase they get not only Wickers’ renown quality and unparallel service, they are also building new jobs in the United States.

There was a time when America produced what its citizens needed and wanted. We were proud to have abundant natural resources and dedicated people to do this. Today we have squandered our ability to use these resources and put ourselves in the position of having to depend on others. We have lost our Pride! We are losing our self confidence to believe that we can regain what we have squandered.

Near 10% unemployment, about 30,000,000 people not working; is this a lasting legacy of the movement of manufacturing and farm products to low wage countries? What is the new norm, but a euphemism for “not to expect that we will return to our previous grandeur; to settle for less”. Is the American Dream gone forever? It doesn’t have to be.

There is a real “Food Movement” starting in America. To set the path away from the multi-international corporations and the food preparation industries and the fast food companies that have created unhealthy diet, which have multiplied the number of illnesses such as Diabetes 2, heart diseases, and some forms of cancers in the American populations, toward a more sustainable and healthy food chain closer to the localities from local farms and Farmer Market distributors.

The idea of the Movement is that we can do better than what is being done now and is a prima facie case for all manufacturing and distribution. We can get our pride back and build a better America by getting back to our roots.

Small businesses do not move away to distant lands to produce its products they stay and compete. Large corporations have built well known brands in America, then move away to produce what they sell in America. What they don’t know is that they take our pride from all of us. Not only have the skills of factory workers, but also the knowledge of our research scientists and information technology, and increasingly the creative aspirations of our young people.

Loss of our pride can easily be seen when an unshackled financial industry can reap billions and cause a debacle that affects all of us more than it does them. The Food Movement needs to morph into a total reversing movement to regain our pride by doing what made us great to begin with.

Grow our own food, build our own products in our own factories, and allow our young people to have the opportunity to the creative genius that still exists in America.

To understand fully the impact of the transferring our industrial legacy, one must view the total devastation of the fiber, textile and apparel manufacturing in the US.

America was the world leader in the production of synthetic fibers. The premier researchers and developers of innovative uses of these fibers since the 1930’s. Billions of pounds of fibers were manufactured in the US providing employment for not only the factory workers and managers, but also, for the many thousands employed to creatively seek new markets and build consumer demands in the textile markets for home furnishings, apparel, automotive interiors, tires, ecosystems and many other end use products.

All the science, technology and manufacturing know how is now gone from our shores. They are now closer to their direct customers in the textiles production.

The textile industries production of yarn spinning, fabric formations, dyeing and finishing skills with its attendant technology to create fabrics to meet the needs of the American consumer who employed thousands of skilled workers in their factories have moved; forced to do so by the market forces and a system created by the political fantasy that it would be best for US citizens.

This political fantasy that apparel manufacturing would be best if it also moved to low wage producing lands pulling not only manufacturing but also the largest retailers in world to set up their procurement departments in these same low wage producing countries. There were literally hundreds of thousands garment workers that are now not needed by these factories in America.

Many of the total number of US citizens employed by these industries are now among the 30,000,000 unemployed or underemployed Americans. We have been told that this give away of America’s manufacturing prowess, believed to have been the finest in the world and to have delivered the goods to help our Armed Forces defeat the totalitarian regimes 60 years ago and then to help build the greatest middle class known to mankind is now but shell of its former self. To be replaced by what? Do you know or can you see what our political establishment vision is?

We want our collective pride back! http://www.wickers.com

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Wickers was started in 1981 by Anthony Mazzenga, the founder and current CEO and Chairman, as Anrotex Inc., which was primarily a fabric company. In 1990, seeing an opportunity in the performance underwear market, Anthony combined the innovative fabric company with performance garment manufacturing to create Wickers Sportswear, Inc. In 1998 he set up Wickers Europe to market performance underwear garments primarily in the UK. Wickers.com was set up in 2000.

Since its inception, Wickers has been a leader in the development and introduction of performance fabric technology. Wickers pioneering development of its propriety Akwatek fabric, established a new standard by which all other wicking technology fabrics were judged. The fabric has been tested by independent agencies and found to have capabilities superior to that of standard "wicking" fabrics for thermoregulation in performance sports apparel.