Made in Detroit

Kid Rock is proud of his city, and he’s quick to represent it any chance he gets. The singer has done many a good deed to help Detroit’s struggling economy, including resurrecting the Made in Detroit clothing brand after it went out of business in 2005. However, a new report from Susan Tompor of The Detroit Free Press reveals that the brand’s T-shirts are not actually made in Detroit, but rather the Dominican Republic, India, Honduras and even Ohio.

The company’s story is a poetic one, and it takes its hometown seriously, according to its website: “It was hatched in 1991 as a spark for a city that’d long been left for dead. It was a nod to the backbone that made this lace unlike another.” The site goes on to explain that the brand was brought out of bankruptcy in 2005 by Kid Rock, how has now “refueled” the brand, writing “It’s no wonder that an artist who stands for Detroit wouldn’t stand by when another bit of his city was taken down.”

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Unfortunately, while the line exhibits a lot of pride, it’s not exactly keeping things in-house. Tompor writes that many of the Made in Detroit shirts no longer have labels to tell you where they’re being made, either. The company currently uses eight to ten different manufacturers, and often aren’t totally sure where exactly the shirts were made. Operations manager Tommy Dubak explains that though making shirts in the U.S. will be more expensive, it’s something the company is working toward.

“We’re a small company, and we’re trying to do good for Michigan,” he told the Free Press.

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