Just how serious is Glenn Beck about helping America get back to its manufacturing roots?
This serious: The former FOX News host just launched his own USA-made, boutique jeans line, 1791 Denim, named in honor of the year the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution.
The new duds are woven in Greensboro, N.C., and cut and sewn in Kentucky at a factory that was established in the 1920s. On his radio program on Monday, Beck said he was inspired after seeing the controversial "Go Forth" Levi’s commercial that used footage reminiscent of the Occupy Wall Street protests, along with quotes from a Charles Bukowski poem.
“I lost it,” Beck told his listeners. “That’s just wrong. What are you holding up these guys for?... [Levi’s said,] ‘We want to be the uniform of the progressive movement.’”
Beck said he took off his own Levi’s and vowed never to wear them again. He was determined to make his very own, non-Occupy-supporting denim from the “same company that Levi’s gave up on” – Cone, a denim mill that produces Levi’s Made in USA products. (A Levi’s spokesman told Businessweek that Levi’s Made in USA products are produced at Cone, but did not confirm other Levi’s collections).
“I don’t believe in boycotts," Beck said on air. “I believe ‘make something better'. So we did.”
The catch? The patriotic pairs of jeans, which come in classic and straight-leg styles, will cost you a cool $129. Not exactly working class prices. Update: As of Wednesday afternoon, the jeans were sold out online.
“They are more expensive than regular jeans,” Becks admits, but reminds potential consumers it’s because they are purely, 100 percent made in America. "That's as cheap as I can make them."
Rina Raphael is a TODAY editor who is a fan of all things made here in America, including John Stamos.
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