Arrow is Cheaper because they have little overhead and basically sell wholesale.
A few years ago, before the "made in america" "trend", Kevin and Kirsten Shorey
were selling quoddy bluchers for $60 a pair (I bought 3 pairs at the time). At the
time, they were only able to stay in business because they were ONLY selling
volume in Japan, they had to raise their prices because their big customers asked
them to. So, actually, they raised their prices not because they were greedy,
but because they didn't want to bite the hand that was feeding them. Luckily, for them
JCrew and all the "Made in USA" hipsters caught on, and it seems they are doing
pretty well for themselves. I would imagine they don't make much more than the $60
per pair on their exports, and on the JCrew sales, but I guess the volume helped them
to save quite a few jobs. As I understood it, When Sebago went offshore to DR for all
their handsewns, Quoddy took over their shop, and employed many of their workers....
It's not that I don't feel your pain though. Two years ago, I got a "Pointer Brand" hickory stripe
chore coat for $29. A few months ago, the price jumped to $64.
This year, Colombiaknit factory store raised their prices on cobblecloth crew necks from $23.50
to $50.00. I'd say we have hipster collaborations to thank for these price jumps, but I can't really
blame them. They are just doing what they have to to survive, and if more consumers were
responsible about buying "local" and refusing to buy Levis, Sebago, LL Bean, etc. when they went offshore,
"buying American" wouldn't be a luxury, it would be reality, and there would be more than just a handful of workers
still producing in America, and they would actually be able to afford the goods they produced.
Sorry for the rant!
