ATF's USA made Items

Although most of our products are imported, we still offer nearly 200 items that are made or assembled in America, most of them in our own shop here in Columbia, Ky. Our factory is equipped with over 50 sewing machines, many of them from the 1930's and 40's, webbing cutter, die press, leather station, silk screen set up and a paint booth. Many leather and small uniform parts are cut on a hydraulic press with steel rule dies like originals. Many of our German field gear items are made with US (and European) fabric and leather, but we send them overseas for hand sewing and then re-import them.

The advantage to manufacturing here is mainly oversight, speed and flexibility. Original examples of all products are on hand for immediate comparison, magazines and bag contents for test fitting and we can make changes or corrections immediately. And if we get an impulse to use some original hardware or make a small run of an item, we can quickly and easily do so.

Why don't we make everything here? Cost and availability of materials. Many people insist that USA made shouldn't cost more than imported- that's a fantasy. Reality is very different. Military uniforms and equipment manufactured in the US will cost at least double or triple of those made overseas. This is a simple fact and the reason that so few of these products are made here anymore and very few people are willing to pay what it will cost. Compounding this problem, most of raw materials are no longer manufactured in North America at all. The majority of American (and Canadian) fabric mills have gone bankrupt in the past two decades. Even if we wanted to make everything here, we'd need to import the materials.

Items on the Page

I tried to list everything (US and German), but I may have missed a small item or two. Original items should go without saying- if one isn't on here, don't freak out and think we had it reproduced in China 70 years ago. We generally state if something is made here in its description. If you are concerned, just ask.

Much of our German field gear is made with domestic materials, and we do the cutting and some assembly here but the hand sewing must be done overseas to keep the labor and workers' comp claims down. By letter of the law we could call that "Made in USA" but it's only partially true, so we won't.