I don’t know about you, but my favorite NFL game of the week is always NBC’s Sunday Night Football with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth.  Visually it is amazing and I like the repartee between Collinsworth and Michaels.  I am not alone in my opinion on this.  But aside from the program’s amazing production values, there is another feature of NBC Sunday Night Football I really love: their consistent focus on American firms making great stuff that Americans like you and I can purchase.  And by purchasing American products, you and I can provide jobs for members of our extended American family.

A couple of Sundays ago, Al and Cris visited Buffalo to broadcast the Bills – Jets game.  The Bills play at New Era Field.  New Era Cap Company purchased the naming rights for the Bill’s stadium last summer.  Not surprisingly, New Era’s amazing caps were featured during the broadcast; shots of local craftspeople sewing the caps were great to see.

What today is New Era was founded in 1920 by German immigrant Ehrhard Koch as e. Koch Cap Co.  Ehrhard got his hat company started by borrowing $5000 from his aunt.  Koch began making caps on the third floor of 1830 Genesee Street, on the corner of Bailey Ave. in Buffalo, N.Y.  Koch’s first 14 employees including Ehrhardt’s sister Rose. Ehrhardt’s son, Harold, and Rose’s son Wally Domas, soon started working there well before graduating from high school. In 1920, the company produced 60,000 caps.  In 1922, Koch renamed his company New Era caps.  Wikipedia has an amazing history on the firm.

Every MLB player wears a New Era cap.  Growing up in California, there was only one New Era cap I would ever be caught wearing.

These days my favored New Era cap is different.

But of course there is one New Era cap I wouldn’t wear even if you gave me one for free.

Every player in the Nippon Professional Baseball league also sports a New Era cap.  Hanshin Tigers cap anyone?

New Era makes great NHL caps that surely would have pleased Bobby Hull,

Bobby Orr,

Gordie Howe,

or Ken Dryden.

A couple of years ago, New Era became the official on-field cap provider for the National Football League.  My New Era NFL lid of choice is obvious.

What’s that emblem on the right side of the New Era Seahawks cap?  Oh yeah, that’s a depiction of the Super Bowl Trophy we won two years ago.  

If you are in the market for a great hat made by Americans in Buffalo, look no further than New Era.  New Era has really lived out its early motto:“Quality First, Quantity Will Follow.”

The other Buffalo manufacturing firm that was featured on NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast a few weeks back was Super Chexx.  Super Chexx make the most amazing table hockey games.

The folks at Super Chexx can allow you to customize your table hockey set to your heart’s content.  Are the Leafs your team of choice?  No problem

Can’t get enough of the Habs/Bruins rivalry?  Super Chexx has got you covered.

So if you want to be the most popular family in your neighborhood, just order up a Super Chexx table hockey unit.  Just make sure you have plenty of refreshments on hand for the hordes of hockey fans that will soon begin showing up at your door.

The NBC Sunday Night Football game this week matches my 4-1 Seattle Seahawks against the 3-3 Arizona Cardinals in Arizona.  I am expecting a win, but regardless it should be a good game.  I wonder what Arizona products Al and Cris might feature this week.  Maybe bags from the Lifetime Leather Company.

Or one of the myriad of other great products made in Arizona and featured on Jim and Laura Hofman’s Arizona page from their great website, State Gifts USA.  So let’s hope for a great game between the Seahawks and the Cardinals, and try to figure out what Al and Kris will get up to during the game.

Hopefully nothing like that.

This summer, my son Ben and I have been doing loads of hiking. Ben is a student at Western Washington University located in Bellingham and has been living up in Bellingham this summer prior to his senior year at Western.  We decided that this summer we wanted to hike in the North Cascades National Park, which is southeast of Bellingham. So we have been hiking a lot this summer.  Our first hike was to Blue Lake off the North Cascades Highway.

We saw a family of these guys up above the lake.

Next we drove to the end of the Mount Baker Highway and hiked up the Table Mountain Trail.

Last week, we hiked the Park Butte trail off the North Cascades Highway and it was absolutely spectacular.

All these hikes share a few characteristics.  First, they are all in my home State of Washington. Second, I had the great pleasure of being able to enjoy them with my amazing son Benjamin. And third, by the time we got back to the car at the end of the hike, I was so thirsty that I was considering drinking my own urine.  Luckily, I didn’t have to engage in that disgusting task because when we arrived at the car, we were greeted by icy cold beverages.  How you ask did we have access to icy cold beverages since the interior temperature of our car and trunk exceeded the temperature on the surface of the sun?  Our beverages were icy cold because they were tucked inside our Igloo MAXCOLD PLAYMATE ELITE at Target for less than fifteen bucks.

Our Igloo Playmate Elite cooler holds 30 cans of pop, is very rugged and is easy to open and close.  Best of all, our Igloo cooler is manufactured by members of our extended American family in Waller County, Texas!  So if you need some cold beverages on a warm day this summer, look no further than Igloo.  You will benefit from cold beverages on a hot day and the American workers at the Igloo manufacturing facility in Texas will benefit from a job that allows them to support themselves, their families and their community.

Now get shopping!

I have written about Maker’s row in the past.  Ever since I learned about the folks at Maker’s Row a couple of years ago, I have followed their progress closely.  So I was very happy to see the firm and one of its founders, Matthew Burnett, get some great press recently.  If you want to start making a product in the U.S. but don’t know where to start, Maker’s row should be your first stop.

Let’s say you have an idea for a very cool overnight bag.  You pay the Maker’s row measly $20 a month subscription fee and in return you get access to their digital catalog of over 6,000 U.S. manufacturers. For each of those manufacturers you get contact info, reviews, photos and videos showcasing the manufacturer’s capabilities.

I subscribe to the Maker’s row daily update program, and the amount of work they put in creating content and resources that are useful for budding domestic manufacturers is staggering.  For example, in just the last few weeks they have published great articles on the difference between sales and marketing, jumpstarting an apparel brand, and manufacturing 101.  If you want to start manufacturing a consumer product in the U.S., you would be nuts to embark on that quest without partnering with Maker’s row.

So if you are a budding American manufacturer who longs to have your American product made by members of your extended American family, Maker’s row should be your first stop.  For a pittance a month, you can partner with the force in the Made in America movement at work today.  So contact Maker’s row today!  What are you waiting for?

If you are in the market for some new leather luggage made by members of our extended American family, do I have a sale for you!  Ernest Alexander, the labor of love of Ernest Alexander Sabine, is having an amazing New Years sale with some items up to 70% off!  My favorite American made Ernest Alexander beauties on sale is the Perry Gym Duffel,

If you want to take advantage of the sale on the American made Perry Gym duffel, don’t dilly dally; the sale ends on January 4th and during the sale you can take advantage of free ground shipping.

Now get shopping!