Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (And How It Got That Way)

by Rachel Slade

Polartec was the high-tech textile branch of Malden Mills that made PolarFleece. Since the documentary about Feuerstein came out, things had changed dramatically. China began dominating textile manufacturing and the banks called in Malden’s loans. Mired in debt, Aaron lost control of his company to a private equity firm, which promptly ousted him. Once the company’s founder was out of the way, the firm announced that it was shutting down the Lawrence factory and relocating some PolarFleece manufacturing to nonunion Tennessee to maintain its government contracts,[*2] sending the rest to Asia. Aaron was ninety years old at the time. He told The Boston Globe that Polartec’s move to the South was a “disgrace.” He added, “I considered workers stakeholders in the business. These people are only interested in making profit…. [Private equity has] no interest in the welfare of workers.”