“Hanes is converting factories to produce masks.”
Hanes has no US factories to knit cloth and sew the masks. Hanes offshored its production years ago. It will take weeks for Hanes to get into production, if it can obtain the raw material.
Hanes foreign factories will be under the jurisdiction of foreign governments in the third world countries where the factories are located. Weeks from now when the factories come online with mask production, those governments may direct Hanes to supply the home market instead of shipping product to the US.
Offshore apparel supply chains are lengthy and new product startups take months. This is another consequence of moving production out of the US.
Sadly Hanes, VF Corp, and Warren Buffet’s Fruit of the Loom company once had sewing and textile operations spread across the southeastern US in small towns. Many of the communities were economically decimated when the factories went offshore and remain so to this day. If those factories were producing today, you would have large quantities of masks in weeks, not months. You can thank greedy executives, Walmart’s quest for low cost Asian production, and the Wall Street investment firm speculators who will be bailed out again in the current crisis. Add to the list “conservative” southern Republican politicians like N.C. GOP Senator Richard Burr, the inside trader, who for three decades voted enthusiastically for every one sided “free trade” bill put in front of them by two Bush presidents, Clinton, and Obama.
If here were any real reporters in the media today, at the Hanes announcement the CEO would have been asked when the masks deliveries will begin arriving in US hospitals and how many will be arriving per week.
I did observe Warren Buffet didn’t step forward to volunteer his Fruit of the Loom factories for mask production. Likely crafty Warren sees this as an opportunity to pick up market share. While Hanes is ramping up mask production it’s underwear production will fall and its deliveries of underwear to its customers will be reduced. Customers of Hanes will fill their underwear needs from other suppliers. Warren Buffet will be happy to supply the need. When mask production ends, President Trump will tell the Hanes CEO thank you and Fruit of the Loom will occupy the displays in Walmart on which Hanes product was once sold.
Plus once the current crisis is over, and the Chinese mask companies are in full production again, the US customers for Hanes masks will disappear when the Chinese factories undercut the Hanes price to win back the business. If necessary the Chinese government will give Chinese mask factories subsidies to slash prices and win back market share. Will US politicians have the guts to say no to Wall Street and vote for high tariffs to help fund payment on the trillions in debt they are approving this week?
"HanesBrands is using cotton yarn spun made from U.S.-grown cotton by its partner Parkdale Mills America. HanesBrands is using the yarn to make cotton fabric in its large textile manufacturing plants in El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. The company is using the fabric to make the masks to specification in company-owned sewing facilities in El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. The textile and sewing plants are being converted from manufacturing of T-shirts, underwear, socks and fleece sweatshirts/sweatpants.
HanesBrands is one of the largest producers of basic apparel in the world, and unlike most apparel brands, the company self-manufactures the significant majority of its products.
In addition to Parkdale Mills America, HanesBrands is working closely with Fruit of the Loom, SanMar, Beverly Knits, the National Council of Textile Organizations, and other apparel companies to share product specifications and patterns for the FDA-approved masks."