Fridays are for the shop. Where Tuesday's issue is one maker's story, Friday is the buying guide: a short, seasonal edit of small-batch American goods worth owning (some on sale, most just worth it), with the week's real deals at the bottom.
This week: everything for life on the water. It's the season for it, and it happens to be where American makers are at their absolute best: Maine boat shoes, Nantucket reds, totes sewn from retired sails on a working waterfront. Six to start, cheapest to dearest.
On the Water
🇺🇸 Sailor Bracelet, Mystic Knotwork (Mystic, CT) ($8–35). Hand-tied since 1957 from US-made cord, in a family shop that's been knotting rope for three generations. The $8 way into American-made, and the thing you'll actually wear all summer. → mysticknotwork.com
🇺🇸 Ribbon Belt, Leather Man Ltd (Essex, CT) ($40–80). The original preppy ribbon belt, handcrafted in the same Connecticut workshop since 1967: cotton webbing, leather tabs, nautical motifs. The one every imitator is copying. → elizab.com
🇺🇸 Recycled Sail Tote, Sea Bags (Portland, ME) ($175–225). Cut and sewn on Portland's working waterfront from actual retired sails; every one carries a different boat's weather. The bag for the ferry, the beach, and the farmers market. → seabags.com
🇺🇸 Nantucket Reds, Murray's Toggery Shop (Nantucket, MA) (~$100–150). The original. Cotton-canvas trousers that fade to a dusty rose, sold from the same Nantucket shop since 1945: the pants that started a coastal uniform. The Reds and M Crest line are US-made. (It is, as it happens, the kind of shop a quarterboard hangs over.) → nantucketreds.com
🇺🇸 Blucher Moc, Quoddy (Lewiston, ME) ($249 in stock, or made to order). Hand-sewn and resoled in-house for the life of the shoe. Straight talk, because this list knows its footwear: Quoddy's own About page says in-stock pairs are made “both in our Lewiston workshop, and elsewhere.” If the Lewiston bench is the point for you, go made to order. Either way: buy once, wear a decade. → quoddy.com
🇺🇸 Madras Camp Shirt, Gitman Vintage (Ashland, PA) ($235–310). Sewn in the same Pennsylvania town since 1932; their madras and seersucker are what July is for. Bonus: it's on sale right now, see the Wire below. → gitmanvintage.com
The Sale Wire
Live small-maker sales worth catching (verified this week). Deals move fast, so check before you buy:
🇺🇸 Gitman Vintage (Ashland, PA): Summer Sale on US-sewn oxfords and madras → gitmanvintage.com
🇺🇸 Stormy Kromer (Ironwood, MI): a permanent Outlet on Michigan-made wool caps and gear, marked down year-round → stormykromer.com/sale
🇺🇸 Faribault Mill (MN): the factory-seconds Warehouse is always worth a dig → faribaultmill.com
🇺🇸 Frank's Boots (Spokane): a standing Seconds Sale collection worth watching → franksboots.com
🇺🇸 Dearborn Denim (Chicago): not a sale, just the deal, $75 jeans made in the USA, one of the best everyday-price stories in American denim → dearborndenim.us
3sixteen (US-made line): 25% off previous-season styles; the US-made selvedge denim is the buy → 3sixteen.com/collections/sale
Standing seconds programs (always worth a look): JK Boots warehouse (~30% off), Nicks Factory Seconds, Truman Seconds & Samples, Easymoc Factory Outlet, Rancourt Outlet.
Every item above was verified for country of origin. No brand paid to appear. Some links may become affiliate links; that never changes what gets picked.
P.S. What's the one thing you're still hunting American-made for summer? Reply and tell me: the most-requested piece becomes a future edit.
The Quarterboard · quarterboard.co · @quarterboardco