A comment from Stan

Well, not exactly the end of globalization, but a flutter was noted by the New York Times a while back in an article noting that shipping costs are crimping global supply chains. We had noted in earlier posts that globalization floats on a sea of cheap oil, and now, it appears, the cheap part of that supply is a thing of the past. One of the effects of this reversal may very well be a re-birth of local manufacturing. The Times article cites the case of Tesla Motors moving the manufacture of battery packs for its soon-to-be-released electric cars from Thailand to a site near its California base.

“It was kind of a no-brain decision for us,” said Darryl Siry, the company’s senior vice president of global sales, marketing and service. “A major reason was to avoid the transportation costs, which are terrible.”

I bring this up because I smell an opportunity for the Valley. Why not begin the process of building vertical cloth/clothing manufacture here and be ready when shipping is too expensive for anything but final products.

The Valley is a major cotton producer. There is a spinning plant in Harlingen (on Wilson Road across from the cottonseed mills). Yes, it looks pretty abandoned, but there is a baseline of equipment and, more importantly, hands that have used them. Industrial dyers, weavers, I don’t know, but we have in recent memory had cutters and sewing hands. And we do have wannabee designers and clever marketers around to build a mystique around a yet-to-be-developed Valley brand, though I would use sturdiness and reliability as the sales point for at least one line.

Just a thought. Tell me why I’m crazy this time.