# "Made in the USA" requirements?



## Dave 2006 (Apr 13, 2006)

hello everyone

question, im in the process of having some labels made and am stuck at the point of mentioning where the item was made. ive been reading information from the ftc site which gives me a pretty good idea, but i just wanted to run it across you all.
basicly what im doing is printing on a shirt that indicates that its was "made in columbia" or other foriegn locations; however, im going to have it relabeled here, with labels made here, it will also include a patch on the arm of the shirt that is made here, and it will be printed here.
with this being said, what im understanding is that its ok to mention on the product "made in the usa with imported fabrics." Can someone answer form me if this is correct in staying in compliance with any FTC regulations and also customs, or should i be wording this another way?

Also rodney, thanks for your directing me to TSC, not only have i found shirts that i like, but i found out that they offer relabeling services, no minimum orders, for .30 cent per item under the seam, cant beat that.
also rodney how do i change my name from dave 2006.


----------



## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*

The country of origin is just that: the country the shirt "originated"!

If the shirt was constructed in another country, you can't put that it was "made" in the USA with foreign fabric, if in fact it was made in another country with additions made in the USA


----------



## RisingBlue7 (Oct 8, 2006)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*

That's correct, wherever the *t-shirt* was manufactured in, it must be printed on the label whether its India, China Pakistan. It doesnt matter if you are re-labeling them here in the U.S. Don't forget that the care instructions, content info, RN need to be included as well as the country of origin.


----------



## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*



Dave 2006 said:


> basicly what im doing is printing on a shirt that indicates that its was "made in columbia" or other foriegn locations; however, im going to have it relabeled here, with labels made here, it will also include a patch on the arm of the shirt that is made here, and it will be printed here.
> with this being said, what im understanding is that its ok to mention on the product "made in the usa with imported fabrics."


No, this is emphatically *not* okay.

You _might_ be able to say something like "Made in Columbia, Printed in USA", but I'm not sure.



Dave 2006 said:


> or should i be wording this another way?


You shouldn't be wording it in any way that implies manufacture occurred in the US as you are currently trying to. If you do so you will be liable for fines under the FTC regulations.


----------



## Dave 2006 (Apr 13, 2006)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*

man im glad i brought this up. so let me ask you this. im planing on printing on some jersey shirts. ive noticed that some of them are made in columbia, and some are made in mexico. is there no general way i could mention this to cover the basis that the shirt is imported? or would i have to have seperate labels made for the ones that came from columbia and the others that came from mexico?
Also risingblue7, i know that it is required for me to mention either the company name or RN#, i also know that i need to mention care instructions, but you say i have to mention the content info? this means the percentage of cotton or what ever other material is involved right? is mentioning the material that the shirt is made of neccessary?, its not a problem for me to do so, its just a simple thing that i nearly overlooked.

this is the page that i was initially referencing
Complying with the Made In the USA Standard

also, are there specific info that needs to be on front or back of the tag, in complying with ftc regulation?

im glad i brought this question up before spending money on labels, thanks alot yal.


----------



## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*



Dave 2006 said:


> would i have to have seperate labels made for the ones that came from columbia and the others that came from mexico?


Yes. And it must be on the front of the label.



Dave 2006 said:


> is mentioning the material that the shirt is made of neccessary?


Yes.


You might want to search the forums for relabelling and/or read over the FTC guidelines again just to make sure you're not overlooking anything (or copy everything but the brand name from the original label, assuming it's compliant).


----------



## RisingBlue7 (Oct 8, 2006)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*

Dave,

Yes fiber content should be on the label as well. See, this is what happened to me. Continental's garments are great and its even better that their care/content/country of origin and such have different labels for each. So the only thing you would need to remove is their own garment label, sew in yours and leave the rest on the garment. With Article 1, it had ALL of the info in one label, so I had to print new labels just for their garments.  





Dave 2006 said:


> man im glad i brought this up. so let me ask you this. im planing on printing on some jersey shirts. ive noticed that some of them are made in columbia, and some are made in mexico. is there no general way i could mention this to cover the basis that the shirt is imported? or would i have to have seperate labels made for the ones that came from columbia and the others that came from mexico?
> Also risingblue7, i know that it is required for me to mention either the company name or RN#, i also know that i need to mention care instructions, but you say i have to mention the content info? this means the percentage of cotton or what ever other material is involved right? is mentioning the material that the shirt is made of neccessary?, its not a problem for me to do so, its just a simple thing that i nearly overlooked.
> 
> this is the page that i was initially referencing
> ...


----------



## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*

I understand that the rule in Australia is that for "Made in....", 50% of the materials and/or cost of manufacture must have taken place in Australia. Theoretically, with printing costs/labour costs, an imported shirt printed in Oz could class as "Made in....", if those costs took more than 50% of the cost. 

I think "Product of..." requires all materials to be Oz based/sourced. The US might have similar laws,

This is something like the system, but those percentages may be a little off.


----------



## Dave 2006 (Apr 13, 2006)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*

ok what about this yal,
in addition to inserting my own labels in the shirts another thing i had planed on doing was printing somewhat of a tagless label on the inside of the shirt. the reason that i say "somewhat" is because its basicly going to be a design, yet contain additional info such as 100% cotton, ringspun, etc.
would it be an option for me to print the "country of orgin" info here, instead of putting it on the tag?
im just trying to figure out a work around instead of having to absorb the cost of already printing seperate labels for the different sizes, and now for the different countries, which im now noticing could be as many as 4 different places.

thanks again in advance


----------



## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*



Dave 2006 said:


> ok what about this yal,
> in addition to inserting my own labels in the shirts another thing i had planed on doing was printing somewhat of a tagless label on the inside of the shirt. the reason that i say "somewhat" is because its basicly going to be a design, yet contain additional info such as 100% cotton, ringspun, etc.
> would it be an option for me to print the "country of orgin" info here, instead of putting it on the tag?


I think that would be ok.

This thread has some info about doing "tagless" tags:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/general-t-shirt-selling-discussion/t4559.html


----------



## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*



monkeylantern said:


> The US might have similar laws


Nope - Australia is a heck of a lot more lenient on this stuff than the US is.

For some reason the Australian regulations think customers can draw a distinction between "Product of" "Made in" etc., whereas the US (quite rightly in my opinion) thinks that all of that is just misleading.

We have lots of loopholes. The US has very few, if any.


----------



## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

*Re: "Made in the USA" requirnments?*



Dave 2006 said:


> would it be an option for me to print the "country of orgin" info here, instead of putting it on the tag?


Probably. If you removed the tags and had it _only_ on the print, then yes.

The country of origin is meant to be on the front of the label. If you look at a blank shirt you'll find that it almost never is. There are two labels in the shirt, a brand label at the front, and a *longer* care label at the back - it hangs below the brand label, and the only thing visible without lifting the front tag is the country of origin. Not a coincidence.

So in other words the FTC has evidently decided to allow "on the front" to also mean "visible on the front" (and fair enough). So if your printed label is visible without lifting the tag, it's probably okay. If the country of origin is obscured behind the label that would be a problem.

The reason I say "probably" and not "yes" is because I'm not sure how the FTC would feel about splitting the information over two different types of labels, that customers may ignore the printed label and miss the country of origin, etc. I _think_ it would be okay, but I don't *know* that it would be okay.

(I do know that labels can be printed though, so if you wanted to put *all* the information on a printed label and just not have the neck labels, that would be fine)


----------



## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Also rodney, thanks for your directing me to TSC, not only have i found shirts that i like, but i found out that they offer relabeling services, no minimum orders, for .30 cent per item under the seam, cant beat that.


wow, I didn't even know that. I'll have to check that out.


----------

