He dealt with the losses the way he had dealt with the myriad of other challenges he’s faced over the years-the fire in his family’s original Philadelphia factory, heavy competition from major workwear brands, NAFTA and the widespread kneecapping of American manufacturing. The combined devastation of the flood and pandemic-related supply chain issues were a major setback for Camber. Schwartz had kept meticulous records and an archive of garment samples going back to the company’s beginning. And new orders were going to take about six times as long as they typically do to fulfill.īut inventory wasn’t all that perished. Suddenly, customers who had already been waiting months for their Camber orders were told they’d need to sit tight for several more months. The historic deluge destroyed over a million dollars’ worth of merchandise and snarled a business already hit hard by enormous strains in the global supply chain. “Last year, it visited the first floor, which had never happened in history.” “We have a tendency to have the river visit us every so often,” Schwartz says. A year ago, the rains brought on by Hurricane Ida swelled the river to the highest level ever recorded in Norristown and swamped portions of the building where much of Schwartz’s inventory was kept. Occasionally it does, in fact, flooding the basement. Yet getting the one you want can be nearly as difficult, in its way, as tracking down a coveted watch.Īs the Schuylkill rushes its way toward the Delaware River, it hurries, with roiling, frothy currents, right by the Camber factory-so close that it feels like it could reach the building. And that is where its products differ from a Rolex-a Camber hoodie comes with almost no status. And since the brand remains relatively obscure to most consumers-especially compared with other big American workwear brands like Carhartt or Dickies, neither of which exclusively manufactures in the US anymore-the intense desirability of Camber still stems from the simple fact that the company makes a superior product. Despite their popularity, the price of Camber goods has only ever nudged up incrementally, hardly keeping up with inflation and the rising cost to manufacture textile goods in America (on July 1 of this year the company did increase prices by 10 percent to offset the current inflationary situation). The company’s heavyweight cotton T-shirts and thermal-lined sweatshirts are nearly as popular as the Cross-Knit pieces-and can be just as hard to get. Today, a Camber Cross-Knit heavyweight pullover hooded sweatshirt will set you back $88 (sizes above XL cost more, up to 6XL, which go for $114). The customer had been wearing it for over two decades. Schwartz recently got a call from a customer who said that his sweatshirt was falling apart, so he offered to repair it. By almost all accounts, the sweatshirts last for a very long time. The fit is roomy at first-inspired by Champion’s Reverse Weave sweatshirt-but shrinks to fit nicely and softens with a wash (or a few hundred washes), like a pair of raw-denim jeans. Camber’s Cross-Knit sweatshirts come in 11 colors, all of which were offered when the material was introduced over 30 years ago. It feels soft and fuzzy on the underside, with an exterior that is dry and tough, like canvas, and nearly as rigid. It’s heavy stuff: 90 percent cotton, 10 percent polyester, knit into a 12-ounce fleece (that’s the weight of the material per square yard the typical weight of T-shirt fabric, for example, is about five ounces). Schwartz relies on many different textiles, but the material he uses to construct his most covetable garments is the Cross-Knit fabric, which he developed over 30 years ago with a Pennsylvania mill less than an hour away from the Camber factory and which is made using American cotton. For the enthusiasts and aficionados who are willing to wait months for a sweatshirt, the desirability of Camber’s comes down to two simple things: the quality of the fabric and the sturdiness of its construction.
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