Newark-based manufacturer Unionwear won the Manufacturing Reshoring Award from the Reshoring Initiative and the domestic textile manufacturing association SEAMS at the inaugural Manufacturing Reshoring Award.

Unionwear employs 180 workers in Newark who make baseball hats, backpacks and other bags for the promotional products, fashion and uniform industries. The company was founded by Mitch Cahn, who is committed to keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States.

The Reshoring Award was presented at SEAMS’ annual conference in Savannah, Ga., in May 2019.

Cahn explains that Unionwear’s technological innovations have leveled the playing field with imports by highlighting small batch, quick-turn manufacturing.

Unionwear’s predictive configuration tool at www.trillionhats.com allows it to sell custom made products using a traditional webstore experience rather than a cumbersome online configurator, while its mobile ERP platform automates purchasing, production scheduling, manufacturing and shipping.

Cahn said the result is “made to order,” as seamless as ordering from Amazon.

The baseball cap industry’s mass relocation to China since the 1990s, and Unionwear’s success in keeping manufacturing stateside throughout was thoroughly explored earlier this month in the three-part serial podcast documentary “American Icon” on iHeartRadio’s Red Pilled America podcast.