Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump may not have much in common, but almost every day their campaigns cross paths in Newark – and not at the airport.
It just so happens that both Harris and Tim Walz’s camouflage hats and Trump’s MAGA baseball caps are made in the same Newark factory – clothing manufacturer Unionwear.
And it’s not the first time that Republican and Democratic campaigns have run side by side at this factory. In fact, Unionwear has been working for candidates from all political camps for over 30 years.
In a 2020 press release, the company confirmed that it made hats for Trump and also for then-Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and others. As one employee put it in the press release, “We need to make money for our families, whether we agree with their (candidate’s) message or not.”
Unionwear was founded in 1992. At the time, the company worked primarily for fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren. However, as the clothing and textile industry moved to China, Unionwear needed new customers, according to the company. With American politicians preferring campaign items made in the United States, Unionwear flourished.
They started with a small order of 150 hats for Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign in 1992. But the boom in campaign equipment production didn’t come until 2000, when then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore ran for president. The company says it sold nearly 200,000 hats that year.
The Harris Tweed camouflage baseball cap is popular with a wide range of consumers, including young people and hunters, said Mitch Cahn, president and founder of Unionwear, in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
“The demand really surprised us because the hat was put up for sale before we even had a production plan for it. And then tens of thousands of them sold really, really quickly, within a matter of hours, and then it just kept going,” he said.
The Trump hat currently sells for $50. The Harris-Walz hat retails for $40 but is currently sold out.
