In late March, Brooks Brothers was showered with praise after announcing it would use its three clothing factories in the United States (in Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina) to make personal protective equipment to help fight Covid-19. Now those factories may become casualties of the coronavirus, and the future of Brooks Brothers is uncertain. Brooks Brothers plans to lay off nearly 700 employees at the factories, and is also trying to find buyers for the factories by mid-July, and expects to close them if it can't. The potential factory closures "seem like a dramatic move for a brand that has really hung their hat on 'Made in America,'" said Robert Burke, founder of a namesake luxury consultancy. In an interview, Claudio Del Vecchio, the 63-year-old Italian industrialist owner of Brooks Brothers, spoke for the first time about the decision to divest from the vertical made-in-America supply chain. "I feel very bad about this," Mr. Del Vecchio said. But he added, "The factories never made money for us, and at this moment all resources need to be maintained and saved to make sure we can come out on the other side of the crisis."

Brooks Brothers was founded in Manhattan in 1818 and is the oldest apparel brand in continuous operation in the United States.

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full article: Brooks Bros., 'Made in America' Since 1818, May Soon Need a New Calling Card