U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough trade tactics have forced sisters Meg and Kathleen Cameron McQueen (born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie) to make some changes in running Campton Clothing, their own online ‘functional-cool’ clothing company which they launched in 2016.
Meg and Kathleen, who operate Campton Clothing from southern Ontario, where they both currently live and work (but who base the look of their clothing line on the northern Ontario outdoors and visit the Sault every chance they get, as reported earlier by SooToday), have stated they have decided to end their clothing company’s manufacturing partnerships in the U.S. and ‘go all in with ‘Made in Canada.’”
In an email sent to SooToday from Kingston, Ont., the sisters wrote “it took several months to do, but once the NAFTA negotiations started going sour between Canada and the United States in early 2018, Campton made a decision to end a beautiful and prosperous cross-border manufacturing relationship to prepare for a rocky future created by Trump. So they’re throwing the dice and betting only on Canada.”
“We decided to move all of our manufacturing and production to Canada, which has been a difficult move to do in three months, but we’re so proud of this decision based upon what happened at the G7. We’re extremely proud of Canada and our federal government, and feel this is our duty to commit to Canadian production and offer this to our customers,” Meg and Kathleen wrote.
“Since trade renegotiations of NAFTA, the symbiotic relationship for manufacturing Campton products which relied upon their New Jersey and California production companies has grown perilous...they highlighted their relationship between Canadian and U.S. partners as a strength to help expedite shipping, lower prices and work to bring shopping closer to home,” Meg and Kathleen wrote.
“It was a hard decision...we’ve both been very proud to build on our partnerships in the U.S., good things have happened because of it. We’ve always seen ourselves as a North American company, not just Canadian. Things have to change though, we have to adapt to this new environment to prosper,” the email stated.
Campton hoodies, sweatpants, T-shirts and more for men, women and children are available online, Meg and Kathleen also available for contact online as well as by email at info@camptonclothing.com or through Facebook.
