)
Industry Opinion
Nearshoring Solves the Next Three Years. Automation Solves the Next Twenty.
By Dave Gardner, Needle’s Eye Editor (with contributions from Henderson Sewing Machine Co., Zund Americas, and Americas 21st)
With the following comments penned by The Needle’s Eye editor, Dave Gardner, and industry experts – frequent guest contributors to our trade publication – we take up Karl K. Striegel‘s early insights and calls to action and apply them to the modern era (a The Needle's Eye feature set in the year 2026 and from here into the future).
Brands adopt nearshoring first because it’s easier to handle and, most importantly, far better to control organizationally. Given significantly higher labor costs, the endgame can only be further automated domestic production.
If people are a long-term problem for U.S. apparel manufacturers, how can it be fixed?
KSA consultant Karl K. Striegel summed it all up in his above comment as early as back in 1974. The paradox remained the same and became even more critical in modern times. Domestic apparel manufacturing: brands want speed, agility, and a "Made in USA" label, but the factory floor is facing a massive, systemic labor shortage. The aging workforce is retiring, and younger generations aren’t rushing to take its place behind a conventional sewing machine.
To fix the "people problem," the industry can't just try to recruit harder; it must change the nature of the work. The solution lies in a three-pronged approach: Advanced Automation, Workforce Evolution, and Geographic Strategy.
Advanced Automation (Reducing the Labor Burden)The goal isn't necessarily to eliminate human workers, but to drastically reduce the number of touches required to make a garment. By automating the highly repetitive, low-skill handling steps, manufacturers can maximize the output of their existing team. One of the biggest hurdles in apparel automation has always been the limp, unpredictable nature of fabric. Technologies like vision-guided robotic arms and specialized grippers (which lift a single ply of fabric) are finally maturing, allowing automated systems to feed sewing units without human intervention.
Modular and programmable sewing units enable the move away from manual material guiding toward template sewers, automated pocket-setters, and CNC sewing systems. A single operator can manage multiple automated stations simultaneously, shifting their role from a manual sewer to a machine technician.
High-speed, precision digital cutters integrated with nesting software minimize fabric waste and eliminate the need for manual pattern layout and cutting, streamlining the entire pre-sewing phase.
Workforce Evolution (Flipping the Perception)To attract talent, the sewn products industry must present itself as a modern tech career rather than a 20th-century sweatshop. Training should move beyond basic sewing-machine operation and emphasize programming, digital patternmaking, and robotics maintenance. This reframes the work from low-wage labor to higher-paying, tech-oriented roles that are more appealing to younger workers. Workforce development must consider what roles will be needed in the next 20 years, NOT the last 20. Which means a company must consider the first 3 issues first and develop a concept of what they want their company to be, before training and developing people.
Ergonomics and modernized environments facilitate the implementation of modular, ergonomic workstations and collaborative robots (cobots) that support workers rather than replace them. This reduces physical strain, prolongs the careers of skilled veteran sewists, and improves overall retention.
Industry-academic pipelines are needed to expand specialized training certifications and partnerships with technical community colleges, while framing apparel manufacturing as "Advanced Manufacturing" or "Industrial Engineering" changes the cultural narrative around the trade.
Geographic & Supply Chain Strategy (The Nearshore Balance)When full automation is not yet practical or cost-effective, U.S. manufacturers are redefining what “Domestic” means through regional trade frameworks.
More manufacturers are creating "Nearshore" hybrid partnerships in CAFTA-DR countries or Mexico for labor-intensive assembly while keeping high-tech cutting, fabric development, and final finishing in the USA. This leverages the duty-free benefits of regional trade agreements while mitigating domestic labor shortages.
Some manufacturers are moving away from large factories that require hundreds of operators and toward on-demand micro-factories powered by digital printing and automated workflows. These smaller facilities can be located closer to customers and need fewer, more highly skilled workers to support agile, low-inventory operations.
.png)
Ultimately, nearshoring buys the industry the time it needs to perfect the automation tech. It provides the financial runway and supply chain stability for brands to invest heavily in R&D, ensuring that when production fully returns to the U.S., it will return to a fully modernized ecosystem.
The Bottom Line
Fixing the labor crisis in U.S. apparel manufacturing isn't about finding more people willing to do manual piecework; it’s about engineering the friction out of the manufacturing process so that a smaller, highly skilled domestic workforce can produce at scale. The U.S. industry is too specific and fragmented to be treated as a cohesive whole. Specialty manufacturing is the norm, not the exception.
Over the next 3–5 years, I’d expect regional nearshoring to scale faster than full domestic automation, but with automation as the key enabler that gradually pulls more production back home. That timeline aligns perfectly with the industry's operational realities right now. Nearshoring via frameworks like CAFTA-DR or the USMCA offers an immediate, scalable release valve for labor constraints, while full domestic automation acts as the long-game "north star."
If we look at how this plays out over that 3-to-5-year horizon, automation isn't just waiting in the wings—it is actively paving the way for that eventual shift back to U.S. soil. High-margin manufacturing operations are essential to U.S. market conditions. Planning around making low-margin manufacturing viable is a nearly impossibly tricky premise, one that is far more likely to lose money than make it.
1. Automation as the Nearshore "Bridge"
Automation comes with both massive potential and massive risks. But we aren’t the global leaders there, and the competitive advantage isn’t ours in that space.
Before a process can be fully automated in a U.S. micro-factory, it will likely be “semi-automated” in a nearshore facility. Forward-thinking manufacturers are already implementing advanced digital cutting, automated pocket-setters, and programmable sewing units in Central America and Mexico. Digital cutting, in particular, can be automated in stages—starting with semi-automated workflows that incorporate front-end extensions to support efficient picking and sorting while cutting operations continue without interruption. These hybrid approaches stabilize nearshore labor costs today while simultaneously building the digital infrastructure (digital patterns, standardized software, semi- and fully-automated workflows) required to seamlessly migrate those same production lines back to the U.S. tomorrow.
2. High-Tech Prep at Home, Assembly Abroad
We are seeing a clear bifurcation of the supply chain, with the U.S. handling the technology-dense, capital-intensive front end and regional partners handling the labor-dense assembly. Precision digital cutting, automated fabric inspection, and specialized textile finishing are increasingly kept domestic because they require fewer bodies and more bytes. The pre-cut components are then shipped duty-free to nearshore facilities for assembly. As the robotic handling of limp fabrics improves over the next few years, the assembly line can gradually shrink and move closer to the cutting table.
3. The On-Demand PivotNearshoring shortens transit times from months to days compared to Asia, which is a massive win for agility. However, it still requires shipping logistics, customs, and international transit. As automation pieces mature—specifically in automated material handling and single-ply modular workflows—the economic math changes. The 5-year outlook likely brings the U.S. to a tipping point where the speed of an automated, on-demand U.S. micro-factory (producing a garment after it’s ordered online) beats the unit-cost savings of a nearshore factory, effectively eliminating inventory risk.
Is the primary driver for apparel brands adopting an automated, domestic future the sheer lack of labor, or will the pressure for zero-inventory, lightning-fast speed-to-market force their hand first?
It’s both, but speed-to-market and inventory economics will drive the shift first. Labor scarcity is an accelerant, not the initial trigger.