Startups Stack Exchange Archive

How to find and select a US manufacturer?

My team and I are working on a dog leash concept and would like to find a manufacturing supplier in the United States. Our Google Fu has not turned up many options. That said the site Alibaba makes it easy to find many Chinese manufacturers, but we have been unable to find a similar aggregation of US Manufacturers. Does such a site exist for US manufacturing? How do you go about finding a specific US manufacturing firm?

Answer 2918

Thompson’s Register is what I’ve used for the last 20 years. Here is a link: http://www.thomasnet.com/

They specialize in maintaining a directory of companies that do fulfillment. From their website:

ThomasNet.com is like no other supplier discovery resource out there. And it can help you meet your unique sourcing challenges in ways you never could before – whether its adding quality certified suppliers to the supply chain, meeting diversity goals, identifying local job shops, finding specific products or accelerating the design process. Find out how to put it to work for you.

Answer 2934

You might find Manufactures' News useful as well. They're more focused on marketing to manufacturers, but it could still be a good resource.

Answer 2973

You may have better luck searching for a manufacturer based on the type of material you are manufacturing rather than the product. If you search for a dog product manufacturer like you do when you use Alibaba, then you will probably come up empty handed. If your product is plastic, then search for a plastics manufacturing company. For example, my uncle owns a large plastics manufacturing company and it's called Midland Plastics. They are one of the largest plastics manufacturers in the country.


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