Warm Hands

I don't spend all my time searching for American-made products, but I do like to know about them. One source for a lot of interesting stuff, both from the USA and elsewhere, is Kaufmann Mercantile.

KM puts a lot of thought into the products it chooses to sell; a look at any of their product description pages will confirm this. Some items are pricey, but others are quite reasonably priced.

A recent email from them highlighted ragg wool gloves made in upstate New York by one of the few remaining glove manufactures in the USA. I used to have these in college and I liked them, but I have to be honest: they are more effective when it isn't super cold out, unless they happen to also be insulated.

Still, I find them appealing in the way that simple, old-fashioned things often are, especially the ones with leather palms. The KM gloves have those (deerskin, actually) and they come in the traditional marled oatmeal color with tan leather, or in marled dark gray with black leather. And they cost only $22 a pair, which is a huge bargain in my view. They are available sized for men and women (though the lighter-colored women's gloves are sold out at the moment).

KM has other American-made gloves available, like these deerskin gloves and these wool-lined leather gloves. And they're also carrying my favorite winter hat, the Michigan-made Stormy Kromer.