Becky shared her story as part of MECEP’s State of Working Maine 2025 report. Click here to read the full report.
Becky is the co-founder of FlatWear, clothing designed for women who choose flat closure after mastectomy. Her company is based in Mid-coast Maine, where she also works as a realtor. Becky launched the brand’s first line of clothing this year, just as the Trump administration’s tariff plans began.
“It was always my hope that we could have everything made in Maine. This is a Maine company — that’s what we wanted. We first tried to go through a manufacturer in Westbrook, but they turned us down. Then we broadened the search to New England. But it’s like a secret club, trying to find a manufacturer. It’s so, so hard. A lot of manufacturers won’t touch small orders. We found one really great company in upstate New York, but our cost was going to be $190 per dress. These are clothes for women who’ve had breast cancer. We’re trying to keep things affordable. We can’t be charging them $350 for a cotton dress! So, that’s when we started looking overseas.
We started working with a manufacturer in India last year. When tariffs were first announced, we thought we were so smart since India wasn’t initially included. But with other bigger companies rushing there to avoid tariffs, production on our small line almost completely ground to a halt. Then in August, there is a 25% tariff. By that point we were already way behind in production. We had five boxes on the way, the bulk of our inventory. Then, the day before our inventory arrived, tariffs on India doubled to 50%! Tariffs are charged when the products arrive in the US, not when they’re shipped. More than half of the total price we paid for all our inventory was our tariff bill. And there was nothing we could do.
We categorically decided we would not increase our prices, but we’re really skating a fine line. We now have a much smaller inventory, and we abandoned plans for seasonal lines. We wanted to rent a production space, but we can’t afford to do that now. We’re getting creative with everything and trying to be as scrappy as possible. I’m optimistic about our future, but we’re in this weird tariff land. There are so many unknowns.
It’s such a catch-22: we can’t afford to order more inventory from India, because the tariff is too high. Even if we make the clothes here, it’s almost impossible to find affordable, high quality fabric in the US. It’s much cheaper to order it from overseas, but then you’ve got this huge tariff when it comes in. And you still have to find people with the skills to make the clothes.
People always say, Manufacture in the United States! ‘Make it in Maine!’ But how? I mean I thought that, too. I want the cute little ‘Made in Maine’ tag on our clothes. But you know, it’s just not affordable. That’s the bottom line. And I don’t know how to make it affordable. I don’t know how you do that.”