Millionaire Matt Maasdam Shipped Jobs to China and Guatemala
Millionaire Matt Maasdam, who has been a C-suite executive of multiple companies outside of Michigan, was caught shipping jobs to China and Guatemala.
The report highlights, “none of the companies Maasdam has helped lead are free from foreign outsourcing.” Matt Maasdam chose cheap foreign labor to line his own pockets over hardworking Americans.
“Millionaire Matt Maasdam lined his own pockets by shipping jobs overseas. Maasdam has proven he will put his own bank account ahead of hardworking Michiganders.” – NRCC Spokesman Zach Bannon
Read more from Fox News here or see excerpts below:
Dem hopeful who co-founded Joe Rogan’s favorite jeans under fire for ‘Made in America’ claim
Fox News
Alex Miller
April 21, 2016
A Democrat running for Congress in Michigan is campaigning on a “Made in America” platform, but has a history of outsourcing jobs and products at his own companies.
Matt Maasdam is under scrutiny for expressing a desire to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. from overseas while relying on offshore production during his time at Under Armour and at two other companies he helped found — one of which is credited with making “Joe Rogan’s favorite jeans.”
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Maasdam’s campaign website says one of his top priorities if elected to Congress would be “making more essential goods here in America, ensuring jobs pay fair wages, and keeping our manufacturing and food supply chains strong so we’re not dependent on countries like China.”
PECOS Outdoor — a portable work table company where Maasdam is CEO — sought to use products from a Chinese vendor, according to a 2022 shipping record obtained by Fox News Digital. The record denoted that PECOS received a container of samples from the Nanjing Tuchun Import and Export Co. in 2022.
Additionally, both Under Armour and Revtown, which he co-founded, outsourced production of their clothing to foreign countries.
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During a candidate forum in Michigan earlier this month, an audience member asked Maasdam about his private sector record after he highlighted endorsements from local labor unions. He insisted it was impossible to manufacture jeans in America as an excuse for why the apparel companies found work outside the U.S.
“I worked for Under Armour. They made a lot of their stuff overseas. I wasn’t in charge of Under Armour, right? As much as I would like to make that stuff here, we didn’t,” Maasdam admitted.
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Under Armour relies heavily on outsourcing, and similarly Revtown sourced denim from Italy and manufactured its clothing in Guatemala.
“There were two good denim mills in the world — one is in Italy, one is in Japan. There are none in America. So when you talk about how to get denim to America, we don’t make it,” Maasdam said at the forum. “We don’t actually make the material, right? And so we would bring that to Guatemala, then it got cut and sewn, and we brought it here to sell it.”
Maasdam later co-founded PECOS Outdoor, a Texas-based outdoor table company that touts its commitment to making and sourcing products in the U.S.
“I got poached from that company to start another company, and everything in that company was made in America and assembled in America,” Maasdam said. “And so, from the perspective of like where is my heart and mind in terms of that stuff, it’s here, in the United States. So, that’s what we did.”
But the 2022 shipping record obtained by Fox News Digital shows PECOS received a shipment of sample materials from a Chinese vendor, meaning none of the companies Maasdam has helped lead are free from foreign outsourcing.
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