American Alternative

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• Snow Helmets Recap

  No snow helmet we found scored more than 1.5 stars, which was pretty surprising.  We thought that since snow helmets are somewhat simple products that don’t require too much labor to manufacture, and since they’re pretty bulky to ship across oceans, we would be able to find a company that manufactures domestically.  Unfortunately, that was […]

• Wrap-around Ear Warmers Recap

  Ear warmers have been an interesting category.  None of the four products we reviewed scored higher than 1.5 out of 5 stars. These low scores are not entirely unexpected though.  All of the ear warmers we reviewed require a fair amount of manual labor (primarily sewing that can’t be completely automated).  And as a category, […]

• Binders Recap

  Over the last several weeks, we’ve been reaching out to companies to learn more about their binders and their manufacturing process.  In an American Alternative first, we are wrapping up a category without single 5-star rated product.  All the companies we reviewed are US-based, but their products all have at least a significant component of […]

• Charcoal Barbecue Grills Recap

  Over the last several weeks, we’ve researched many different charcoal barbecues ranging from the iconic Weber One-Touch Kettles to the awe-inspiring Kamado Joe ProJoe.  Among the grills we reviewed, we found three distinct groups: portable, standard, and kamados.  Of course, those aren’t the only types of charcoal barbecues out there, but they are the three […]

• Crayons Recap

  After reviewing colored pencils for this website, we were initially afraid that crayons might prove equally unlikely to be made in the USA.  Fortunately though, that was not the case at all, as there are US-made versions of nearly any crayon type that you might want.  And for our comparisons, we’ll be separating all the […]