What does it take to build a denim factory in the woods of Maine with no capital, no roadmap, and no safety net? According to Pete Roberts, it takes belief—and a willingness to start with your own two hands.
In this episode of the Jeansland Podcast, Pete shares the raw story behind Origin USA, the brand he founded not just to make clothes, but to prove that American manufacturing could still thrive. What began as an effort to create better jiu-jitsu uniforms eventually evolved into something much bigger: a vertically integrated, proudly domestic apparel business that now produces jeans, boots, and more using American cotton, American workers, and a revived supply chain built with salvaged equipment from old New England mills. Every step of production, from fiber to fabric to final stitch, happens on U.S. soil.
After the 2008 recession, after Pete Roberts watched his business collapse, he didn’t fold. He doubled down. With nothing but his “hands and daylight”, he remortgaged his home, and—alongside friends and family—cut down trees and hand-built a timber frame factory from Eastern white pine. With a generator and a pair of salvaged 1940s Singer sewing machines, Origin was born.
Pete scoured old mills until he discovered what was likely the last industrial loom left in Maine, sitting dormant in the Bates Mill in Lewiston. He dragged it back to his self-built factory and enlisted an old timer to help bring it back to life. Bit by bit, machine by machine, he and his team reassembled a supply chain that no longer existed, rescuing not just equipment, but the knowledge that went with it. “That’s the origin of the Origin story,” he says.
Unlike so many companies that talk about reshoring but continue to rely on overseas suppliers, Origin has invested millions in physical infrastructure, reviving abandoned factories, restoring forgotten machines, and training a new generation of textile workers. “If we’re going to have a real renaissance,” Pete says, “it has to include jeans. They’re America’s uniform.”
That vision feels especially urgent as major attempts to bring production home continue to falter. We recently explored how C&A’s FIT factory and Vidalia Mills both closed despite reshoring ambitions, and how structural barriers make it nearly impossible for smaller businesses to manufacture in the U.S.. Pete isn’t blind to those challenges, but he’s betting his brand, his factories, and his future on overcoming them. With a 100-year plan in motion, they hope to produce over a million jeans annually.
It’s a bold plan—one that spans generations, not quarters. But Pete Roberts is playing the long game.
🎧 Tune in to hear the full story and why Origin’s mission resonates far beyond fashion:
👉 Listen to Episode 26 – Jeansland Podcast
