Texas Man’s ‘Made in USA’ Experiment Shows Surprising Results

What started as a little curiosity, ended up exposing one of the biggest contradictions out there: Americans say they love “Made in America,” but the data says… not so much.

How much does “Made in the USA” actually influences buyers?

Van Meer, who sells shower heads, decided to run an experiment on his company’s website. Customers could choose between two identical-looking showerheads: the usual imported one for $129, or an "Made in America" version for about $229.

"I wanted to see how many people would actually pay for the more expensive, 'Made in the USA' version," van Meer said

Same product. Big price difference. The result?

The results were shocking. He assumed the imported product would sell more overall, but not a single “Made in America” product sold, he says, "I was not expecting that the results were this off balance."

Over 25,000 people visited the site. About 600 bought the imported version. Not one opted for the more expensive domestic one.

And it wasn’t just a random price hike. Van Meer calculated that to make it here, he'd need to stitch together multiple suppliers, plastic molding, metal plating, and specialty filtering parts- all of which don’t currently exist under one roof in the U.S. That’s why the price had to be nearly 85% higher.

Other manufacturers make the same point. "There's nobody in the United States that's going to start making showerheads here, even if the tariff were 250%," said Rick Whedon, whose company still makes one domestic model.

Van Meer isn’t giving up on the idea, but he’s realistic.
People want to support American-made, but when it comes to actually paying for it? That’s a different story.