Made in Miami: The Development of the Sportswear Industry in South Florida, 1900-1960

The Role of Neighborhood Organizations in the Production of Gentrifiable Urban Space: The Case of Wynwood, Miami's Puerto Rican Barrio

“…Miami's garment industry expanded in the 1960s despite the growth of international competition facilitated by the accelerating globalization across many sectors of the national economy (Feagin and Smith 1987;Grosfoguel 2003;Clemente 2007). The arrival of cheap, mostly female labor resulting from the massive influx of Cuban exiles 8 I interviewed Harold in his Wynwood office, November, 2010, with his colleague in real estate, Michael, a self-described "Jewban" (Cuban Jew) and also former garment manufacturer in the 1960s.…”

“…Clemente (2007, p. 140) writes that by 1940 the Manufacturers Guild in Miami, to which Harold's family business eventually belonged, "included 20 large producers" and an unknown number of smaller, "home-work" producers. Many factories underwent restructuring to speed production and cut costs, but such strategies were frequently undermined by direct (labor organizing) or indirect (slow-downs) resistance from workers (Grenier and Stepick 2002), and ultimately could not prevent the gradual dispersal of many of the manufacturing components of the 10 The number of workers in the needle trades increased from around 1,000 in 1947 to 7,000 by the end of the 1950s, and would triple in the 1960s (Clemente 2007;Shell-Weiss 2009), largely due to the transformation of the seasonal Cuban labor migrations into a permanent, year-round workforce after the Cuban Revolution of 1959. 11 In the 1960s and 70s recent Cuban immigrants were willing to accept lower wages than existing workers (Shell-Weiss 2009, p. 179-181).…”

“…The emergence of Southeast Florida's winter vacation locales such as Palm Beach in the 1900-1920 period and particularly Miami Beach during the 1910s and 20s made South Florida a key consumer market for spotting the latest "summer" fashion trends as styles were experimented during the South Florida winters and then released during the northern summers (see Clemente 2007). South Florida's development in this regard led Jewish and other garment manufacturers to build sewing factories or, after retiring, lend their expertise to emerging garment manufacturers in Miami.…”

“…South Florida represented not only a new and expanding frontier in which to become established, but after the real estate bust that underpinned the Great Depression in the late 1920s, restrictive covenants in Miami's real estate market were lifted to allow the economy to recover more easily and Jews gained access to and became major players in South Florida's real estate markets and industries. The Jewish population in Miami Dade County grew from 7,000 in 1940 to 47,000 in 1950 to 119,000 in 1960 (Clemente 2007, p. 48). manufacturers (who came to dominate the Miami Manufacturers Guild formed in the 1940s) consolidated the smaller firms and new, larger factories were built on relatively affordable land near the rail lines and storage depots, primarily in Wynwood during the 1940s but eventually to other neighborhoods located near the FEC railway and its eastwest extensions (e.g., the Little River Industrial District and in Hialeah) (Clemente 2007;Shell-Weiss 2009). Clemente (2007), the rapid growth of the apparel industry in South Florida in the post World War II decades is due especially to five factors: (1) Clothing manufacturing was well suited to Miami because "with no need for smokestacks or waste dumps, manufacturing facilities could be easily hidden from leisure-seeking tourists" (Clemente 2007, p. 45).…”

“…The Jewish population in Miami Dade County grew from 7,000 in 1940 to 47,000 in 1950 to 119,000 in 1960 (Clemente 2007, p. 48). manufacturers (who came to dominate the Miami Manufacturers Guild formed in the 1940s) consolidated the smaller firms and new, larger factories were built on relatively affordable land near the rail lines and storage depots, primarily in Wynwood during the 1940s but eventually to other neighborhoods located near the FEC railway and its eastwest extensions (e.g., the Little River Industrial District and in Hialeah) (Clemente 2007;Shell-Weiss 2009). Clemente (2007), the rapid growth of the apparel industry in South Florida in the post World War II decades is due especially to five factors: (1) Clothing manufacturing was well suited to Miami because "with no need for smokestacks or waste dumps, manufacturing facilities could be easily hidden from leisure-seeking tourists" (Clemente 2007, p. 45). (2) The mass immigration of Jews and later Latinas to South Florida contributed to the abundance of a particular skill sets needed in the garment industry.…”