Mitch Cahn started Unionwear in 1992 with six sewers and a contract to make baseball hats for Ralph Lauren. Now Unionwear is the largest private employer of Newark, NJ residents, with 175 employees, and contracts to manufacture hats, backpacks, and other bags for every branch of the armed services, every Democratic candidate for president, and brands such as Vineyard Vines and Supreme. Unionwear won the Domestic Textile Association's inaugural 'Reshoring Award" for bringing textile jobs back to America in 2019 and was named to Fortune Magazine’s Inner City 100 list. In 2016 Mitch won the New Jersey Manufacturing Lifetime Achievement Award from NJBIA and has been named to NJBIZ magazine's Power 100--the most powerful people in New Jersey Business--for the last three years.
Mitch is on the board of Newark Regional Business Partnership, NJ Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and the Newark Workforce Development Board, where he has served as Chairman. Mitch is a frequent panelist, podcast guest, and guest lecturer on topics including fair labor, lean manufacturing, cloud mobile ERP, cobranding with Made in USA, and has appeared on TV shows ranging from The Profit to The Daily Show.
