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New years is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.

As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.

So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.

Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.

Hey everyone and welcome to How I Built This Resilience Edition from NPR.

I'm Guy Ross.

Each week on Thursday we invite entrepreneurs and other business leaders to come onto the show,

live to talk about how they've been building resilience into their businesses over this past year.

And today, my conversation with Byard Winthrop, CEO and founder of the Apparel Company, American Giant.

They sell American-made casual clothing like hoodies, t-shirts, and jeans.

I first interviewed Byard in 2012 for a radio story about American manufacturing.

He founded the company earlier that year, with the idea of making a high-quality American-made product,

something almost unheard of in a market dominated by fast fashion like Forever 21 and H&M.

Now, almost 10 years later, Byard has had to figure out how to keep the business afloat during the pandemic.

The shutdowns last year initially put their production on hold and closed their storefronts.

It's a 10-year-old business that really was founded on a very simple idea that we could still make great things in America,

great clothing in America.

And we started the business 10 years ago with the sweatshirt you're wearing actually.

It was a single product that we kind of poured our life and soul into.

And the business is bigger than that now in a wider product line.

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