INSOURCING: This article on Turkish tailors in Knoxville is quite interesting. I’ve been having my suits made at John Daniels for years, and they’re very good:

The idea of outsourcing didn’t sit well with the Bryans, who were reluctant to uproot themselves or their longtime employees. Benton Bryan grew up in the factory and rose to be his father’s No. 2. His sister is in charge of design, and a brother runs a separate retail outlet.

“These people baby-sat me as a kid,” says the younger Mr. Bryan, strolling through the brick downtown factory, patting the shoulders of white-haired Southern ladies, who do less-skilled work as seamstresses. “What am I going to do? Say you have to pack up and move to Mexico?”

The solution dawned on the Bryans slowly. The first few Turks were hired away from a competitor in New York. In 2000, the Bryans realized their best hope was to go recruiting abroad. The company now has dozens of Turks among its roughly 300 employees, and their starting salaries are as high as those of any of the company’s master tailors.

As I say, a very interesting story.