The Berry Amendment, explained for cap procurement.

The Berry Amendment was first passed in 1941 as a wartime measure to protect domestic suppliers of clothing and textiles used by U.S. service members. It has been re-enacted and modified many times across subsequent National Defense Authorization Acts. It is now codified at 10 U.S.C. § 2533a.

The provision is named for its original sponsor, Representative Ellis Y. Berry (R-SD), who championed expanded application of the rule in the 1950s and 1960s after the original wartime statute had been narrowed. The Berry Amendment is administered by the Defense Logistics Agency and applied across DoD procurement.

A Berry-compliant baseball cap is American at every stage of its construction. Fiber and yarn — typically cotton, polyester, or a blend — must be grown or produced domestically. Fabric must be woven or knitted at a U.S. mill. Components like sweatbands, brim board, buckram (the foam stiffener in structured front panels), thread, and closure hardware (plastic snapback strips, metal buckles, leather straps) must be sourced from U.S. suppliers. Finally, cutting, sewing, and decoration (embroidery, patch application, sublimation) must all be performed at a U.S. facility.

Two exceptions are worth knowing. First, certain non-textile items (small fasteners, certain plastics) can have a de minimis foreign content allowance if no qualifying domestic source exists. Second, the rule applies to DoD purchases — it does not automatically apply to civilian federal agencies, which have a separate procurement regime under the Buy American Act.

These two laws are often conflated but have different rules. The Buy American Act (BAA), passed in 1933, applies broadly to federal procurement and only requires that products be "substantially" made in the United States — typically meaning at least 60% of component costs are domestic. Manufactured products under BAA can include foreign content.

The Berry Amendment is stricter and narrower. It applies specifically to DoD purchases of clothing, textiles, footwear, and certain food and tools — and it requires 100% U.S. content, not substantial. A cap that satisfies BAA may not satisfy Berry. A cap built to Berry compliance automatically satisfies BAA.

When a Berry-compliant cap is procured for a DoD program, the contracting officer typically requires three documents: a Berry Amendment compliance statement signed by the manufacturer, a country-of-origin (COO) affidavit covering the fabric and major components, and a manufacturer's CAGE code on file in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov). Some programs additionally require fabric mill certifications.

Competition Headwear pulls these documents within one business day on Berry-eligible quotes. The Denver facility is the U.S. assembly point; mill partners supply fabric mill certifications upstream.

Berry applies primarily to (1) direct DoD purchases for service members and units, (2) federal prime contractors when their contract includes a Berry flow-down clause, and (3) some state-level National Guard and reserve programs that mirror DoD procurement language. Civilian agencies like the GSA, the State Department, and most federal LE programs operate under BAA or Trade Agreements Act rules, not Berry.

In practice, the buyers most likely to specifically request Berry-compliance are: military unit-issue program managers, defense contractor subcontracting officers, certain DLA Troop Support cap procurements, state and municipal agencies whose contracts mirror federal language, and federal prime contractors who flow Berry requirements through their entire supply chain.