A Utah-based company well known for its jingoistic gear was fined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week after falsely claiming that all of the company’s products were made solely in the U.S.
Lions Not Sheep is a beloved apparel company by those wanting to sport a pro-Second Amendment or pro-Trump T-shirt to wear during that next U.S. Capitol insurrection. Shirts are emblazoned with slogans such as: “Let's Go, Brandon," "Give Violence a Chance," and "Shall Not Be Infringed."
Owner of Lions Not Sheep, Sean Whalen, was hit with a $211,335 fine after it was found that they were removing the “Made in China” tags and adding fake “Made in the USA” labels to hats, shirts, and other accessories.
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Like so many GOPers before him, Whalen himself was the big giveaway when he posted a video in October 2020 proclaiming that he could "conceal the fact that his shirts are made in China by ripping out the origin tags and replacing them,” the FTC complaint reads.
In addition to the fine, the company was also required to “cease making bogus Made in USA claims" and are "prohibited from labeling products as ‘Made in USA’ unless the final assembly or processing, and all significant processing that goes into the products occur in the United States,” the FTC ordered.
“Companies that slap phony Made in USA labels on imported goods are cheating their customers and undercutting honest businesses, and we will hold those companies and their executives accountable for their misconduct … American consumers have the right to know the truth about where their clothes and accessories are made,” Sam Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in an FTC press release.
The company boasts a few Z-list celebs, such as mixed martial arts fighter Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Robert J. O’Neill, a Fox News contributor and the alleged sole Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden, to name a few.
On its Frequently Asked Questions page, the company details where and how all the products are made, even describing the “white labeling” process.
“In our effort to keep as many jobs as possible inside the USA, our blank garments/items that are purchased internationally are shipped to the USA to be printed, embroidered, laser engraved, tagged, and bagged all inside the US,” the website reads.
