An article in the New York Times (June 18,2013) describes the competitiveness of over 139 broom, brush and mop manufacturers in the US undeterred by competition from CHina. One company, Kirschner, survives by making no changes in its manufacturing and thus providing stability in its product line. Customers like the Greco Brush company supply Kirschner brushes to house painters, who demand product quality and no loose fibers, and thus trust the Kirschner brush. But other brush manufacturers like Braun Brush focus on innovation, creating new variants for each industry and dropping products for which competition emerges. Will the future of US manufacturing require small companies to be like Kirschner or Braun ? Is there room for both such survival strategies – one focused on stable use of depreciated capital equipment to make consistent product lines while the other used continued capital investment and risk ? How important is the downstream demand for brushes in understand the success of these companies ?