Red Land Cotton: Alabama Grown, American Made

By: Jessie Shook

Red Land Cotton is bringing cotton from the red dirt of North Alabama right into your homes. This family-run business is taking hand-selected bales of cotton and turning them into beautiful textile products.

In 2016, Anna Brakefield was approached by her father, Mark Yeager, to make a product from the cotton they grow, that is 100% American made. “I thought that it would be a great idea, not only for the farm, but also for me to be able to use my creative ability to benefit the farm,” Brakefield said.

Brakefield graduated from Auburn with a degree in graphic design. After working in advertising for a couple of years in New York City and then a couple more in Nashville, she quit her job to start Red Land Cotton with her father.

Yeager has been farming in Lawrence County, Alabama, since the early 80s. “In 1993, he built his own cotton gin,” Brakefield said. “That has been a critical part to our process because we are able to control the quality of cotton we are putting out.”

The name Red Land Cotton comes from the soil their cotton grows from. “We farm the red clay soil of North Alabama that will inevitably stain any item of clothing you are wearing,” Brakefield laughed.

Red Land Cotton has been fortunate to continue to grow steadily year after year since their start in 2016. “This year was particularly unique in that there was this overwhelming effort to buy and support American businesses,” Brakefield said. “The searches on Google for ‘American-made’ were up almost 200%.”

In 2016, Red Land Cotton released their first collection of bed sheets. Their product line has now grown to towels, loungewear, quilts and their newest edition of blankets. The work for this blanket collection began in late 2019 when they connected with a family-owned mill in Maine. “They make beautiful blankets and have been for years,” Brakefield said. “We also found a spinning mill that could spin a thicker yarn at a more custom level.”

They decided to make a very traditional-looking, long-lasting, woven blanket, ranging in sizes from infant to king, and available in natural color or white. “I really think our customers are going to love them because they are extremely soft,” Brakefield said.

From their land to your linen closet, Red Land Cotton also serves to educate the public on where their cotton products come from. (Photo Credit: Stacie Kinney)

Every time Red Land Cotton expands their line of products, they are also putting together a new supply chain, finding manufactures in the United States and growing their base. “It’s hard and the process is hard,” Brakefield said. “There’s a lot of risk involved in taking a raw fiber and making it into a product.”

She said that the textile industry is very limited in the United States, but beyond that, the fact that Red Land Cotton has control from the ground up is what makes them so unique. “We have control over how it is ginned, control over where it’s going to be spun into yarn, woven, finished and then sent to you,” Brakefield said.

Red Land Cotton also provides all of its customer service in-house with no use of an outside fulfillment service. “If you have an issue with your product, there is someone in Moulton, Alabama, picking up the phone and talking to you about it,” Brakefield said. “When you enter our brand and become a customer, we take care of you all the way through.”

Mark Yeager’s farm is called Red Land Farm and he has been farming since the early 80s. Yeager grows corn in rotation with cotton and raises cattle. (Photo Credit: Stacie Kinney)

In addition to the new blanket line this year, Red Land Cotton has undergone the process of building a new distribution and fulfillment center in Moulton, Alabama. “It is going to allow us to hire more people, house more product and continue to better serve our customers,” Brakefield said.

Besides being high-quality products that come straight from the farm and are 100% American-made, Red Land Cotton serves a deeper purpose in agriculture. “We serve to normalize agriculture a little bit because not only are people out of touch with how their products are grown, they are also out of touch with how they are made,” Brakefield said. “I hope that not only are we creating a product, but we are serving to educate as well.”

Brakefield added that this year has been about setting Red Land Cotton up for the foundation for more growth. “We are actively taking the steps to continue to create more great products and serve the customer better both in-person and online,” Brakefield said. “We’re in it for the long haul.”

Anna Brakefield (R) and her father, Mark Yeager (L) have set out to make a 100% American-made product from the cotton produced at Red Land Farm. Together they have reached that goal and continue to grow. Red Land Cotton provides all of its own customer service in-house, directly from Moulton, Alabama. (Photo Credit: Peter Taylor)

The 2019 collection of Red Land Cotton blankets are Alabama cotton, spun in North Carolina and woven in Maine. (Photo Credit: Mae Stier)