Despite years of panicked headlines about manufacturing moving to Japan or China, Mitch Cahn has kept the apparel-making business he founded, Unionwear, open for 21 years on American soil.

The company’s first core customers were unions that wanted to support union wages and “Made in USA” goods. Recently, a funny thing started happening: A new crop of customers began calling Unionwear headquarters in Newark, N.J.

East Coast fashion designers, including those in New York City’s garment district, were shopping for U.S.-based contract manufacturers. With China’s labor costs rising and its economy accelerating, small U.S. shop owners couldn’t get the attention of overseas manufacturers.

In an ironic twist, they couldn’t afford a “Made in China” strategy.

“Now we have five to 10 callers a day about doing that kind of contract work. It’s a groundswell,” Cahn said. “And it’s not patriotism. It’s economics that’s prompting them to call us.”

Cahn’s changing business points to the shifting global economy. With labor costs in China forecast to climb further, more small-business owners are benefiting from, or actively pursuing, domestic manufacturing rather than overseas options, sometimes called reshoring.

And small shop manufacturers aren’t just dusting off shuttered businesses, locked up after jobs moved to countries such as Japan in the 1970s. Young entrepreneurs are innovating from scratch, creating new online communities such as Maker’s Row — and even turning to emerging platforms such as crowdfunding to bankroll U.S. manufacturing operations.