Brigitte Burgess usually takes her fashion marketing students on field trips to Manhattan for a peek inside the industry, but this year the associate professor from the University of Southern Mississippi took them on an even more eye-opening excursion to Hawaii.

"This year I wanted to change it up a little bit, and I found Jams World on a website. I called and ended up getting the right person and was able to set up a factory tour that became a highlight of our trip," she said. "The students were fascinated to see a family enterprise that is thriving, where everybody who works there seemed to be having fun."

Jams World is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, with six stores and apparel sold across the country, Asia, Australia, Canada and the Caribbean.

"It’s rare to see a company that large, with all their manufacturing in one location, and it’s not every day that the president of a company takes time out of his schedule to meet with students from a school he doesn’t have a personal relationship with," Burgess said.

Such a tour is almost impossible elsewhere in the United States.

"So much of manufacturing has moved out of the country," Burgess said. "When we’re in New York, we usually visit designer showrooms or museums. We might see some production in workshops where people are making samples to fit models, but not full-on production."

That tour, as well as a visit to Island Slipper, a kamaaina company that produces footwear locally, opened the students’ eyes to the idea that companies don’t have to run a sweatshop to turn out quality apparel.

"They appreciated that this can be a viable way for businesses to operate. In New York there’s a big push to bring manufacturing back to the city, and students of fashion now are starting to want that for themselves," Burgess said.

She said it would be welcome in her corner of the world, Hattiesburg, Miss., as well.

"Southern Mississippi once had a lot of apparel manufacturers, particularly lingerie manufacturers, and they’re all gone."

Burgess’ 12 students from the school’s Department of Marketing and Merchandising spent 10 days in Hawaii, visiting the malls and getting acclimated to a consumer and retail culture Burgess describes as "different from the rest of the world."

"The biggest shock to them was the amount of Asian tourists they saw. I tried to prepare them in advance, telling them that even though Hawaii is part of the United States, merchandising is not entirely oriented toward the U.S. consumer.

"They saw how tour companies would pick tourists up and drop them off at DFS (T Galleria) to start shopping, and studied the differences between the way locals and tourists dressed. They both dress for comfort, and the Japanese may be wearing flip-flops, shorts and T-shirts, but they’ll be wearing designer brands."