Thomas Edison perfected the light bulb in America. For more than a century, we made them here. Then, one by one, the factories went dark — and by 2020, the last company making LED light bulbs in the United States had shut its doors. If you bought a bulb after that, it came from somewhere else.
That changed this Independence Day. On July 4th — as the country marked its 250th birthday — a factory in Fargo, North Dakota shipped its first American-made LED light bulbs. The company is called GoodBulb, and it is now believed to be the only place in America manufacturing the A19 bulb, the everyday screw-in bulb that sits in lamps and ceiling fixtures in nearly every home in the country.
A Product Invented Here, Then Made Everywhere Else
Tom Enright, GoodBulb’s founder and president, has been in the light-bulb business for 25 years. He had a front-row seat as the major manufacturers packed up and moved overseas, chasing cheaper labor. The last domestic LED bulb line closed in 2020.
That never sat right with him. The light bulb was invented in America and built here for over a hundred years. So Enright traveled the world to study how it was being done — and what he saw lit a fire.
“I was standing on the floors of these light bulb factories, and I was just in awe,” he said. “I would see 20, 30 people on a line making light bulbs. And my first thought was… wait, we can do this. I can do this better. Why can’t America do this? Why did we give up on this?”
Eight Years to Bring the Light Bulb Home
Wanting to make a bulb in America and actually doing it are two very different things. Plenty of companies tried to bring production back and couldn’t make the economics work against cheap imports. Enright knew that going in — and committed to it anyway.
GoodBulb spent eight years developing its manufacturing process before a single bulb rolled off the line. That first finished bulb came on June 12, 2026. Within weeks, the Fargo line was fully operational and capable of producing 10,000 light bulbs in a single day.
Why the A19 Bulb Matters So Much
If “A19” doesn’t mean anything to you, that’s exactly the point — it’s the bulb you never think about. It’s the standard pear-shaped, screw-in bulb that fits the lamps, fixtures, and overhead lights in almost every American household. It is the most common light bulb in the country.
That’s what makes this milestone bigger than one factory. This isn’t a niche specialty item or a luxury product. It’s something every family buys, over and over, for the life of their home. Having even one American company making it again means the supply chain for an everyday essential no longer runs entirely through overseas factories.
A July 4th Launch With Real Meaning
The timing was no accident. Enright lined up GoodBulb’s first sales with July 4th, 2026 — the nation’s 250th anniversary. There’s a certain poetry to it: the product that helped electrify American life, invented by an American, going back on sale as a Made-in-USA product on the country’s biggest birthday.
It’s the kind of story the Buy American movement exists to celebrate — not a slogan, but a real company, in a real town, putting real people to work making something we all use.
More Than a Light Bulb
GoodBulb’s story didn’t start with manufacturing — it started with a scare. Enright says he was inspired to build the company after his young son overcame a health crisis, and he turned that gratitude into a mission to give back.
The company commits a portion of every sale to providing solar lanterns to families without reliable electricity and to supporting disaster relief around the world. And Enright says he’s just getting started — another American-made bulb is already in development.
Why This One Matters
It would have been easy for Enright to keep importing bulbs like everyone else. Instead he bet eight years and a lot of stubbornness on the idea that America can still make the things it invented. On July 4th, that bet started paying off.
The next time you replace a burned-out bulb, you finally have an American-made option again — and a company worth rooting for behind it.
Whenever possible, choose Made in USA.
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