When hospitals and imaging centers buy radiation-protection apparel, the question “Where is it made?” sounds simple. With Burlington Medical, however, the most accurate answer depends on what part of the product and what stage of manufacturing a buyer is asking about.
Burlington Medical's own public pages use more than one manufacturing description. Its FAQ says, “Our products are assembled in the USA.” On its About page, Burlington says its aprons are designed and produced at its facility in Newport News, Virginia. A separate customer-transition page states that all domestic apron orders will be manufactured at the company's Newport News facilities. These statements support a significant U.S. manufacturing and assembly presence, but they should not automatically be rewritten as a blanket claim that every component in every Burlington product is U.S.-made. [3, 4, 5]
Why the wording matters
The Federal Trade Commission distinguishes an unqualified “Made in USA” claim from an “Assembled in USA” claim. Under FTC guidance, an unqualified Made in USA claim generally requires a product to be “all or virtually all” made in the United States. An assembled-in-USA claim is narrower and can be appropriate when principal assembly is substantial and takes place in the United States. [10]
That distinction is useful for procurement teams. A company may perform design, cutting, sewing, fitting, final assembly and quality-control work domestically while sourcing some materials or components elsewhere. The correct way to evaluate origin is to ask what the manufacturer's claim actually covers rather than assuming that a U.S. headquarters or U.S. assembly location answers every sourcing question.
Burlington's manufacturing footprint changed as the company grew
Burlington's corporate history also helps explain why manufacturing origin is not a one-line story. Peninsula Capital, which invested in Burlington in 2015, later described the platform as expanding through acquisitions. Its 2025 exit announcement says Burlington acquired Bar-Ray Products in 2020 and Lite-Tech in 2022 and also expanded into Europe through ProtecX. Burlington's own materials have described the combined platform as having manufacturing capabilities in the United States and Europe. [6, 13]
The company has since worked to consolidate branding and production. Burlington's customer-transition page says domestic apron orders are to be manufactured at Newport News facilities. That is a meaningful fact for a buyer, but it does not answer every question about where core material, fabrics, fasteners, eyewear components or other inputs originate. [5]
The recall adds another reason to ask precise manufacturing questions
In 2026, the FDA listed 13 related Class 2 recall records for Burlington radiation-protection products under Event 98415. The affected records identify Xenolite 800 attenuation material manufactured between January 16, 2025 and January 21, 2026. The manufacturer reason listed in the records is potential attenuation degradation over time, decreasing product lifespan; the FDA-determined cause is listed separately as process change control. [1, 2]
For buyers, the lesson is not that a particular country of origin determines quality. It is that material origin, material specification, production site, process controls and traceability are separate pieces of the same procurement puzzle.
Questions a buyer can ask
- Where is the finished garment cut, sewn and assembled?
- Where is the attenuation material manufactured?
- Which parts of the product are U.S.-made, and which may be imported?
- What testing is performed on incoming attenuation material and finished garments?
- Can the supplier trace a finished garment to material lot, manufacturing date and model?
- Does the manufacturer's origin statement apply to the entire product line or only certain products?
Bottom line
Burlington clearly has a U.S. manufacturing and assembly base in Newport News, and the company publicly says its products are assembled in the USA. Buyers should preserve that wording rather than upgrading it into a broader claim that public documentation does not necessarily support. For radiation protection, the better question is not only where a product was assembled, but whether its material, manufacturing controls, testing and traceability can be documented from start to finish.
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