A luxury outerwear manufacturer based in Clifton has earned a genuinely rare national distinction, advancing as one of just ten semifinalists nationwide in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Patriot Pitch Competition, part of the agency’s broader Freedom 250 initiative marking two hundred and fifty years of American free enterprise. Better Team USA Corp.’s selection places the New Jersey company among an elite group chosen from more than a thousand small business submissions representing every state in the country, giving Clifton a genuine seat at the table in a competition built specifically to celebrate the entrepreneurs carrying American manufacturing and innovation forward into its next quarter-millennium.
The scale of this competition reflects just how significant Better Team USA’s advancement really is. Out of 1,182 small businesses that submitted pitches from across the entire nation, only ten made it through district and regional judging to reach semifinalist status, a genuinely competitive filtering process that SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler has directly credited with surfacing exactly the kind of ingenuity and risk-taking that drives real economic and job growth. Those ten semifinalists now move forward into the next stage of judging, competing for a chance to earn one of five coveted finalist spots at a live event in Washington, D.C. this September, where finalists will pitch directly in front of a panel of celebrity judges and a live audience, competing for a combined prize pool of $1 million funded by Clover Network Inc.
That prize structure carries real financial weight for whichever companies ultimately make the final cut. First place at the September finals will take home $400,000, with second place earning $250,000, third place receiving $150,000, fourth place claiming $125,000, and fifth place still walking away with a substantial $75,000. For a small manufacturing business, that kind of prize money represents a genuinely transformative injection of capital, the sort of resource that can fund new equipment, expanded facilities, or additional hiring well beyond what typical business financing alone might allow.
Contestants throughout this process are being judged against a specific, demanding set of criteria, evaluated on their ability to strengthen American competitiveness, demonstrate strong business performance paired with genuine innovation, generate real economic impact and quality job creation, and show sound business fundamentals paired with readiness to actually execute on their plans. Beyond those performance-based measures, the SBA also conducts a thorough review of each participant’s eligibility, business reputation, legal compliance, and potential conflicts of interest, ensuring that whichever companies eventually reach the finals represent genuinely sound, well-run businesses rather than simply the best pitch presentations.
Better Team USA Corp. itself represents a genuinely compelling manufacturing story built around decades of specialized craftsmanship. According to the company’s own account of its history, the business operates out of a newly developed 16,000-square-foot luxury outerwear manufacturing facility in Clifton, founded by Horacio Di Battista, a garment industry veteran with more than four decades of experience in luxury apparel production. Di Battista’s career traces back to his father’s apparel studio in New York City, where the family business produced some of the fashion industry’s most respected haute couture and prêt-à-porter designs entirely by hand, working with legendary names including Pauline Trigère, Arnold Scaasi, Bob Mackie, Halston, Bill Blass, and Carolina Herrera. That early foundation in genuinely difficult, highly detailed garment construction, particularly for suits, coats, and evening gowns, became the family operation’s defining specialty, a craft tradition Di Battista has now carried forward into Better Team USA’s modern Clifton manufacturing facility.
SBA Atlantic Regional Administrator Matt Coleman highlighted Better Team USA specifically as an example of exactly what authentic American manufacturing should look like, describing the Clifton company as embodying the Made in America ethos the broader Freedom 250 initiative is designed to celebrate. Coleman noted that the Atlantic Region received a genuinely strong pool of nominations this cycle, reflecting real pride among small business owners across the region in the innovation and collaboration they’ve built into their operations, a pool from which Better Team USA managed to distinguish itself enough to reach the national semifinalist stage.
Better Team USA now advances alongside nine other companies representing a genuinely diverse cross-section of American small business innovation, spanning industries and regions from coast to coast. Joining the Clifton manufacturer in the semifinalist round are Compotech Inc. of Brewer, Maine, D. Gillette Industrial Services of Easton, Pennsylvania, Winton Machine of Suwanee, Georgia, MSP Aviation Inc. of Bloomington, Indiana, Maxi Volt Inc. of Amarillo, Texas, Plas-Tech Tooling of Garner, Iowa, Red River of Gillette, Wyoming, VetPowered LLC of San Diego, California, and Goodwinds Composites LLC of Mount Vernon, Washington, a lineup that stretches across advanced manufacturing, aviation, industrial services, and specialized materials industries alike.
As these ten semifinalists move into the next round of judging, Better Team USA Corp. carries New Jersey’s manufacturing reputation directly into a national spotlight built specifically to honor exactly this kind of small business craftsmanship and ambition. Whether or not the Clifton company ultimately earns one of the five finalist slots heading to Washington this September, its advancement this far already represents a genuine milestone for a business built on decades of luxury garment expertise now finding new expression in modern American outerwear manufacturing.
