Australian-made products are flying off the shelves as consumer attitudes shift and domestic tourists stock up on mementos from the bush.
Mark Dew has run an outback retail store in Alice Springs for 25 years and said demand for renowned Australian brands had never been higher.
He said sales in the past year of iconic Akubra hats and RM Williams boots had jumped by at least 50 per cent.
While the broad-brimmed rabbit fur felt hats and leather boots had long been emblematic of life in the bush, Mr Dew said the items were increasingly being embraced by city-dwellers.
"A lot of people are coming up and wanting to take a souvenir from Alice Springs back to remember their trip by," Mr Dew said.
"I think there's been a lot of customers that have always planned to do a trip somewhere in Australia, and for whatever reason it's been put off.
"With what's happened over the last 12 months, they've decided let's do it."
Demand soaring nationwide
Mr Dew said he temporarily closed his store and put a couple of orders on hold when coronavirus arrived on Australian shores last year.
"It wasn't very long before we turned around and said, 'send those orders'."
He said demand for Akubra products across the country is so high that sometimes the wait time for a hat is up to four months.
And with 162 steps in the process to make a single hat, it's not something that can be rushed.
"They take six weeks to make," Mr Dew said.
"It's not just something you place an order for and get it the next week.
"We're currently at our maximum allocation so it's a case of everyone just getting in line and taking their turn."
Consumer attitudes shifting
Chief executive of the Australian Made campaign, Ben Lazzaro, said there had been a significant increase in pro-Australian sentiment since the COVID-19 pandemic begun.
In August last year, there was a 400 per cent increase in applications from businesses to get the kangaroo-stamp certification on their products.
"Businesses [were] acknowledging that consumers in greater numbers were seeking out Aussie made products," Mr Lazzaro said.
"I think recent events globally have got us all to open our eyes and maybe take greater time to understand the impact of our purchasing decisions.
"[It's an] opportunity to re-balance or shift the needle back toward local production, because it did demonstrate how reliant we were on imported products."
Mr Lazzaro said there was also an influx of applications for the Australian Made certification at the beginning of the pandemic.
Initially, it was for health-related products like face masks and sanitiser, and was followed by a spike in applications for building and industrial products.
He said there had been a push from retailers to market their products as locally made.
"The fact that we're now holidaying closer to home means we have a captive audience that are in the right frame of mind and looking for those quality, Aussie-made products," he said.
"Products that they know are going to pump money back into the local economy [and] generate jobs, not only for their kids but for the future generations as well.
"Consumers are in it for the long haul, which is really encouraging."