20 cool things that are made in the USA right now

If someone asks you what the United States makes these days, tell them the answer is the same as ever: everything.

Cars, gadgets and apparel are just part of the output for the world's No. 2 manufacturing giant that's projected to be No. 1 again by 2020.

Here's a look at 20 of the niftiest things we make -- that you can buy -- today.

This classic brand, billed as "America's First Motorcycle Company," has been around the bend and then some since the first Indian Motorcycle factory opened in 1901 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Since 2011, the Indian name has lived on under Polaris, which produces "select" Indian bikes at its plant in Spirit Lake, Iowa.

Born in Michigan, the legendary maker of the Les Paul electric guitar has called Nashville its main factory home (called Gibson USA) since 1984. The Memphis factory also churns out other electrics models, while a plant in Bozeman, Montana, handles acoustic guitars.

At $28,500, the officially licensed and thoroughly awesome-looking Star Wars watch is the priciest of Devon's five precision, high-end timepiece models. The company touts its wares as being "American-made," with production in California.

The NASA-tested, go-to writing instrument for anyone who's ever had to take a note while hanging upside down -- or anyone who's ever wanted to give a nice gift -- comes into this world via Boulder City, Nevada.

Like any good startup, Lotus was launched out of a garage. The garage was in Orlando, Florida., and that's still where Lotus' laptops and computers are built today (though not in a garage).

No less than President Barack Obama has sported a timepiece from this "massively popular" made-in-Detroit line. It launched in 2011 by a Texas firm that itself was launched by the founder of Fossil.

More than 100 years after the first branded box of Crayola crayons was produced in Easton, Pennsylvania., the worldwide brand still has a factory there. You can experience it via the Crayola Experience, four floors of interactive crayon fun.

The electric-car maker builds its magic -- and its in-demand models -- at "one of the world's most advanced automotive factories" in Fremont, California.

The quintessential American muscle car is assembled in Flat Rock, Michigan, one of Ford's more than two dozen plants located in the United States and Canada.

KitchenAid produces all sorts of made-in-USA appliances, big and small. The home cook's favorite is perhaps its sturdy stand mixer, made since 1941 in Greenville, Ohio.

The first Zippo lighter, as the story goes, dates back to 1933. Now, as then, the fashionable and durable keepsake is produced in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

Bing Surfboards, which takes its name from founder Bing Copeland, goes all the way back to the early days of US surf shops. Its first opened in Hermosa Beach, California in 1959. Today, the worldwide brand produces boards about 100 miles south, in Encinitas, California.

Your favorite "obsessively engineered," memory-foam-equipped mattress is handmade "almost" entirely in the United States with homegrown materials, Casper says. So, stop worrying, and get a good night sleep.

Coca-Cola, Twinkies, Hershey's bars...the United States does not lack for homegrown sweet treats. But many folks are partial to the creamy delicacies that emerge from Waterbury, Vermont, typically on a Monday-through-Thursday production schedule.

This made-in-California clothing line not only reminds us that the United States still produces wearable goods, but cool ones, too. Kuul Thread aims to deliver the "most comfortable and technologically advanced dress shirt ever," in men's and women's sizes, via temperature-regulating fabric.

What's the coolest thing about this top-selling Japanese sedan? It's not just assembled in Georgetown, Kentucky, along with other Toyota models; parts-wise, it's the most American car of them all.

By its own count, New Balance runs out 4 million pairs of athletic shoes each year from its factories in Maine. It's the only sneaker giant to claim a "Made in USA" distinction.

The famed German-owned automaker employs more than 8,000 workers in South Carolina to help produce the sporty X6 coupe as well as the X3, X4 and X5 SUV models.

Founded in Maine by an "artist and a beekeeper," as Burt's Bees tells its origin story, the enterprise morphed from artisan candles to natural lip balm (its signature product) to a global behemoth (now owned by Clorox) that still produces some beauty wares in its longtime North Carolina factory.

A classic American brand for folks who do dirty work, or want to look like they do, Red Wing (est. 1905) sews up 5,000 pairs of its boots and shoes daily at its signature factory in Minnesota.