Editing Troy, New York (section)

== Economy ==
{{Expand section|date=February 2009}}
Troy is known as the "Collar City" due to its history in shirt, collar, and other textile production. Until the early 1990s, Troy was home to several textile manufacturers, including Cluett, Peabody, a subsidiary of the nation's largest publicly held textile manufacturer West Point-Pepperell Inc. The detachable collar was first established in Troy in 1820 by a Mrs. Montague.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.albanyinstitute.org/shirt-collars.html|title=Shirt Collars – Albany Institute of History and Art }}</ref> Her husband was a prominent blacksmith who complained to his wife that after coming home from work he had no clean white shirts for the next day. Mrs. Montague solved this problem by cutting collars off of her husbands shirts, and reattaching clean ones for him to wear when needed. This created the important industry of detachable collars and shirts in Troy. It also created the need for buttons, as a detachable collar often left gaps between the shirt and the collar, and buttons were used to snap collars in place. Other types of apparel invented in this time were Bishop collars, which were an upright modification of the turn-down collar, dickeys, detached shirt bosoms, and separate cuffs. This industry also gave rise to the laundry industry, when the first laundry store [[Troy Laundry]] was opened at 66 North Second St (Fifth Avenue today), and later on, the laundry industry in Troy would spark the creation of the first female union in the country.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://rensselaer.nygenweb.net/article11.htm|title=Collar City – Troy, Rensselaer Co, NY }}</ref> For close to a hundred years, Cluett, Peabody & Company was the largest industry in town, with a variety of products including detachable collars, arrow shirts, and other apparel. Around the early 20th century, Troy was responsible for making 90% of the collars worn in America. This was also the birthplace of the "white collar" social class, which was a more upscale working class community and the "blue collar" social class, which consisted of mostly factory workers. The industry had mostly died out by the 1960s, when most business had either gone out of business or moved south for cheaper land and labor costs.
At one point, Troy was also the second-largest producer of iron in the country, surpassed only by the city of [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]].

Troy, like many older industrial cities, has been battered by [[deindustrialization|industrial decline]] and the migration of jobs to the suburbs. Nevertheless, the presence of RPI is helping Troy develop a small high-technology sector, particularly in [[video game development]]. The downtown core also has a smattering of advertising and architecture firms, and other creative businesses attracted by the area's distinctive architecture. [[Uncle Sam Atrium]] is an enclosed urban shopping mall, office space, and parking garage in downtown Troy. RPI is the city's largest private employer.