Finding a Manufacturer

Wow, I've read in the news that manufacturing has left the United States, but reading about it and actually seeing it first hand is a complete slap in the face. The product that I'm trying to launch, a women's insole, you would think, wouldn't need much manufacturing capabilities and you would think there would be a dozen manufacturers to chose from. I was so wrong, after searching for a manufacturer for about 6 months I came up with 2 choices. The first, which was recommended to me by my sourcing contact is obviously the more experienced and the more expensive. They're the major contract manufacturing company for insoles and they're also set up in such a way to compete with China. Thus, they don't do small runs. Or, at least they don't do small runs cost effectively for someone like me. In my search to find another alternative, I probably talked to over a dozen manufacturers all at first telling me they can definitely do what i need done. Only to be disappointed weeks later after I've sent them my material and a sample and they say "oh, sorry, we don't have the machine to do this". In the end I did find another company that had the capability I would need, but they turned out to give me almost the same cost structure as the first company. All in all, I learned that you get what you pay for. There are no bargains when it comes to business.