[this is sort of an Editorial, so i get to say what i want, without a lot of “proof” (i know, a “cop out”, but admittedly, i know very little about anything to do with “business” and general consumer manufacturing, hence the “editorial” approach). you, the reader, also gets to take me to task with replies, letting me know how wrong i am. ok, with this in mind, read on…]
i understand the reason for the request of the initial poster and can respect the motivation for the post, but personally, i won’t ask for such.
there are at least three reasons that immediately pop into my mind. i think that these are obvious to everyone who shares my perspective, so i won’t elaborate much on them, but will only mention:
1. quantity – insufficient for large scale mfr. however, this is somewhat price dependent – a “circle” or “circular reasoning”, so to speak.
2. quality – nothing in my experience compares to the quality of these small US/Canadian/GB “cottage mfrs”. Also, think cust. srv., i.e. when there’s problem – i think (i could be wrong here) that a small company like BMW/BPL prob. can’t either risk or afford to deal with a large overseas mfr when the inevitable quality problems arise from such mfrs. also, as the fabric weights go down, i believe that it becomes more difficult to make the product properly all of the time. [don’t get me wrong, Montbell, for instance, is a very fine company that makes very good L/UL products, but Montbell, IMHO, is very different from MtnHW & other larger companies.]
3. “need to stop the bleeding” – (enough already with US jobs going overseas – how ’bout some patriotism instead of greed [NOT saying that this is the motivation of the initial poster – it would be very ignorant of me if i did so]. For my part, i’ll gladly save my pennies a while longer (often had to do this when i was younger, or pick up a “side job” to pay for something i wanted/needed to purchase) to afford the quality of a fine US/Canadian/GB (in that order) made product/garment. (obviously, the “Pertex” type raw fabrics will now come from “Nihon” (with the recent demise of “Perseverance Mills”, are there any other sources that are NOT Far-East? i don’t know.), but no reason why the finished goods need to, not with the excellent “cottage” industry mfrs here in the States.
also, please, understand, i’m a very big admirer of various Asian cultures, having been “steeped” (appropriate analogy since “Cha”, i.e. tea, is important in some Asian cultures) in some of them since childhood & have always had Asian friends. i’m NOT trying to engage in Far-East “bashing” here.
perhaps, i’m way off base here, but this is why i won’t be asking for overseas mfr. so, what do you think?…
© Beartooth Media Group Inc.
Loading...