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Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker
Joined: 16 Dec 2001
Posts: 23956 | TRs | Pics
Location: Cle Elum |
God Bless the Good Ole USA!
TB
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
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polarbear-
Guest
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polarbear-
Guest
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 Tue May 20, 2003 8:12 pm |
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| Quote: | | we are exporting US jobs so that the "shareholder" can make more money |
Here is the scenario I see.
1. Company sells tents and makes a profit, employees are happy.
2. Company decides they need to make more profit to satisfy shareholders.
3. Company hires expensive experts to figure out how to do it.
4. Now company really needs to do somthing dire since experts charge so much for their expertise. 
5. Experts wave hands, chant mumbo jumbo, create graphs and charts (instead of tents) and conclude company must be moved to China to maintain profitiability
Maybe not so far off? Whatever happened to 5-1/4% savings accounts?
_____
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Allison
Feckless Swooner
Joined: 17 Dec 2001
Posts: 12287 | TRs | Pics
Location: putting on my Nikes before the comet comes |
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Allison
Feckless Swooner
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Tue May 20, 2003 10:05 pm |
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| El Puma wrote: | | Interesting you should note that... In Beijing there are several small shops on markets which sell NorthFace stuff: Down jackets for $25-40, top-of-the-line sleeping bags for $80etc. I managed to talk to someone in my quest to find out if they were knock-offs and received an interesting answer: TNF had a manufacturing contract with a local shop, then after a few years canceled it because they found a cheaper one in the boonies. Rather than laying off his 50 or 100 employees, the owner just continued cranking out TNF stuff to the same specs and selling them "underground".
Great deal for us - would YOU support that kind of free enterprise? |
Whether or not I do is not the salient point here. The thing about those TNF knock-offs is there is no reason to believe that the piece is really the same any more. Who knows if the factory paying the same wages, or upholding social complaice standards, using the same materials, sewing to the same specifications (things like stitches per inch and which exact zipper and which fabric and what the other tolerances are) that TNF laid out when they contracted with the factory.
It may look like a TNF piece, but unless you know something about sewing and what the original garment could do, there's no way to tell what you are buying. Companies who manufacture overseas oversee all of this stuff. So, feel free to buy your cheap garment, but don't cry when it falls apart in a week.
Do I agree with a manufacturer pulling out of a factory? There is no way to know why they did it, or how the services were terminated. So I have to say without reservations, "I don't know."
www.allisonoutside.com
follow me on Twitter! @AllisonLWoods
www.allisonoutside.com
follow me on Twitter! @AllisonLWoods
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mb
Member
Joined: 11 Aug 2002
Posts: 507 | TRs | Pics
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mb
Member
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Tue May 20, 2003 10:10 pm |
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In Thailand you can buy all sorts of things. Daypacks for $3-9. Big packs for $4-20.
Some of them say things like Jansport. Made in the USA.
I'm sure many come from current/ex factories (and some probably fell off the truck or were seconds). And some? Who knows.
The quality on these items is completley random. Who knows about who makes them either.
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MtnGoat
Member
Joined: 17 Dec 2001
Posts: 11992 | TRs | Pics
Location: Lyle, WA |
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MtnGoat
Member
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Wed May 21, 2003 12:10 am |
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The gripes about quality are valid, but there's a side of the complaining about "it's all about profit" people forget or ignore, and I only saw it touched on once so far.
Not everybody wants, or can afford, the best of the best bombproof last forever gear. If you want that stainless steel titanium whatsit for $200, you can probably find it somewhere. I am not a gearhead, all I want is something that works for a price I don't mind. Selecting the price is my control over what quality I am willing to accept.
I don't want, or need, a $400 dollar pack when my Jansport has been plenty comfy, full of features, and I saved $230 and so far have used it without problem for 6 years. If it lasts another 6 and I see no reason it won't, I will have more than gotten my money's worth as I see it. Yes, selling stuff is all about profit when it comes down to it, but *buying* it is a combination of cost and quality.
If it was a matter of paying some local outfit $400 for a pack, or not getting one, I'd probably not get one and keep patching up an old one. I don't see a darned thing wrong with supporting all of the price spectrum, no matter where it's made, if what you're buying is what you want for the price.
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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Miss Normandy
Member
Joined: 23 May 2003
Posts: 171 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle |
I've found that most of the stuff made in the good ol' USA is stuff that I simply can't afford.
I mean, it's gotta be made somewhere, right? China is cheap, but not too shabby IMHO.
Support Search and Rescue. GET LOST!
Support Search and Rescue. GET LOST!
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Dean
(aka CascadeHiker)
Joined: 02 Mar 2002
Posts: 1967 | TRs | Pics
Location: ex Kennewick, Wa & Lehi Utah |
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Dean
(aka CascadeHiker)
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Mon May 26, 2003 3:35 am |
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Having REI come to the tri-cities was fantastic. Before their move here, I only had Big 5, Gart's and Wal-mart to choose from.  Almost everything sold in those stores is made overseas and isn't suited for lightweight backpacking. 
REI at least sells backpacking gear that works and will take stuff back if you don't like it. True, much of their stuff is made overseas and I try to buy USA made stuff whenever I can but unfortunately that is getting harder and harder to do. The local REI has three people who work there that backpack and climb and can talk gear.
BTW, today is the last day to get the annual 20% off. The internet is still taking orders if you forgot about it.
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iconoclast
Member
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 26 | TRs | Pics
Location: nearly Seattle |
We all know REI opened the door to the outdoors market. Ofcourse there are places like Marmot, etc. that will fill in the specialty needs for some of us, it's how the buisness machine works. Untill my daughter is big enough to hike herself and can do some real trekking, I'll be sporting my REI kids only child carrier, as it's what suits our needs 
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