19th
The Chinese Problem*
Until last week one of my favorite brands for outdoor gear (jackets/backpacks/etc.) Arc’teryx. Last week I had about an hour to kill before a meeting and saw an Arc’teryx retailer.
I found a shell that I liked and was about to buy it when I saw that it was made in China. I do business globally and believe strongly in the world being flat from a business perspective. However for $300 I have to say that I felt like the brand was ripping me off, making this shell in China.
There are so many high priced brands which got greedy IMO and outsource their manufacturing to China in the past few years. I have a feeling that in the long run this will cheapen the brand way beyond the extra profit they make in going there.
The positive side is that this opens up a huge opportunity for new brands that manufacture in the US and Europe to launch in verticals where you have the premium brands manufacturing in China.**
*The title of this post is the name of the episode of South park which I linked to above in this post.
**There are many verticals where the premium brand, like Apple for example, manufacture in China. However in things like the computer business the margins are so thin that you cannot afford to manufacture in the US. I am talking about industries like the example above where the margin is so large that you can still profitable on-shore.
