RRC Archives

Patagonia and Black Diamond have done surprisingly well at keeping quality despite fame and the opportunity to sell out to the masses. But it was sad when they moved operation to China. We will see what happens.

As far as who is better to buy from China or East Europe… I can at least appreciate the progress east Europe’s government has made relative to China. And clearly the Ukranian company is a small operation, a little bit of profit for them likely goes a long way. Where as a little profit in a factory in china likely doesn’t do a thing. The gear4rocks staff is a hand full of climbers trying to do what they love in a rough part of the world. I would like to think the Ukrainian guys are a more “localâ€

pigsteak wrote:what's wrong with China? over the Czech republic, for instance?

There is nothing "wrong" with China. The problem I have is supporting an American company that ships this work overseas, while raising prices. Why would I buy the most expensive cam on the market, yet it is made in a low cost country? It makes no sense - if BD passed the cost savings onto us the consumer maybe I would consider it.

On another note - us American consumers could be very powerful if we voted with our money. Nobody likes to see all this outsourcing, so why support companies that do it (or at least cross some line, I was ok with BD making clothing in China)? We don't have to buy BD, all the Euro and other companies don't outsource.

To your original question - buying goods from Europe for example is economically equivalent to buying an American made product. Sounds crazy? Its not, we currently have balanced trade with Europe and most of the world except the "low cost" nations. When you have balanced trade the dollars you send overseas for their product are used by them to buy an American product. It works, everyone benefits. The problem with China and the other poorer nations is that they can't afford to buy our goods, so they hold the dollars we send them.

yup. They gotta buy those bonds with something

I bought a zipline trolley from gear4rocks because it was cheap. My 6 and 8 year old daughters used it for a couple weeks and then one of the bearings went bad. I asked if they would like a video and they said yes. I sent them a video of me rotating the bearing with it wobbling all over the place. They said they would replace it if I would ship it back to the Ukrain. My advice - pay a little more for a trusted name from a vendor in the States.

michaelarmand wrote: There is nothing "wrong" with China.

Nothing. At. All.

toad857 wrote:

michaelarmand wrote: There is nothing "wrong" with China.

Nothing. At. All.

Toad, that isn't Foxconn or Compal, do you know where that is? The pink suits make me think of the chicken houses in all the Michael Pollan documentaries.

It really isn't funny, but it is what I thought of:

I've done some trad climbing in the RRG and never carried more than 3 or 4 cams. Save up your money and buy stuff you trust without reservation.

On the other hand, the pride and joy of my winter rack was a bunch of home made Russian titanium ice screws, every one a prototype, no two alike. Wonder what kind of testing they did on those? But man, they were light, and of course I had no intention of falling, mainly because I didn't care to see what a compound fracture looked like up real close
.

Ha! Yeah I agree there is plenty wrong with China. I was referring to the outsourcing in general (I wouldn't be happy if BD made their cams in India or Vietnam for example).

But imagine what kind of chaos is going to break out in China with those "jobs" are replaced by machines....