Your views on where your gear is made.

[Arya]

I think there are some people just looking for a chance to read motives or meanings into words, that is really not there. Like dogs looking for a bone that is not there, but they really want a bone and think if they just provoke enough, a bone will appear.
Drawing the racism card in this thread is just over the top hysterical.

 

[Tengu]

Near me is a company that always promised not to move their factory to China...

...A few years back, they had a change of heart, much to local anger, as you can imagine.

This is not the Chinese fault, of course.

 

[Janne]

Got some outdoor kit I had delivered to Canada. Wife took them home to Island tiday.
Opened the Optimus cooking apparatus.
Well, it aint't made the old Swedish way.......

Bottle made in PRC, burner in Taiwan.
But it cost me as it was made in old Sweden, just under 170 USD, plus Canadian import taxes.

Vauxhall is not owned by GM ? Sold to the French?
How will that work, considering the Opel affiliation?

Volvo used to make ultra boring, ultra strong, ultra reliable cars in Sweden. Always made a small profit. Then they bought the Dutch pos DAF. Profit went down. Made the disaster called DAF /Volvo 66 and Volvo 300 series. Started making other Volvo cars there, quality went down, profits too.
Sold to Ford that nailed the coffin. Chinese pos brand Geely bought it, invested heavily, and now the workers in Sweden are having nightmares every night the remaining Swedish production will be moved. Which Geely said it will.

Very simplified of course.

I wish a Japanese car manufacturer had bought Volvo.

 

[Nomad64]

Got some outdoor kit I had delivered to Canada. Wife took them home to Island tiday.
Opened the Optimus cooking apparatus.
Well, it aint't made the old Swedish way.......

Bottle made in PRC, burner in Taiwan.
But it cost me as it was made in old Sweden, just under 170 USD, plus Canadian import taxes.

Vauxhall is not owned by GM ? Sold to the French?
How will that work, considering the Opel affiliation?

Volvo used to make ultra boring, ultra strong, ultra reliable cars in Sweden. Always made a small profit. Then they bought the Dutch pos DAF. Profit went down. Made the disaster called DAF /Volvo 66 and Volvo 300 series. Started making other Volvo cars there, quality went down, profits too.
Sold to Ford that nailed the coffin. Chinese pos brand Geely bought it, invested heavily, and now the workers in Sweden are having nightmares every night the remaining Swedish production will be moved. Which Geely said it will.

Very simplified of course.

I wish a Japanese car manufacturer had bought Volvo.

I guess the far eastern companies who Trangia* have outsourced work to could have surreptitiously used thinner grade materials and snuck them past Trangia's QC team but it seems more likely that Trangia themselves changed the specs and sacrificed a bit of robustness to save cost and weight to keep their stove competitive in the lightweight stove market where for some people at least, every extra gramme is an issue.

GM selling Vauxhall/Opel to PSA - happening right now - job losses expected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39175740

Very sad what is happening at Volvo and very similar to what happened in the UK when the vultures picked over the carcass of Austin Rover but at least workers at Volvo have jobs to worry about, iirc, their mates at Saab got laid off when GM refused to sell it to a Chinese company.

It's a brutal world but still a beautiful one and much as I like reading trip reports on trips to Sweden and articles on Sami crafts and culture and the welcome contributions from our Canadian First Nation correspondents, there is a whole world out there with other nomadic herdsmen, hunter gatherers with rich cultures and bushcraft skills which rarely get a look in and never will if this group gives the impression that if it isn't from (northern) Europe or North America and you need a load of kit to do it, it isn't bushcraft and if isn't made here, we won't buy it.

I prefer independent travel and expeditions but here's a link to some Woodsmoke expeditions which may whet people's appetites (don't worry, there's a winter trip to Canada in there) - no affiliation, just a satisfied former customer.

Edit * Oops for Trangia read Optimus