Lots Of "European" Luxury Goods Aren't Made In Europe
Look, we've got nothing against China, a manufacturing phenomenon that produces quality, lead-free products every day of the year—but when a luxury item like, say, a Prada travel bag is stamped "made in China" even as a Prada spokesman insists it's handmade in Italy, it seems more than a little dishonest.
How do the brands get away with this? Some hide the "Made in China" label in the bottom of an inside pocket or stamped black on black on the back side of a tiny logo flap. Some bypass the "provenance" laws requiring labels that tell where goods are produced by having 90 percent of the bag, sweater, suit or shoes made in China and then attaching the final bits -- the handle, the buttons, the lifts -- in Italy, thus earning a "Made in Italy" label. Or some simply replace the original label with one stating it was made in Western Europe.Or how about when a luxury goods company illegally employees Chinese immigrants in Europe?
To please customers looking for the "Made in Italy" label, several luxury companies now have their goods made in Italy by illegal Chinese laborers. Today, the Tuscan town of Prato, just outside of Florence and long the center for leather-goods production for brands like Gucci and Prada, has the second-largest population of Chinese in Europe, after Paris. More than half of the 4,200 factories in Prato are owned by Chinese entrepreneurs, some of whom pay their Chinese workers as little as two Euros ($3) an hour."Made in China on the Sly" [New York Times via Metafilter] (Photo: d'n'c)
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It's still made in Italy, even if it is by illegal Chinese immigrants... just like how Pentel pens are made in the USA by uneducated people who get paid by the piece (aka sweat shop) to assemble all parts together.
Your post is a bit misleading though. Makes it sound like Prada is the one who is actually making goods in China when in fact they are not, even if they are illegal immigrants. Some people probably do think I'm splitting hairs.
The key point to tell is by the wording... Assembled in Italy is quite different than Made in Italy. Then again, some BMWs are made in the US, VWs are made in Mexico, and Boeing plane parts come from over ten different countries.
@SOhp101: Just because it's piecerate pay doesn't make it sweatshop work. Lincoln Electric is an example of a highly successful manufacturing company that uses piecerate pay; its success is frequently attributed to its very generous piecerate pay. Workers at Lincoln Electric make significantly above the baseline wage for their industry, despite being a non-union shop, yet the company has stellar performance in an increasingly tough position (as an American manufacturer). Everybody wins.
It's not piecerate vs. set hourly wage that is to blame, the difference between exploiting workers and not exploiting them is a lot more complex.
@dreamcatcher2: I should say "attributed in part to", because obviously giving out generous piecerate pay on its own is not a successful business strategy.
The more you pay, the better your workers, the better your product.
People ask why the guys at McDonalds always screw up their food. Perhaps if they were paid more, or offered benefits, they'd care more about the job.
When someone is offered benefits or a better rate of pay, the job shifts from 'want' to 'need,' and people will work much harder when they 'need' the job.
@RvLeshrac: Of course, when you talk about food preparers messing up orders, that's an entirely different region of "acceptability" because a mistake can cause someone to be seriously injured or even die. Their feelings about their job take a distant second place to public safety, and in no way is "I don't get paid enough" acceptable when lives are in danger.
No, I'm not kidding here. The slightest trace of an allergen can cause people to suffocate within minutes.
@SOhp101:
Japan has several hundred thousand Brazilians living there. (Enough that the Brazilian community in Japan actually have their own cable/satellite TV channel) Many of these people work in auto parts plants. The brother of a Brazilian friend of mine was working for...it was either Mitsubishi or Nissan, I forget...whoever it is that has a plant near Suzuka.
@dreamcatcher2: When your salary is dependent per piece and it comes out to less than minimum wage even though you work your ass off and your fingers are bleeding, something's wrong. I know this isn't the case for some cases (like the one you stated) but for most manufacturing positions it does pose a problem.
I wasn't implying that piece rate vs. hourly wages was the issue... I don't know how you came to that conclusion. I was simply stating that the country of origin in terms of manufacturing, in most cases, means very little. People assume that because something is made in the USA, all workers involved in the making of a product have been treated well.
@Buran:
I agree. All the more reason to pay them better and hire better employees.
Would you go to a doctor who made $6.50/hr? Then why do we buy food from people who not only don't know the meaning of the word 'allergen,' but who don't care?
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While I'm back here, I would also like to point out that I really don't care if someone's ridiculously overpriced piece of luxury crap was made in a third-world factory. You pay $1,000 for a handbag, you deserve whatever scummy tricks they want to play on you. How about spending $20 on a good bag and sending the other $980 to help feed a few hundred starving kids for a year?
I *do* care if that $2 toy some poor mother is buying her kid contains massive amounts of lead or GHB. I guarantee that the Prada handbags will be highly inspected long before the childrens' toys, though.
lesson is: buy cost effective, why buy $150 designer clothes when a $20 look alike of the same quality exists?
One thing that gets me is Rolex, okay I get why diamonds and other jewelry is expensive, but a watch that is $5000+? And the quality is comparable to a digital watch, I don't see the overpriced justification
One thing that gets me is Rolex, okay I get why diamonds and other jewelry is expensive, but a watch that is $5000+? And the quality is comparable to a digital watch, I don't see the overpriced justification
Because a mechanical movement is far more difficult to build than the computer that runs a digital watch.
My MIL loves luxury goods but only if they're branded as "coach" or "lv" etc. If you buy her an expensive purse no one knows is expensive she'll return it and buy something with a label on it. Anyway, she's since discovered knock offs (she's new to the country) and she loves them.
I think it's kind of sweet in an odd sort of way. I mean she gets to have the branded good but she feels she saves $600. And I have to say knock offs are really good these days, so good I'm willing to bet many come from the same factories in China.
@poodlepoodle: They do. I live in China and I can say that the markets selling the knockoffs have the same source as the "real" brand-name stores. It's kind of sad.
People used to buy luxury goods because they were higher quality, part of that was the craftspeople who added their skills. At some point it quit being about quality and became all about displaying the label (or original branded design)as status.
About they only thing you might be getting beyond the label would be a slightly better quality material and some slightly higher than average construction standards. But I doubt the wage slaves making a Prada bag get paid any more than someone making a cheap mainstream brand bag.
@bohemian: "At some point it quit being about quality and became all about displaying the label (or original branded design)as status."
This is why I absolutely refuse to wear anything with a visible logo. (Well, okay, jeans.) If they want to advertise on ME, they can pay ME. I will not pay THEM.
But more to the point, a prominent logo from a "luxury" brand is a sure sign quality's gone down the shitter.
I actually disagree. I think folks work better when they want a job, rather then when they need it. You need it, you will do just enough to get by. You want it, you are recieving more than just financial compensation...there is another reason you are there.
And money only gets you so far. If I get a 4 or 6 % raise, I am please for a few weeks. If I get some other satisfaction, such as a sense of community, personal development or control over the process and output of what I do....I am happier for a far longer time and have a greater sense of job satisfaction.
This all assumes that the basic needs (food/clothing/shelter) are met.
@Eyebrows McGee: I feel the same way. Those logos are ubertacky.
Good book if you're interested in the mass-marketization and decline in quality of luxury brands: Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. Quite interesting.
I agree with poodle poodle.
I have a $4,000 Omega Seamaster that is worth every penny. I don't wear it as a status symbol, I wear it because it is the best designed watch I have ever seen, the screen won't scratched because it is made of sapphire crystal, and it never looses a second.
Your Timex is not comparable to it, you are paying for true quality and engineering.
These are the same people who SCREAM bloody murder if you buy a knockoff bag that actually admits to being made in China. Many of the knockoffs (the good ones) are made in the same manner, and often by the same factories, as the real ones. I have zero sympathy for the Euros whining about knockoffs sullying their good names.
People buying Prada deserve to be ripped off for paying for a name-so do folks buying knock offs. Who cares about your stupid bag anyway.
@Secret Agent Man: As a person who owns several luxury watches, I wouldn't say that they were worth EVERY penny per se.
I love my rolexes and omegas,but at the end of the day, a HUGE chunk of what I've paid for supplements their crazy marketing campaigns.
That being said, even with the marketing costs that comes as part of the package, a great swiss watch with a mechanical movement is a feat of engineering ingenuity.
They are definitely worth (monetarily) much more than your machine assembled digital watches. But I wouldn't say their function is that much more different.
Some are more forthcoming than others, I guess. I remember seeing Dior tags that said "Made in the Dominican Republic" years ago. Turns out a lot of their lingerie was made there. But as was mentioned, simply performing light final assembly can qualify for "Made in ____" status. The haughtiness of proclaiming that products made in Europe are infintely superior, while actively trying to hide the true provenance of the item, is really gross.
It reminds of the "product of Italy" vs "imported from Italy" issue with olive oil. Product of Italy means the olive oil was made in Italy using Italian olives. (Which, whatever, Italy is not the only country that produces good olive oil, but single-origin oils tend to be better than blends). Imported from Italy means that the oil was indeed made there, technically, but if you look at the ingredients you'll see they used a mix of oils from different countries. But at least you get ITALY stamped on there, because people think it's automatically better. Maybe the imported from/product of method should be applied to fashion items as well!
@xtc46: Both. Designers "bootleg" their own stuff all the time, then complain about it. They make money on both ends and then bitch!
@darkclawsofchaos: But $20 is NOT the same as a $200. It's not the same quality. Would you buy a $20 diamond if it looked the same as a $200 diamond? There are quality differences. It's why any purses I buy from Wal-Mart fall apart after a year of heavy use and the leather purse I have from LV is still being used, 8 years later after it was handed down to me from my mother, who used it every day for 3 years to carry documents.
That's funny. My watch is Japanese movement and has not varied in the 15 years my stepfather had it before he gave it to me.
It was less than $50.
@Secret Agent Man: Out of curiosity, how many trips through a washer and dryer will it survive?
I ask because that's one of the main ways in which my Timexes and Casios have died. I'm just wondering if I really would be best off sticking with those.
@TechnoDestructo: You might want to check out something like Citizen. I haven't put a watch through the wash, but I literally wear my watch all day and night, and only take it off when I need to clean the band.
I've had two "water resistant to 100m" Timexes die within a year of purchase of leaks in situations where they got dunked in water <10ft. deep. In both cases, I went to look at the time afterwards, and the face was still and completely fogged up on the inside. For the last 5 years I've been wearing a low-end Citizen (well under $200, not even an Eco-Drive), and the only issues I've had were a used-up battery and a single chain link that gave out near the band latch.
1) The argument is over piecerate and hourly wages, not high and low.
2) The difference between wanting and needing a job is poverty (your status), not benefits (your compensation)
3) While quartz watches are cheap and accurate, mechanical watches are brilliantly engineered and have a great deal of cultural value.
@SpaceCat85: Really? What actually killed my watches was the dryer. It caused the seals to separate and get tangled up in the hands.
Probably fixable, but not really worth it.
But I suppose if you've got a multi-thousand dollar watch, it's ALWAYS worth it to fix it.
@rlue:
Gee, I tend to think that simplicity in attaining the same result is more of a sign of brilliance.
Are the companies doing it, or are they licensing their name and another company is doing it? Designers like Prada and Gucci license out their name, and like anything else the product needs to be approved by them because its their reputation, but the offenders in the case are likely not the company it self, but someone paying to use their name.