Enlightened Equipment is Made in China!

[fallkniven]

Well, I just found out that if you order a ready made quilt from EE, it's made in China. They have all the shells made overseas, then stuff them at their shop. It says it right on their site. "Shell made in China. Filled and finished in Winona, Minnesota." I wonder if the made to order ones are Chinese made too? That's really upsetting. I bought from them because I like the small time American shops. If I had known they are outsourcing to China, I wouldn't have bought their quilts. Very disappointing.

[OneClick]

Tim talks about it here: https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...=1#post1826449

I guess I understand if it's between keeping up with demand or just throwing your hands in the air and giving up.

One of these days China will stop producing basically everything in the world...I'm not sure I want to see that day for so many reasons.

I do like to support the US guys as well...especially when you see those little flags around the 4th of July and it says "Made in China". Come on, that's what we've been reduced to?

[michigandave]

Thanks for posting that link from last year explaining Tim's position. Gotta love that search function! I've got 3 of his TQ's that I've bought over the last couple years, but they were custom and built here. Top notch quality that was worth the long wait. I understand his position to help keep up with Massdrop demand.

Meanwhile, now there's a thread saying their quilts are made in (insert country here).

[fallkniven]

Hmm, so they're saying only their revelation quilts are being made overseas. It's gotta be pretty hard to have china pumping out product for you so quickly, and not send them the rest of the patterns for everything you offer. Gotta wonder when the full time switch will be made, when everything they sell is made in china. I mean it's not just the massdrop quilts, its the ones on their website right now that are made in china also. Now I'm wondering if my quilts are made in china.

[fallkniven]

Thanks for posting that link from last year explaining Tim's position. Gotta love that search function! I've got 3 of his TQ's that I've bought over the last couple years, but they were custom and built here. Top notch quality that was worth the long wait. I understand his position to help keep up with Massdrop demand.

Meanwhile, now there's a thread saying their quilts are made in (insert country here).

I hate that search function. I searched and found nothing relating to this topic. The thread linked didn't have anything to do with my question, it just happened to be mentioned in there, but thanks anyway. That comment really rubbed me the wrong way.

[JmBoh]

Well, I just found out that if you order a ready made quilt from EE, it's made in China. They have all the shells made overseas, then stuff them at their shop. It says it right on their site. "Shell made in China. Filled and finished in Winona, Minnesota." I wonder if the made to order ones are Chinese made too? That's really upsetting. I bought from them because I like the small time American shops. If I had known they are outsourcing to China, I wouldn't have bought their quilts. Very disappointing.

Agreed. that is sad. I found out recently that Firebox outsources a lot of their stoves to China. If you buy one of their stoves on Amazon, it's Chinese made.

[Red Wing]

It's just an unfortunate reality. A lot of these vendors just can't keep enough staff to keep up with demand. I know turnover for some of these shops are high. Older sewers are retiring and younger ones want the benefits of working for a big corporation and flexibility of working for a small shop. It's extremely challenging especially for the ones who have struggled and struggled to keep everything 100% made in America. The downfall of success.

On the flip side China is so specialized that a lot of the time, especially with these fabrics, Chinese renditions are as good or better. And they're all still quality checked here in the US but it's a catch 22. Give the people what they want or drown yourself in work.

As long as they're transparent. You probably have other gear that never mentions where it's made and you just assumed it was here. I know of a couple.

[michigandave]

I just remember that old thread because there was a lot of chatter on the Massdrop site and Whiteblaze about it at the time. Fallkniven, sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way.

3 product lines:
-Off the shelf shells are China made and stuffed/finished in the USA.
-Massdrop quilts are all China made.
-Custom quilts are handmade in Winona, MN: ( https://enlightenedequipment.com/revelation/ ).

I don't know when the switchover occured in the "off the shelf" area but I'm sure it's easy enough to find out based on your invoice.

[Hiker Boy]

The textile industry in the US went belly up decades ago so ordering fabric from China isn't a big deal. If a US company can put value added into a raw material from somewhere else, it's still a win in my books. Anything titanium is likely to be manufactured cheaper in China because that is where most of it is produced.

[pgibson]

The textile industry in the US went belly up decades ago so ordering fabric from China isn't a big deal. If a US company can put value added into a raw material from somewhere else, it's still a win in my books. Anything titanium is likely to be manufactured cheaper in China because that is where most of it is produced.

There are still a few of us that feel otherwise and deliberately choose to source our fabrics from U.S. based fabric mills. Most Cottage shops currently are not though. Sewing here but materials and parts from overseas. Keeping manufacturing jobs here costs more, lowering profit margins for us but we would rather that and be able to say our Quilts, Hammocks, Tarps, Pillows, and a lot of other gear is 100% made in USA than see those jobs go overseas.