Michael Brooke's Blog where it’s at - or truth and no consequences with country of origin in the skate market
WHERE IT’S AT…
There’s a destination a little up the road
From the habitations and the towns we know
A place we saw the lights turn low
Jig-saw jazz and the get-fresh flow
Pulling out jives and jamboree handouts
Two turntables and a microphone
Bottles and cans
Just clap your hands and just clap your hands
Where it’s at!
I got two turntables and a microphone
Where it’s at!
Beck – “Where It’s At”
At one point in skateboarding, all the good stuff (ie the pro stuff) was made in the USA – mostly Southern California. There was always intro level (ie not so great, pretty crappy skateboards) mass market stuff – some of it was made in the USA but a lot was made overseas. However, there was a line of demarcation. Skaters generally knew what was legit and what was mass market. Pros helped define this line and the magazines and videos helped spread the word.
There was a lot of pride in knowing that your skateboard was made in Southern California – the epicenter of skateboarding. There were also a lot of skaters who just bought mass market crap, enjoyed the hell out of it, and never went deeper with skateboarding. That’s the way things go.
Over time, things changed. There has been a blurring between core companies and the mass market. In fact, you could say, we’re not really sure “where it’s at.”
We’d all like to think that if a product says it’s from a certain place, then it’s from that place. But things have become a lot more complicated. Many of us assume a skateboard is made in the USA because it has no identification saying otherwise. The truth, as you, discover is that things have become blurry. Actually, not just blurry…completely whacked.
Look, this is not about China or other parts of Asia and their human rights or political systems. The fact is that if you wear skate shirts or skate shoes, chances are these items are made in China – in fact thousands of products are made in China – including Ipods. In most cases, THIS STUFF IS LABELLED A SUCH. Yes, it’s true, if you look at your new pair of Nike SB’s you’ll see a label.
But this blog is not about China specifically – it’s about where skate stuff is made and being honest with customers. Right now, if skate companies are making customers think their products are made in the USA and they are actually made somewhere else, then that is a huge issue. If you’re “Proudly made in the USA”, then great. If you are “Proudly made in Asia”, good for you too. But don’t muddy the waters.
Here’s something I found on Wikipedia about “Made in USA”
U.S. content must be disclosed on automobiles and textile, wool, and fur products. No law requires most other products sold in the U.S. to be marked or labeled Made in USA or have any other disclosure about their amount of U.S. content. However, manufacturers and marketers who choose to make claims about the amount of U.S. content in their products must comply with the FTC’s Made in USA policy.
A Made in USA claim can be express (for example, “American-made”) or implied. In identifying implied claims, the Commission focuses on the overall impression of the advertising, label, or promotional material. Depending on the context, U.S. symbols or geographic references (for example, U.S. flags, outlines of U.S. maps, or references to U.S. locations of headquarters or factories) may convey a claim of U.S. origin either by themselves, or in conjunction with other phrases or images.
Examples of fraudulent practices involving imports include removing a required foreign origin label before the product is even delivered to the ultimate purchaser (with or without the improper substitution of a Made in USA label) and failing to label a product with the required country of origin.
Think about that last paragraph for a minute then read this email I received a few months ago. The writer is part of the skate industry…and he’s frustrated, exceedingly frustrated.
I can only guess what is happening, because everyone doing it is very secretive about what they do, but I have learned a few things from a few different sources.
First, by the very nature of the items coming in as what appear to be components has to play into it slipping through under the radar. For instance, a pallet of boards in boxes that say “made in China” may go unnoticed because they feel it’s just a component of a bigger product. Most people think of skateboards, and they think they are all sold like bikes, so the are going to assume they are all sold assembled and those decks are just a component that will be assembled here, and that would put the issue in the hands of the assembler (or skateboard company) to make sure that they are labeled when shipped to the end consumer. There is pretty much no enforcement on that one. That would be handled by customs and once it’s made it to a warehouse, customs rarely goes out and inspects anything so I think that could account for why most of the stuff easily flies under the radar.
I’ve had a few people in the industry tell me “I don’t take any labels off and unless I am forced to, I am not going to put any on”. So, if they are being brought in without labels then that guy would just be doing the “pretend he didn’t know any better” thing, and that it’s not their responsibility to label even though it actually is. I had a conversation with on of my competitors who built a factory in China and tried to force Made in USA labels for USA boards and Made in China labels on China decks, but he told me his customers insisted that he not force that on them and that they would choose how to mark them. They insisted on buying boards that didn’t say made in China on them, and these are very, very big players. These are conversations I’ve had about this, not just what I’ve heard.
I also have been told by people that they’ve been at an LA based company that everyone knows gets their boards from China, and they also have a truck company. I was told it’s someone’s job to peel off the made in China stickers and rebox the trucks for shipping without the labels on them. They told me they watched them doing it. This was someone who saw it personally, not who heard about it. That is breaking many laws, but unless they get caught, no one seems to care.
Then I know of another Huntington Beach company who has it’s boards made in China, but has the graphics applied here. All the decks go to the printer on pallets, they even have laser engraved serial numbers, but no Country Marking. It’s happening in many different ways. I was shown the pallets and when I saw the laser engraving I was just pissed at how arrogant they are at refusing to label. If it can put a serial number on, it can sure print “made in China”.
The next big problem for board manufacturers here is now that there are at least 5-6 container importers in the US just selling shop decks, and more Mexico manufactures that set up shop here and their customers think they are shipping boards made here. The China importers don’t say it’s made in the USA, they just say it’s Canadian Maple as a way of diverting the issue away from where the boards come from, but none that I am aware of marks anything voluntarily, and many customers who can get a deck for a few bucks cheaper without the concern of the tarnished image saying Made in China might have will buy them all day long, as long as they don’t say Made in China. If they did, they game would change at least a little.
I went up to one company in Los Angeles at one of the trade shows, and asked them why none of their boards says “made in China” on it. The guy just looked at me and asked me if I had any information on what the law was about that, acting like he had no clue, when it’s easy to see it’s a conscious effort to deceive.
I’ve called Customs and all they can tell me is that if I know of a specific shipment coming from a specific customers then they will take a look at it. I would be pretty certain that it’s shipped as “bent plywood” or something that will keep the flags low for inspection. Also, often the shipper appears to be a freight company on one end, or even a customs broker who works for the end company, so finding a specific shipment from factory to a specific company is like searching for needles in a haystack.
The bottom line is it would take someone getting 10,000 decks confiscated and word getting around for someone to do anything about it. I pray for that day all the time.
MTO’s or the shipping companies also offers “neutralisation”. Labels go off after leaving Customs. It would need a change in consumer protection laws, if you want to go that way. But that, will be a long way…
And you can talk about the companies long, it’s the consumer that doesn’t care or would demand it. I’ve never seen a kid coming in a skate shop, saying, and where is that product coming from? There are probably only a few (older) ones who would ask that.
Skateboards will be like shoes, one day everyone silently knows they all come from china. Unless, you offer something special. There is no chinese Porsche or Ferrari
I think consumers have NO problem with Made in China. Hell, most of the stuff that I buy is from there…just like everyone else. The problem is when a company tells me something is made in North America, but it’s not. That’s not fair to me or to other companies that are actually making the stuff in North America.