How much does "Made in" matter?
For a lobg time, I have been biased towards picking clothes made in either North America, Europe, or Japan. My assumption is that such clothes are more likely to be of better quality as they are made by professional adults rather than by children using machines.
However, I have done some research and found out that it such labelling is often disingenuous. Not to mention that some manufacturers will have people handmaking blazers and clothes in both China and Italy but charge double for what is made in the latter.
So, how much does it matter where a garment is made?
8 Replies
short answer : not too much - beyond the bottom of the barrel most clothes are kinda "ok or better" in 2023.
long answer : it's complicated. Made in "xxx country with a history of manufacturing of garment n" + price might be useful. For example woollen knits from Scotland, tweeds from Ireland/UK, leather shoes from Northampton or the Pacific Northwest. Partly because "made in x" by itself can conceal a multitude of sins at lower prices (and even sometime high end makers, Made in Italy has had some well publicised sweatshops working for luxury brands, I'm not sure all the Hermes ateliers in France are going to have the best working conditions). See this with respect to the UK for example : https://www.ft.com/content/e67e2daa-5a88-11e8-b8b2-d6ceb45fa9d0
On the other hand, it [the desire to buy made in x] often seems to me a slightly xenophobic front to steer away from perceived "bad quality" or "cheapness" in countries that actually make some of the best stuff in the world, these days with respect to China especially but a good number of other countries too. Case in point, some of the best technical outerwear is made in one factory in China that white labels for a ton of high end outdoor brands.
But I don't think it's wrong to hold some suspicion that a large conglomerate or even a mid-sized specialist that is outsourcing manufacturing to less-industrialised countries is often doing it to save labour costs by various means - though that doesn't mean these places are necessarily making bad quality items.
That said, you might want to buy from MiUK/US etc brands for myriad reasons - shorter supply chains, supporting local manufacturing, a sense/the reality of better working conditions. and these can all be good reasons to do it. They're not really always related to quality though.
Overall, it's a very simplistic heuristic that can be improved quite quickly by making some other informed judgements about the things you are buying.
The high price of cheap clothes made in Britain | Financial Times
Dickensian sweatshops should not be tolerated in the 21st century UK
cdf's reply is great. Even wrt ecological concerns & wanting a shorter/more local supply chain "made in" can be deceiving - sometimes garments are only finished in the country on the label. And the textiles they're made from can come from anywhere. Some brands will specify where the materials the garments are made from come from though!
And as for labour concerns, to use the USA as an example - 'made in usa' can mean 'made by workers with good pay, benefits, holidays and safe workplaces' but it can also mean prison labour, where people are paid cents per hour.
I want to second the statement about quality - there are skilled workers and fantastic artisans all over the world. There are shitty sweatshops making subpar stuff all over the world too. You can buy fantastic textiles and garments made in india and china and terrible crap made in england or italy.
Some more food for thought - this podcast ep highlights some of the difficulties in even knowing whether a factory is a decent workplace or not. https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/inside-the-factory
Inside The Factory
Where the hell are our clothes made
What I found interesting is that when shipping an item generally speaking the last few kilometers make up the vast majority of the pollution.
Is that an economy of scale thing?
Kinda yeah. It's just because lorries which do the last stretches are way more polluting than the ships which do the mayority of transport
Ah that makes a lot of sense. Reducing consumption really is the number one solution huh? also regarding shipping nothing compares to food that's grown in one country, packed halfway across the world, then shipped back to be sold a few hundred miles from where it was grown. Just insane as a concept lol. at least shipping textiles around makes a LITTLE more sense to me
With food you probably going to run into different issues regarding the market namely subsedies
right! it's crazy how there is legit justification financially for a lot of the madness lol