Americans Fooled: Expensive Italian Leather Goods made in China

Luxury brands are baiting and switching Americans. The brands are made in China and passed off as made in France or Italy.

Gucci and Prada made in China. Hermès silk scarves are hemmed by hand in Mauritius. And Louis Vuitton plans to build a factory in India to produce shoes.

Many brands 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 have 90 percent of the bag, sweater, suit or shoes made in China and then attach 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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/opinion/23thomas.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

 

I have lived in Asia for 12 years, the streets are just full of this stuff in all major cities in the region

 

I keep telling my oldest that name brand means nothing but higher cost on a lot of things.

Of course, some brands will still have a higher quality even when made in China, but I just want to create a brand name that I can have 500% markup on. Just has to be catchy and get some hollywood types to want to wear it because it costs a lot.

 

Nowadays they make everything in China. From computer parts to socks for my dog. Buying badges is just a waste of money.

 

Americans Fooled: Expensive Italian Leather Goods made in China... But when asked 9/10 said they couldn't taste the difference.

 

Consumers are paying up to 10x conventional price levels for luxury brands at the same time that they can't afford their credit card and mortgage payments.

No one has any money but the shopping malls are full.

 

i prefer always to buy on streets

 

A good book to read is "How Luxury Lost Its Luster" by Dana Thomas

"Made in Italy" bags are produced in China and if you are lucky they hand sew the 'made in italy label' in some city like Florence

 

The problem with these glittering brands is they pay me low to the workers (dirty hands that crafted the bags, etc) but they amass tons of profits by selling their products at mind-blowing prices.

 

exactly what I wanted to say, top brands are getting GREEDY, also Adidas, Nike, etc brands, everything is from China now. Did we see any price drop ?? Hell, no. They just about how to make more money and sell a thing that costs 20 bucks for 70.

Same thing with Apple, when I was buying their iPhone, it says Designed in California, Made in China!

And the bloody silicone case costs 10 pounds, thats 20 bucks for the rubber?? That was in Carphonewarehouse (uk store). When I visited Apple store in West End, they got cases for 30 GBP!!! thats 60 bucks (whis is again Made in China), oh man, this is a crazy crazy world.

 

It's worse with a Gucci bag. The bag costs $20 to produce and sells for $1000

At least with tech you can justify the high cost because of the R&D involved.

 

I think 30 GBP for the rubber case, which is made in China is a non sense.

So you are saying, Gucci and all other posh brands actually making their stuff in China, and then when we get to the stores, the labels do not say "Made in China" ? Thats awful then.

 

Here are two points i would like to make.

1. if you think a product is over priced, Don't buy it. You are the consumer, You set the prices by the way of your willingness to pay them.

2. Workers in third world countries are paid less because of their economy. Once you work out what they are able to buy in their economy with their wage and compare it to what you can buy in your economy with your wage it will work out to about the same. The value of money isn't numbers, It's purchasing power. If we were to pay them what we would consider a "fair wage" they will end up with factory workers being paid more than surgeons.

 

Many posh bands are 50%-80% made in China or other low cost area and shipped to Italy for the finishing touches.

Middle-class American consumers are demanding luxury items and at the same time defaulting on their mortgages.

A worker making $5 a day in China doesn't really have any purchasing power. They still have to eat.

 

We're all sheep. People want to show that they have money. If it comes down to it, we could all live for so much less than we do. But we don't want to ...

 

So Nike an Adidas are responsible for you being able to pay a mortgage? If people are buying expensive tat instead of paying their mortgages then that's their problem.

 

We're living in a day and age of commercials and credit. People are led to believe they have more money to spend than they can actually afford.