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Comment by savanaly | Hacker News Reader

I understand that the quality of a glove is important and people should have the option to pay more for a better glove.

Leaving that aside though, what does it matter where it gets made? American workers are not specially more or less deserving than those in other countries, and that we have managed to coordinate it so the countries with comparative advantages in glove production are producing most of the gloves is something to celebrate, not bemoan.

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Some people place some value in supporting their neighbors and communities whenever given the option.

Why is my neighbor or my community intrinsically better than the neighbor or community of someone on the other side of the globe?

Intrinsically better? They're not.

Intrinsically more connected to you, and therefore worthy of you giving at least somewhat higher priority on their welfare? Definitely yes.

I (honestly) don't understand why someone more connected to me is definitely more deserving of a higher priority.

If you spent all your money with China or with your neighbor, which one is more likely to buy something from you in return?

Ok, imagine Japanese primary school children using Randoseru made in Thailand, or somewhere. It's part of national identity. Imagine Swiss eating American chocolate.

Since you want to bring up Randoseru, consider that children and young people in the Nordic countries have continued using and loving Fjällräven Kånken backpacks even as production moved from Sweden to Asia, and it wasn’t the end of the world. The iconic design still comes originally from Scandinavia, and as long as quality doesn’t decline in the course of outsourcing production, then who the hell cares where it is put together?

The chocolate analogy isn’t quite comparable here. In that example, the Swiss presumably aren’t setting up their own factories in the US and dictating the recipe. The USA and Switzerland have different food labeling laws and understandings of what chocolate is, so if the Swiss just imported just any US chocolate, then sure, it would jar with the traditional culture.

Nestle is a Swiss company with choco factories in the US. If not, we can go with InBev AB.

In addition, the arctic/ mountain fox brand is pretty new. It'd be like the north face shoppers not liking it since it moved prod abroad. Here we're talking about a national symbol as well as a sentimental item. Baseball gloves, Randoserus.

Fjallraven is new to America, but old to Sweden--think of it as Swedish Jansport. But to your point, I don't think Americans have the same level of attachment to school bags as the Japanese do.

By new I meant post WWii. It hasn't had time to become iconic, I would argue. A north face also is not yet iconic. Maybe this is unfair, as most outdoor consumer products didn't come about till around the 60s and 70s... However baseball and children's iconic backpacks have generational nostalgia and have become very iconic. It's possible, I don't know, that the mountain fox itself had become ironic in Sweden in short period of time before production was shipped overseas.

Ah I see (and I don't have an answer).

Is Jansport "iconic" or is it just "ubiquitous"? I'd say it's the latter. A better comparison might be Victorinox deciding too offshore Swiss Army knives to Korea or Thailand.

Yes, I think that's a good comparison. German Henckels would be another or British millerain. Jansport I think is more ubiquitous than iconic, but maybe that's just me.

You guys almost get it. Keep going. What if instead of allowing American workers to suffer and businesses to trade capital around regulations at labor's expense, everyone, even overseas workers, were protected instead? Too misty eyed? Dream bigger.

People value tradition. Look how many brands advertise "since 1882" or whatever. There's something endearing about a factory that's been operating for generations. It's sad to see it close and people lose their jobs.

More than that, there's a strong perception that American goods are superior to cheaper foreign made ones. I don't know if that's true in this case but it doesn't seem unlikely. Look at all the people about to get blinded by foreign made solar eclipse glasses.

At some point, a $200 glove become a premier product in that niche. By remaining to manufacture in America, it adds to their brand image that they're one of the few remaining "true American" products, especially if the factory has been producing gloves for 70-some years. So consumers are buying into heritage.

Why should you help someone in your family instead of some random person any where else?

Because their related? We all are at some level. Because they raised you (father and mother might count, but probably not cousins, nieces or nephews)

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