I notice some Nike shoes special edition etc are made in China. Any idea if the quality is assured or better off buying those made in viet or Indo? #nike
I boughts same brand shoes, one made in CN and the other made in Vietnam, the quality of the made in Vietnam is way higher, craftmanship and durability seems way better than the made in CN. I always wonder about this and everytime I buy stuff I always look at where they are made even if same brand
I used to work in consulting, so this is coming from my own experience on the retail manufacturing industry — “Quality”: this largely depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re buying off Shien or some 7.99 shirt on Amazon, the quality will indubitably be very low. If you’re looking at a basic Uniqlo shirt, the quality will be the same no matter where it was made because Uniqlo contracts with many many suppliers across Asia to reduce concentration risk and subsequently supply volatility. Same with Nike. If you’re looking at “technical” garments like winter jackets, ski boots, contrary to popular myth China is actually one of the best places to manufacture because they have made substantial investment in things like factory line automation, Gore-Tex (only a few factories are allowed to manufacture using this fabric), synthetic down, etc. However production costs are rising largely due to labor costs as a result of increases in standard of living. On top of that you add import tariffs due to the trade war, human rights violations e.g., banning of cotton from Xinjiang, and you can see why retailers are shifting away from China to Vietnam and Indonesia. A pair of Nike shoes are similar to a Uniqlo shirt in that the manufacturing quality will be the same whether it be from China, Vietnam or Indo. The reason why Nike is moving away from China to Vietnam is not due to quality but due to cost, trade tensions, tariffs, taxes, human rights concerns. If you’re talking about more upscale streetwear brands like Common projects Axel Arigato etc. for shoes they should not be manufactured in an automated assembly line at all but made bespoke in England or Italy.
im from asia myself so don't take this as some sort of insult - China being the world's factory the past 20 years has given its population a *huge* advantage over other nations in terms of the skills in assembly - especially for its price point (if you are willing to pay JP/KR etc, obviously they will be able to deliver even better assembly too). Tim Cook himself also admitted it as such. however, for products made in & exported from CN, the issue imo is legislative & cultural. they very often contain low quality materials (e.g. carcinogens) that are totally legal in CN but probably banned for 30+ years everywhere else around the world already. so, for us who use products from CN (ranging from cars to floorboards), it will very much come down to whether your own country's import regulations & spot checks are able to cover all the bases - but comon, we all know there's an infinite list of things that just aren't yet addressed by our regulations and consumer protections. in short, imo you are often taking a bit of a gamble with products from CN. your best bet is to buy from reputable brands / OEMs, and hopefully you live in a country with strong consumer protection laws & culture. also, CN production costs are actually rising quite fast in recent years, so Vietnam, Indonesia, India etc will slowly become the next world factories. they are often running with better quality control now, but assembly skills as a whole still need improvement in time. a lot of your fancy shoes & OLED TVs are made in these countries already.
Since the question OP has is Nike shoes, it falls under reputable brand in your write-up so made in China should be good too?
yup, that's usually correct. you wouldn't be able to imagine how bad the "bad nameless OEMs" in CN are. an example i saw myself is a customer buying red shoes, then removing them, just to realize the red stained his socks - the shoes were actually white, but sprayed red to make a "red version". the real trouble with CN is that they don't have a strong consumer protection culture imo. you can walk into entire Nike / Apple stores - everyone with the right uniforms and all - just to walk out with entirely fake stuff because the whole store may turn out to be an unlicensed fake. in fact, some are so crazy even the employees may think they are working for the real deal when they are arrested. things have gotten better now, but this kinda stuff really erodes consumer trust.