 I bought a pair of Karrimor 200s in the Blacks sale to replace my shagged out Meindl Softlines and was suprised to see they were made in China. Is this a recent change or am I just well behind the times?
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Most outdoor gear, except paramo of course, is Made In China nowadays.
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What's 'paramo'? Do they make boots? ;-)
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 ...since Dragonfly Enterprises took over manufacture from Garmont.
Since then the boots appear to be bendier than wellies.
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 i thought lonsdale the basketball people bought Karrimor or is lonsdale part of Dragonfly.
True there has been a downturn in quality, presently I think they are only producing stock on demand for Blacks
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No, and yes. The footwear contract with Dragonfly is continuing on from the old post-Garmont days, Lonsdale is now happily destroying the reputation of the other gear such as rucksacks on their own.
Blacks had a license to produce stuff with the karrimor logo on it. The sacks are cheap and nasty, and the clothes are horrendous.
The current biggest stockist of karrimor branded tat appears to be ned/chav heaven; Sports World.
I get so depressed about this, last week I climbed the Aonachs with a 13 year old alpiniste sack, I can't see much of the new kit surviving that long.
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 Over the years KSBs have been made by a variety of companies. Asolo made the first ones. I've been trying some of the latest pairs and they seem quite good, certainly as good as other boots in the same price range.
Lonsdale bought Karrimor after Karrimor went into receivership a few years ago. Lonsdale are now trying to rebuild Karrimor, having sold off all the old stock and laid off all the staff.
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Thanks for the replies. Looks like I was behind the times, I'd no idea the Karrimor brand had been passed around so much. The boots seem sound enough though (for the price).
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Páramo make outdoor garments - jackets, trousers & base layers, Foxhound. Páramo are based in East Sussex and garments are made by the Miquelina charitable Foundation in Colombia, South America. Check out www.paramo.co.uk, manufacturing.
Just enter 'paramo' in Forum search and you'll see it does cause some interest!
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You don't say!? Maybe I should have added 'just kidding' because I have actually heard of Paramo - just couldn't quite see the relevance of the reference to it.
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No. Nobody can :o)
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Oh, I thought it was 'cos they don't make their stuff in China!
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Nah, it's a Paramo thing :o)
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