 I enjoyed the short article about Julie; former Paramo and Montane designer, now at Sprayway. It's nice to hear that someone else goes into shops only to inspect the seams, the pocket design, how the zips are done, etc... I needed change for the bus, coming back from Chamonix. The issue seems to be fairly good, and full of articles about kit. Even Mike Harding was mildly funny...
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Did you notice what she said about the cost of gear? "... prices in China are rising massively ..." Time to buy (even more) stuff, perhaps?
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| Edited: 31/03/08 21:38 |
> prices in China are rising massively That is fairly predictable. I suggested a few years back on UKC that manufcaturing may even move back to the UK one day, when the cost of labour has swung far enough...
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...and how much better it would be if we could get manufacturing back to the UK....although I think it'll be a long wait! I think us manufacturers will have to find other ways to reduce the cost to the consumer though, or outdoor kit could get quite pricey! Glad you enjoyed the article, and that I'm not the only one in stores checking out how pockets work, or how things are finished. 
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 Oooh, a celebrity Can we have your autograph please?
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well since you said please.....where would you like it?
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maybe, on my photo in TGO?
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 My perspective, not about autographs, is that once upon a time we bought cheap items from Japan, then Taiwan, then China, and now Vietnam, India, Fiji, ... in other words it is a progression and when the UK, USA, Australia (my home) become cheaper than the alternatives then the gear will be made there. However, wherever we may live we will still look for the best quality but cheapest gear. And accordingly manufacturers will always look for the cheapest alternative.
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 I'm cheap..
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> is that once upon a time we bought cheap items from Japan [...] And before that, we destroyed the Indian cotton weaving industry by the introduction of machine weaving. Only for them to take it back again later, when they introduced machine weaving.
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> Glad you enjoyed the article, and that I'm not the only one in stores checking out how pockets work, or how things are finished I think we found that out when we had our long chat at the OS a couple of years ago, which I enjoyed immensely; certainly the highlight of the show for me to chat with someone so knowledgable about the technicalities of outdoor clothing design. And someone so polite to a gear weirdo...
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