Made in China....Really?

Sydney C.

Sydney C.

5-Year Member
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Oct 18, 2013
Messages
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This may be more appropriate in the Off Topic forum but since I encountered it while at USNA, and while also hoping it's not at the other SA's, I thought I'd get a point a view from others to get your take.

On I Day minus 1, I marched over to the Midshipman Store along with others to buy my swag along with one of the T-shirts that has the names of all the new Plebes on the back I plan to frame. Getting back home to our fair city, and upon closer examination of said shirt, I was completely dismayed to find that it was "Made in China" (I had done this last year as well when DS was first appointed before med DQ but never looked at it closely).

The irony was profound.Is it just me or does this just not seem right? I get the global economy, geopolitics, trading partner et al. but there seems to be something fundamentally wrong...and incredibly ironic... with a shirt I'm buying at one of America's premier military institutions (read, Made in America) that's been made and bought from anywhere else BUT America.

Please tell me I'm out of touch or behind the times. In the meantime, I'm just baffled.
 
It is baffling, but it is what it is. I believe there is a requirement to have the actual uniforms Made in America.
 
Seriously? Does this bother you everywhere you shop or only at SA gift shops? If there was a requirement for all the tchotkes in the gift shops to be made in America, none of us would be able to afford any of them! I get what you’re saying, but that is just not reality.
 
Government contracting rules! No doubt the low bidder for much of the logo merchandise was a foreign enterprise. No surprise there, with the cost of labor likely being the key differentiator. The U.S. doesn't make a lot of stuff anymore, sad to say.

Unless the contract proposal specifies U.S.-made, per applicable legislation, government is free to buy on the world market, pending trade restrictions.

It would not be a decision made at USNA.
 
If we could make things cheaper here, they it might be an option.

Doesn't bother me. Try not to let it bother you.
 
Yeah, that gripes my gizzard! Are the berets they wear at USAFA (still) made in China too? Awful.
 
It's actually law that military uniforms be made in America. Not sure how the berets are made elsewhere. I am guessing there is some clause that allows it if there is a supply and demand issue for something to be purchased outside the U.S. Be curious if the berets are still made outside the U.S.
 
Well here in America we want to buy cheap, and yet we want to have a high standard of living. Don't think you can have it both ways. If you want cheap it will be made where there is cheap labor--mainly parts of Asia. If you want American made be prepared to pay premium price.
 
The part that really concerns me nowadays, are that the names on the shirts you mentioned are officer candidate hopefuls. Seems to me that should be a Personal and operational security issue, especially when made in CHINA.
 
The shirts are made in China. Does not mean they are printed in China. More than likely they are printed somewhere here in the U.S. Not to mention you can find names as they are sewn or pinned on their uniforms and posted all online, tons of newspaper and other media coverage with their names as they received appointments and Plebe Summer, and graduation programs list names too. Not a big secret for a class list.
 
Also, the names aren't secret. Each year an officer is promoted, Congress votes on it and the names are public record.
 
Someone was just complaining about the same thing at Fort Benning. The apparel for sale with Fort Benning and/or Army logos are made in China. As I've said elsewhere on this forum, my son enlisted in the Army National Guard and is currently at BCT. His intention is to attend college via ROTC/SMP route. So, I've been following along on both military enlisted and officer social media sites. The similarities and the differences of opinions and attitudes is very........interesting.....

Fwiw, the reaction on the enlisted side to the "made in China" has been vehemently negative.
 
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