Posted on 11/24/2018 12:51:27 AM PST by cba123
PORTLAND, Ore. — Columbia Sportswear has spent years designing ski jackets and hiking boots to withstand the elements: wind, rain, snow and, increasingly, tariffs.
Located on a sprawling campus adorned with hanging canoes, the 80-year-old retailer has long protected its outdoor gear from the whims of Washington by engaging in what the company calls “tariff engineering” — adjusting its products to lessen import taxes on materials from outside the United States like rubber soles, zippers and waterproof nylon.
But now Columbia worries that its approach is under threat from a president whose trade strategy leaves little room for American companies that make and sell products globally.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You do not make anything in America.
Nothing.
By the way, that claim “they make nothing in the USA” is based on this article.
If they do, my apologies.
But NOTHING, according to the article anyway...
The bulk of their jackets are made in Bangladesh. Marketing and management might be played out in the US...but the massive bulk of manufacturing is off US soil. Everytime you buy their jacket....you ought to sew on the national flag of Bangladesh.
Their t-shirts are garbage. Bought 4 and had to throw them all out as they heavily shrink.
Logo is double swastika.
Coincidence?
It was founded in 1938 by Paul Lamfrom, the father of current chairperson Gert Boyle.
[...]
History
[...]
Columbia Sportswear began as a family-owned hat distributor. Present chairwoman Gert Boyle's parents, Paul and Marie Lamfrom, fled Nazi Germany in 1937 and immediately purchased a Portland hat distributorship. The company became Columbia Hat Company, named for the nearby Columbia River. In 1948, Gert married Neal Boyle, who became the head of the company...
It appears that the family was Jewish.
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
http://www.ojmche.org/oral-history-people/labby-eva
The logo might symbolize weaving, as in textiles.
Here it is. So the symbol is *not* a double swastika. There are various symbols similar to the one mentioned that allude to textiles (weaving). I’m well acquainted with a descendant of some Weavers who turned out to be quite the weaver (maybe going into the difficult business of textiles production).
Gert Boyle
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gert_Boyle#Early_life_and_education
“Early life and education
Born Gertrude Lamfrom to a German Jewish family in Augsburg, Germany,[2] she was the daughter of Marie (née Epstein) and Paul Lamfrom. Her father used to own the largest shirt factory in Germany[2] until it was seized by the government.[1] Her mother was a nurse during World War I.[1] In 1937, when she was 13, her family fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to Portland, Oregon, in the United States;[2] her grandmother who stayed behind died in a concentration camp.[2] When she arrived, she did not speak English.[1] In 1938, her father borrowed money from a relative and purchased the Rosenfeld Hat Company,[2] changing its name to the Columbia Hat Company[3] (after the river).[2] She attended Grant High School in Portland[4] and later graduated with a B.A. in sociology from the University of Arizona.[2]”
Columbia did produce right here in the USA for a long time. Don’t know how much the company is importing (or not) now. Only some very specialized textiles producers can produce on U.S. soil and manage to sell products for now.
Labor is not the only cost that is prohibitive in textiles, but fibers and materials made from them in the U.S.A. are very expensive. Machines that spin fibers and are suitable for big production are extremely expensive. Administrators for production are also extremely expensive in the U.S.A. because of this culture that requires bachelors’ degrees at a minimum for managers and doesn’t want to train the more technically inclined people who most often don’t have degrees.
Seems to me, all of the other costs, are the same wherever things are made.
I think I will not be buying anything else, from Columbia.
Ever.
To heck with them. They came to America. They ran from Germany. I understand that, and I even support that. But, now they have sold out.
And worse yet, they’re being political about it.
In my opinion.
This is laughable. Columbia clothing is very expensive. Either they’re paying their foreign labor really well or they are making a lot of money and don’t want to give that up.
According to the article, all of it.
Agreed. We should buy clothing made in the U.S.A. wherever we can find it. Whole chains for production will need to be rebuilt, though. It will take seemingly endless patience and a will to vote for and support the right candidates for a very long time.
Anti-American businesses based in the U.S. have already spent a couple of generations shutting production down (everything from natural resources to assembly) and transferring operations overseas. It started with some constituents behind the Nixon Administration and really took off under Reagan and Clinton.
I have a Columbia jacket. Didn’t buy it, I was trying to win a mountain bike and won the jacket instead. It was made in China. I have a Carhartt jacket, very similar style, it was made in Cambodia.
It’s not am American company it’s an importer with US marketing and distribution offices.
I have several of their jackets and like them quite a bit. Having said that I haven’t purchased a new jacket in over a decade. I shop Ebay and have found great deals on used ones. So while I wear the products I don’t feed the beast. I feel the same way about Springfield Armory.
Way too expensive for my taste. If they don’t want to support my President or our citizens, forget ‘em.
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