Trek & Gary Fisher bikes = USA made

Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles wrote:

TREKs & Gary Fisher bicycles are made both here in the US and
overseas. It's difficult, if not impossible, to build lower-end
frames here in the US, due to the astoundingly-cheap (yet
increasingly-skilled) labor in China. At the higher price points,
technology can keep the US production ahead of the game, and build a
better frame for a similar price (but it's a moving target, with the
technology that TREK uses in a domestic frame today likely to become
the standard way they're built in China two years down the road).

Absolutely.

Labor cost is all that is ever mentioned, but there are other costs too -- and
those are also lower in lower cost areas. I say "areas" because the same
situation exists within the US. For example, this is why BMW built a plant in
South Carolina instead of southern California, or even in Detroit. Everything
is cheaper, from the real estate, to the cost of building a new factory, to the
workers within it, to the utility bills. Plus, governments frequently offer
huge tax advantages, or even partially pick up the tab, for new businesses to
move into their areas. Companies can play this to their advantage. If it's
cheaper to build a low-tech plant somewhere, it's cheaper to build a high-tech
one there too.

Second, increased productivity often requires new techology, and new kinds of
workers. Sometimes it's easier and cheaper to just start over -- with both. In
light of the above, that often means somewhere else.

Matt O.