MADE IN THE USA

[greentrout]

I receive a newsletter everyday from Fishing Tackle Retailer. Got one this morning about the growing demand by dealers and even BPS for rods made in the USA.

 

Covid-19 looks like it's going to change the supply chain.

 

Hope to see more folks making fishing equipment once again in the USA... 

 

good fishing ...

[dodgeguy]

That would be nice. American built rods and reels would be awesome. I would love it if Lews did that.

[looking45]

Price could be the major downside to rods made in the US

[Tywithay]

There's already a number of USA made options. Most offer little value for performance though. That's the downside to higher paid labor.

[jimmyjoe]

1 hour ago, Tywithay said:

Most offer little value for performance though. That's the downside to higher paid labor.

 

   My idea of "value" includes the higher paid labor, and I'm just fine with that. I don't like a higher price with poorer quality though, and I doubt anyone else does, either.     jj

[flyfisher]

As long as it is as good of quality and comparable price I would get USA made stuff but we also have to realize we are in a global economy and the days of Made in the USA is really gone the way of the dinosaurs.  To be competitive you need to balance all the aspects of manufacturing to be successful. 

[Bankc]

I've got a feeling we will soon be seeing all kinds of things "made in the USA" that didn't used to be.  The reason... Robots and computers cost the same to run no matter what country they're in.  Even service sector jobs are going fully automated.  I haven't had but probably ten checkout experiences with a human cashier in last 6 months.  It's all been online or self checkout. 

[Jig Man]

A made in the USA company that produces quality is in Harrison AR.  It is called Ark Rods.

[garroyo130]

1 minute ago, jimmyjoe said:

 

   My idea of "value" includes the higher paid labor, and I'm just fine with that. I don't like a higher price with poorer quality though, and I doubt anyone else does, either.     jj

^ 

 

For all the talk about outsourcing and how it hurts the economy, I just don't see it. Its a bunch of jobs not many will want. The higher paying jobs for many companies never left the US and so in all likelihood those positions wont be created even if manufacturing is moved back to the states. 

 

A bigger issue to me is that avg CEO compensation is 361 times avg employee compensation and the fact that you can't afford to buy a house on even double the minimum wage in most parts of the country.

[jimmyjoe]

1 minute ago, garroyo130 said:

avg CEO compensation is 361 times avg employee compensation

 

   Yeah. I know. This isn't the place for that discussion, though.  jj

[flyfisher]

19 minutes ago, garroyo130 said:

 

A bigger issue to me is that avg CEO compensation is 361 times avg employee compensation and the fact that you can't afford to buy a house on even double the minimum wage in most parts of the country.

Not an issue to me at all.  They are responsible for a whole lot more than the low man on the totem pole and are not easily replaced.  You can replace people low in the pecking order pretty easily.  CEO searches take a long time and their decisions, depending on the size of the company, can impact thousands of employees and customers.  

 

[Tywithay]

27 minutes ago, garroyo130 said:

^ 

 

For all the talk about outsourcing and how it hurts the economy, I just don't see it. Its a bunch of jobs not many will want. The higher paying jobs for many companies never left the US and so in all likelihood those positions wont be created even if manufacturing is moved back to the states. 

 

A bigger issue to me is that avg CEO compensation is 361 times avg employee compensation and the fact that you can't afford to buy a house on even double the minimum wage in most parts of the country.

In reality, outsourcing some manufacturing jobs creates several new jobs for American import/export companies, customs agents, etc. I've worked in manufacturing for 20 years and have seen both the good and bad. 

[soflabasser]

It would be good to see more fishing gear made in the USA. The more fishing gear is produced in the USA the lower the cost can be. A lot of Americans would gladly buy made in the USA products if they sold for reasonable prices which can be done.

[FishTank]

There are rods made in the US > G. Loomis and St. Croix are probably the top two.  Reels now that's a different story. 

 

Working in manufacturing getting supplies from Japan and most other places has been pretty good.  China not so much.   With tariffs and customs issues it has been hard to get a good supply of electronics and certain types of steel products. 

 

Also, from what I heard from Shimano and Daiwa, they have been doing a good job of getting things here.  Shimano's North Carolina distribution center has supply but few workers to ship and receive.  Same can be said for Pure Fishing. When I called for a warranty claim they said in their case they are back logged on orders for 30-40 days and anything that is currently out of stock will be September or longer. 

[WRB]

The only conventional reels I know of made in America are Accurate, Avet and 2 Penn models Senator and International, all salt water reels. Spinning?

Rods, ALX, G.Loomis, Lamiglas, some St Croix and Kistler models. The mentioned companies rod blanks are made here and use Fuji or other brands of guides, reel seats, assembled here or off shore.

Tom

[NYWayfarer]

2 hours ago, Bankc said:

I've got a feeling we will soon be seeing all kinds of things "made in the USA" that didn't used to be.  The reason... Robots and computers cost the same to run no matter what country they're in.  Even service sector jobs are going fully automated.  I haven't had but probably ten checkout experiences with a human cashier in last 6 months.  It's all been online or self checkout. 

Very true. In the past we wanted our kids to be doctors and lawyers now we want them to manufacture?!?
 

My son has started an early college program for advanced manufacturing. Learning to code and repair robots. As a family we figured this was the future and a high demand skilled job. 

 

Life is like a game of chess. You have to think many moves ahead. Of course this Pandemic was a higher powers way of checkmating us all. 

[Efishin]

39 minutes ago, WRB said:

The only conventional reels I know of made in America are Accurate, Avet and 2 Penn models Senator and International, all salt water reels. Spinning?

Rods, ALX, G.Loomis, Lamiglas, some St Croix and Kistler models. The mentioned companies rod blanks are made here and use Fuji or other brands of guides, reel seats, assembled here or off shore.

Tom

Only some ALX are in the US. They source from other companies (some US, some overseas). They don't roll their own blanks.

[Tywithay]

11 minutes ago, Efishin said:

Only some ALX are in the US. They source from other companies (some US, some overseas). They don't roll their own blanks.

They roll their own blanks for the Zolo and Enox models at their sister company Hydra. The Ikos is the only model that uses blanks from overseas. 

[bwjay]

One reason I decided to try a Kistler rod (Helium3) was that they are made in the USA. The NFC blank is not only a great blank but it too is made in the USA. There are a lot of products out there that say "Designed in USA" or something to that effect, but are made in China. I was saddened to see that my Shimano Expride is not made in Japan, but China. It doesn't stop it from being a great rod, but I'm trying not to support China whenever given the choice. Unfortunately a lot of products come from there, some really good ones too. Economics are a B.

[Efishin]

12 minutes ago, Tywithay said:

They roll their own blanks for the Zolo and Enox models at their sister company Hydra. The Ikos is the only model that uses blanks from overseas. 

According to ALX, they don't roll any of there blanks at all. 

 

 

We do source our rod blanks from 5 different factories. This includes both US and overseas facilities. ArkRod in Harrison, AR has never been a supplier of ours. ArkRod is now closed and has produced rods for other brands in the past, notably Falcon. Anyone using ArkRod is looking for a new blank company. 

 

So why do we not roll our own blanks? Several reasons. One - capitol. You are looking at over a half $M investment in equipment alone. As many of you know, ALX is a family owned operation that has been bootstrapped over the past 10 years. We have never had investors nor taken out a single loan. This means we have zero debt and we can run the business the way we want. A second reason is the benefit I mentioned... we benefit immensely in being able to source products from factories that specialize or excel in what we want. Great example - our new ENOX blanks required a unique cello layup to achieve the finished product we wanted. That would have required a big investment in equipment if we did everything in house. That same line may not be so good at glass blanks. Well, we want to offer both.

 

[NYWayfarer]

2 hours ago, Jig Man said:

A made in the USA company that produces quality is in Harrison AR.  It is called Ark Rods.

Is this true? I would think they would plaster this all over their website. 
 

All of says is it’s owned by Louie Zhang and headquartered in Port St Lucie FL.

[soflabasser]

There are a couple companies that make very nice spinning reels in the USA. Would like to see more spinning reels made in the USA and sold for reasonable prices. For example entry level spinning reels could sell for $20-50, intermediate reels for $50-100, and high end reels for $100-300. 

[WRB]

Agree should have used a disclaimer "some" rods. The point is no bass reels and few bass rods are made in the USA and doubt fishing is priority for made in America product anytime soon.

Tom

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

I think Taipan rods are hundred percent USA made.

[Efishin]

5 minutes ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

I think Taipan rods are hundred percent USA made.

I believe so. Very interesting rods!