K2/LINE.....made in China?

M

mountainviper

Active member
So sound off.....how much does this bother you?.....or not bother you for that matter?......let's send a message to these companies to the effect of either yay go china made or we aren't gonna buy your product anymore if you don't start making your product at home......what do you think?
 
Are you JUST finding this out now?

97% of the shit you buy is from China. It's cheaper. Welcome to economics.
 
then dont buy k2 or Line, if it really bothers you then get skis that you know are made in america
 
Yup just found it out!....why didn't you tell me earlier?.....and economics?....hmmm....so sending US jobs out of country while our economy is in disarray is economics huh?....thank you for that lesson.
Yes I've known this dumbass.....it's just became quite the hot issue as of late....and economics....I have an MBA....how bout you boy genius?
 
Have you ever seen revolver? The opening scene is at the u2 manufacturing factory in Seattle... Cores and supplies=china, assembly=America.
 
Have you not seen the factory in china?....do you not understand that when you put "made in china" on a product that means it was put together in china?....look at what's goin on with Gibson guitars....they get materials in India yet they can mark their products as "made in America" because they are constructed here.....yes k2 and line have presses here and do press the testers here....but what the general consumer buys....is made in china homie.
 
Jesus are you friggin kidding me?....nevermind....let it die....once again here we are debating what doesn't matter....look down at your lines....do they say "made in china" or "made in USA"?....are you special?
 
Prototyping for Line and K2 is done in seattle. That is what you see at the start of Revolver.

Production is done in China.

I've toured the Seattle location. They are not doing production there.
 
So now that that's settled....I'm curious to what everyone thinks about this....I love my lines....they're skis are amazing....but doesn't it bother anyone that they are a part of the problem here?
 
am i the only one that doesn't think this is necessarily a bad thing? outsourcing is a smart business decision, it makes things cheaper for us, and actually does provide a means of living for people in other countries (who cares if they aren't american? we are all people). plus, it helps businesses survive. if they made their skis here, they may not have as much money to sponsor skiers, hire different artists for each ski graphic, partially fund TC's adventures (a source of media we get for FREE btw, and would probably complain about if we had to pay $1.99 each episode). I don't think this is a case where line execs are abusing chinese workers while stuffing their pockets. In fact, I would guess they do business similar to how Saga does their business in China (and if you want to know more about that process, there are plenty of posts on their website about it.) I will admit that my knowledge of business and economics is currently fairly limited, but my mind isn't basic enough to say "Line is killing American jobs. We should boycott them till they decide to manufacture in America! That'll show 'em!" Great, now Line has to shut down and people lose jobs. Where is the logic in that?
 
"outsourcing is a smart business decision".....yes you are correct....it is smart....but is it ethical or the right thing to do?.....sure it helps the bottom line but do you know how many people in Seattle are currently unemployed who would love to press those skis?.....you do know that because of these "smart business decisions" china essentially owns this country through our debt.....did you see in the news how in china they opened faux apple stores based on the stolen tech from the apple factory there?.....do you think they don't have every single shred of R&D from line and K2 just sitting somewhere waiting....once K2 outlives it's usefulness the Chinese will simply make their own brand with all this stolen knowledge.....this is what's wrong with America.....everyone's too goddam stupid to realize that we are losing our fuckin country....for what?....a free vid...are you fuckin kiddin me kid?....their skis are the same price as everyone else's....shit I could make crappy five minute vids too for free.....pull your friggin heads outta your asses and wake the fuck up cause it's already too late....you younger folk are waaaay screwed....and your not gonna realize it till you've flunked out of mandatory mandarin class and are forced into manual labor......ugh....facepalm!
 
I really don't care about the economics of it all, but I would personally much rather support a local company putting out handmade skis built by passionate skiers for skiers. There may be skiing in China, but that doesn't mean the worker assembling your Line/K2 skis gives one shit about skiing or your own passion for the sport.
 
same with on3p, and the thing is these companies would probably not be able to survive if they had to pay workers in the u.s. minimum wage is much lower if not basically non existant?(dont take my word for it) in china. also no point in starting an internet debate because the amount of people who are going to see this/ change anything are so low that there is no possibility of making a difference.

and in my opinion i think it kind of sucks because of what your points are exactly, thats why i have begun to try and support the smaller companies such as moment and on3p, ill probably be picking up some of thier skis this year
 
I think the debate should include government policy. These facilities have to be created here. Many international governments finance and build the facilities. It's not like brands a choosing to ignore domestic production. The industry simply does not exist here and only government policy will stimulate it.
 
Your right about gov policy....they make it so that outsourcing is the only way to stay competitive....but that's become a big issue fairly recently whereas K2 has been doing this since 2001. But my point really wasn't to debate gov policy and I apologize for my rant last night. My main point I guess is that it really bothers me the these two companies are outsourcing when they're american companies...honestly if K2/line were Chinese companies selling skis here I would have zero issue ya know? And it's not just skiing. Atomlab makes all their shit in china too yet hails from Cali.....and before someone says it, I know it's like everything is made in china anymore. The biggest thing is that I doubt line would be doing this if not under K2.....just wanted to see if anyone even cared anymore and maybe someone at line would read this thread and say "ya know what? Yeah eff that we are building skis here now." fat chance huh?.....I'd love to be able to look down at my next set of lines and see "made in the USA" and be proud that the country that I've bled for is producing such a top notch product.....but no....I get to look down and see "made in china".....so now as much as I love my lines....I'm keepin an eye on companies like on3p for my next ski purchase.
 
before id worry about where your skis come from, i would worry about where your food comes from. for the most part every state has local farms, yet their fruit veggies and beef could come from as far away as south america. lots of garlic and other foods is processed in china.

i got a package of beef in colorado, that was product of USA, CANADA, and MEXICO. that means in 1 pound of beef, there were cows in it from 3 countries. i think thats more of an issue worth worrying about than if my skis are made in china where every other product is from.

so i guess im saying it doesn't matter to me that lines are made in china as long as quality control is there, which i think the quality of lines skis actually went up when production moved from usa to canada to china.
 
It's kind of a no brainer to me when I can buy Amserican made ski's from a host of manufacturers. All of witch are high quality, and competetively priced with china made skis.
 
Dude your oil isn't from america, I'd be a little more worried about that than a pair of skis...
 
you would think that with K2 - Line skis coming from China, they should be substantially cheaper than the competitors that are made in USA or Europe......but nope. Wonder why that is.
 
Tell me where I can buy local oil? There are just some things you cannot avoid. Kind of hard to have an indie gas company.
 
I am not from the US.

With that said, I don't care where my skis are made. I only care how well they are made. I have had three pairs of Line skis and they have all held up very well. I bet that Line skis would cost more if they were made in the US. Would people still buy them as much? Impossible to know.
 


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This is a great video from LINE about their R&D process and factory (shared with K2) ::

 
Yeah but this is a website about skis....not oil....I could tech two semesters of college level courses to encompass the whole "problem".....but let's stick with skis shall we?
 
I couldn't agree more! And who do we have to thank for this problem? A drunk driving, C- college student republican that basically screwed with clintons free trade act and basically made it cheaper for american companies to close up shop an move to china to make the welthiest 2% of america even richer by giving tax breaks to companies for going over seas. Does that make sens to anyone? It would make sense to a person of below average inteligence that calls themselves a republican but are considered to be in the poor percentage group of americans, how stupid do you have to be to not know the republican party only cares about themselves and making the rich richer?

And on a side note another thing that botheres me is that people think liberty skis are still made in colorado, not! "CHINA"? Won't see me on a pair of those. You will however find me on a pair of Rossignol skis, "NOT MADE IN CHINA" shreading the mountain.
 
Ok and then it went political....haha....first rule of politics brotha....once you pick a side, you lose.....but let's stick with the who actually cares thing....if we can make this thread big enough maybe at the very least some of these companies will at least think twice about their policies.
 
you mean this?

they make test models and stuff in america so they can get it the way they want it, but they dont have the capability of making enough. they send the refined and tested design to china to be mass produced
 
yes, thats why im buying bluehouse skis.

not that i dont like line or k2, its just that bluehouse is moving production to SLC and i feel better about myself soppourting a small company out of utah
 
Hmmm....I thought bluehouses were made in china too?....so they aren't?....cause they're pretty inexpensive huh?....interesting....don't know much about them.
 
yes, most are, but they are moving a lot of the production to SLC now. and they are a smaller company and i like to soppourt them
 
Just saw today that the new Volkl Shiro is made in China - which was a small shock since reportedly Volkl had all these problems with their Gotama made in the China factory. Also worth noting was that every other Volkl ski said made in Germany, including this years Gotama.
 
I see both Max's and your points, but you're being such an ass to him (and others in your thread). If you're holding your MBA over people's heads at least try and act like an adult.
 
don't support k2 or line, their mark up is fucking ridicules, have fun buying $100 skis for $600.

SUPPORT US MADE BRANDS
 
yeah, yeah, yeah. it's designed/developed in the us... good enough for me.... someone has to make money.
 
this precisely. Rather drop money on something I can actually justify and defend. Whether it be Armada with high quality in Austria or Moment in USA.
 
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