The discussion about this topic is in full swing. And the opinions are, and this is a matter of common knowledge, divided. We have a well-defined position.

“Made in …” does have a future, but we need to express ourselves a bit more differentiated in the future. Given the facts that in the First World (= the Western industrial nations) thousands of jobs are moved daily to low wage countries, a display of where a product was manufactured becomes essential in the sense of a truthful relationship to the consumer.

If someone does not say or does not want to say that they are producing in the Ukraine, in China, Romania or Vietnam, it is being assumed that they are undermining their own quality assurances. In principle this is absurd, because the countries named above and many other produce nowadays quality which can bear the comparison with the quality produced in First World countries. In China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, just to name a few countries in Asia where they are producing shoes carrying sought-after brand names of the Luxury segment, which are selling better than their counterparts from the European production.

Whoever realizes their ideas of a cost/performance ratio which is doing justice to the quality of a product and who accounts for this product, who owns a brand which is positioned on a foundation of the 7-elements (origin, history, profile, positioning, image, awareness, and protection) often mentioned by us, can admit free from care, where they are producing their products. It is anyway only a question of time, until Luxury and Premium brands of Chinese and other provenance stand alongside those of France or Italy or until owners of Western brands move their place of business to low wage countries.

We have to rethink. And this also is important to us: We have to think a bit more differentiated. “Made in …” originated in times long ago. In the past, invention, development and production were combined in the term “Made in …”. In today’s world of division of labor, the invention could lie within the scope of the American aerospace program, the development could take place in Europe and the production in an Asian country. The knowledge society knows this and finds it rather normal. This is why we could express this in the process of communication by saying: “Developed in …”, “Designed in …”, “Engineered in …”.

The automotive industry is already showing us that, for instance, “Engineered and designed in Germany and produced in USA” could be a superb combination. BMW and Mercedes are proof of that.