This was first posted as a link to a response for and ad we ran asking if anyone wanted to know who was making their skateboards in China. So, the context might seem a little out of place, but make more sense when you realize what this was originally written for.

So before you go getting all pissed off at us for luring you to this webpage to read about this stuff, just remember that all we did was lure you to a webpage. We didn't sell you something you thought was made in America, that we had made in China!! Those are the guys you should be pissed off at, and they are the reason this whole issue is coming to the surface.

So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to discuss with you our views on why shifting skateboard production to China does little if anything positive for skateboarders or skateboarding.

First, lets just talk about the arguments those selling China made decks have tried to use.

1.They say since the labor is cheaper, all the skateboards will be the same, just cost less.

Well, don't be fooled by this one. Skateboards made in the US are approximately 65-70% materials cost, and the balance being labor. Unless they swap out the expensive maple we use here and replace it with similar looking, but not quite similar performing Birch or Poplar, etc... , then factoring in the cost to ship the wood from it's North American origins to China, prep it, laminate it, cut it, finish it, etc.. and ship it back here, they really can't make a skateboard that's the same for much less money. What they can and most likely will do is start swapping woods like using China or Russian Maple which is much softer, or by using Birch or Poplar which looks similar but which are also much softer. Then no matter what they told you, you will not be getting the same quality product. It would just look the same. And, it wouldn't be made by skaters anyway--that's still a key issue. Support Skateboarders!!!

Did you ever get out of a car and hear the tin can sound as you closed the door, then got into another car and closed the door to a nice solid snug fit. Well, that's the difference. If you just look, you'll see two cars with metal doors, but one uses much better materials in it's finishing, therefore they don't perform the same. It is no different for skateboards. You can make it look the same, but without the proper materials and skateboarders involved hands on, it really won't perform the same. The best materials originate in North America, so why would we need to ship them to China and make them there?

The fact is China usually kills American Manufacturers price wise on items that are 75% or more labor cost. With minimum wage at something like .33 cents an hour in China, and many, many workers getting paid less than the legal minimum wage, you can see why this is possible in most cases. Clothing and shoes might be 20% materials cost, and 80% labor, making it nearly impossible to make them in the US, but skateboards are not the same labor wise, therefore the Chinese are not as competitive as they are in many of those other areas. You are just being fed hype by people who never built their own woodshops but want to take the profit away from American woodshops and put it in their own pocket without ever having to invest in or operate their own facilities here, or anywhere. The bottom line is the skateboards produced by factories like ours with skaters on the floor all day every day, will always be more in touch than factories thousands of miles away from the companies they produce for. Where do you want your money to go? That is an important question!

There are a lot of other factors like humidity, freight traveling on containers on the ocean for weeks, etc.. that also affect the quality of a skateboard, and the ability of the Chinese toy factories to truly match to look and feel and even more importantly the quality of an American Skateboard. We could also get into the fact that 80% of the worlds counterfit products are made in China. Will you be able to tell if that board you buy with the big brand name on it comes from the companies partner toy factory in China, or from the one they setup down the street to bootleg and copy the same products? I hope the guys who are bringing our industry to the counterfit capital of the world, will be proud of themselves when they see major skateboard brands showing up at swap meets and flea markets everywhere. That's another websearch you could do and get loads of results. Try tying China Conterfeit, or Chinese Knockoffs and see how long that list is. This is reality, not hype.

2.Some are claiming this will allow for Global Industry Growth.

Wow, what a crock of crap. Skateboarders start and stop skating based on infuences ranging from TV to watching other neighborhood kids etc..... I don't think the day will come when I'll hear someone say "hey, I think those China boards are $5.00 cheaper than those American ones, I think I am going to take up skateboarding now!". That will be the day. We already have multiple levels of pricing on American boards available in skateboarding, which really calls into question why you'd ever need to buy a board made somewhere other than where skateboarding was born and raised. While blanks have become big business, I don't think they've gotten too many new skaters into skateboarding, they've just diverted money from the big brands, and most of the demand for them was brought on by the big brands themselves. It is an interesting Irony.

A recent quote from a Transworld Skateboarding Business Magazine of a major China producing company executive was as follows: "When you get down to the labor issues, if we sell more boards, then we'll create jobs here (in the USA), it'll open a lot of doors"

What was he smoking? Well first, like I said before, a couple bucks cheaper isn't going to get new people to skate. Either these idiots are looking to sell skateboards to Wal-Mart and that's where their growth is going to come from, or they don't know the difference in labor between making and just shipping boards, and how that equates to actual jobs. But hey, since they never had their own woodshop, maybe they really don't know the difference, so we'll just point it out for you. Ok, so lets say there is between 500 and 1000 employees making skateboards here in America. Taking away all those jobs, and replacing them with people to ship those Chinese made boards from warehouses doesn't quite add up to the same number of people, so the argument is pretty much bogus. Ok, so lets look at a company that just puts boards in boxes and ships them out, which is pretty much what these Chinese skateboard suppliers are doing. How many people would they need to hire to replace those people who just lost their jobs. Well, the answer is none, because they are having a US woodshop build their boards for them now, and delivering them right to their door. Getting their boards made in China will not increase the number of skateboards they sell, though it may just shift some market share around for a while, but when all things level themselves out, these companies will end up shipping about the same number of decks they always did. This just means that they don't need to hire any extra workers, but shifting the production to China did cause all the workers in the skateboard factory in America to lose their job, but what do they care, it's not their factory. Hell, they don't have one, so who cares? The whole idea that this will increase jobs in the USA is an amazingly stupid and shallow deception.

How could anyone argue that this will grow the industry, and increase jobs in the USA. It will only take away jobs that once they are gone, will never be replaced. It's just taking money out of the hands of skaters and skater owned and operated factories and sending it to factory owners in a communist country where no American company can really own a factory.