5. Some Say That Making a deck in China is no different than using Mexican Workers to build skateboards in America.

Of course many of my labor workers are Mexican. Mexican Americans make up a large percentage of the workforce in California, and are primarily the only workers applying for jobs that require lots of hard work. My workers pay taxes and I run a legitimate business. We check all employees numbers with Social Security Administration etc... to make sure they are legitimate to hire. The factory workers here are not paid under the table, and their taxes are withheld and employer matched like every non labor employee I have. Our workers are covered by workers comp insurance to protect them, unlike Chinese employees who'd just be sent back to live as an invalid in their village if they were injured. Our employees live locally and spend their money on gas, food, housing etc... right here where they live putting money right back into our economy. And unlike their Chinese counterparts, our employees are allowed to go home at night, and don't live in a dormitory like compound. They are paid overtime when they work more than 8 hours a day, and they usually work 5 days per week, with an occasional Saturday during busy seasons. Their work load, work conditions, and level of respect they are given cannot even be compared with China, so anyone trying to twist this is trying to divert the issues and trying to compare apples with oranges.
Of course, I am sure some do send some money to impoverished relatives in Mexico to assist their families. I think it's nice to see that someone cares about looking after their families and their community in this world today. I also personally spend lots of time assisting my community from skatepark activism, to community development issues, fundraising, helping the boy scouts, soccer teams, school projects, the PTA at my kids school, to the protection of American Skateboard Manufacturing etc... Do the skaters or wall street companies trying to kill American Skateboard Manufacturing give back to their community? I don't know, but they are diverting from the skate community, that's for sure, and paying pro skaters is not giving back to your community, it's just a sales tool, and don't let anyone try and kid you differently. These companies intentions can be questioned considering the fact that they have so little respect for the skaters they sell product to, that they'd sell them products made in China without even labeling them "Made in China" as required by Us Customs and Federal Trade Commission laws. Only recently, after we got all the American manufactuers together to begin formation of a group to combat this problem, did anyone begin labeling their boards "Made in China", and most doing it are still not labeling them. If they have no problem lying to their customers, and breaking laws, then how can they be trusted to have skateboarders best interest in mind. They have every right to make their decks in China if they want, but they should have the balls and ethics to follow the labeling laws and let the skaters decide if they want to pay the same price for something made in China that they can pay for something made in America, with legally paid American workers. The real thing they were trying to hide is the fact that the only one who benefited from getting Chinese boards is them, not the skaters they sold them to, or the shops that bought them, so I guess that's why they lied hoping no one will realize that, and hoping they could get away with all that extra profit for as long as possible. Good luck with that one. People are only stupid for a while, and then eventually they catch on.
All of my employees make at least minimum wage and many make much more than that. I've had guys working here for 8 years shaping skateboards and feeding their families. Trying to use this argument as a weak ass attempt at saying that buying skateboards from China is just the same as using legal Mexican American labor built here in the US is just pure crap. The workers in China contribute nothing to the California economy. That whole issue aside, we also have skaters in the factory and throughout the company as well, and some of the Mexican workers even skate--imagine that. My main drilling guy is a life long skater from Canada. My shop foreman Jon Jon is an ex pro skater who keeps the whole shop flowing, and keeps me on my toes when I am skating with him. I have several other skaters working in and overseeing the operation in sales, art, production, shipping, packaging, decal printing etc........ We have regular parking lot sessions and frequent trips to local skateparks. I go skate local skateparks at least 2-3 days per week myself. How about the wall street guys? Do you think they even skate, or is this just about money to them? We can and do test our own product continuously. You will never be able to say that about China, so these losers need to come up with a better argument. This one is pretty weak.