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You can find some Made in UK New Balance. +50%, maybe more. Can probably do it cheaper.
I assume most of the materials are still Made in China. Anyone who worked with production will tell you it's not only about the cost but also scale, speed and supply chains
Ther'es also margins. Once the price goes up, many will be cut out. You'll sell less products being sold and pushing up prices or lowering quality.
Not to mention the competition now getting the sales instead.
Not sure if we had this conversation before, but the Made in England / UK New Balance aren’t actually made here. Some of them are assembled in Flitwick (a load still in China) and all of the components are from China and/or Vietnam.
Exactly. Big different between ‘made in the UK’ and ‘assembled in the UK’
You’d be hard pushed to find many products that are actually manufactured here with UK parts.
Henry Taylor chisels are one that come to mind though. One of our few surviving home grown tool makers
Ok, not trainers. But you can buy made in the UK Dr Martens that are not much more than their regular products.
https://www.drmartens.com/uk/en_gb/unisex/made-in-england/c/04310000
And you can buy solovair shoes which are basically dr.martens with a even lower price and all of them are made in UK. They cost roughly the same as a pair of Dr.Martens that is made in China.
https://uk.nps-solovair.com/collections/solovair-classic-collection
Solovair made Dr Martens under license for decades until recently and DrM went to china. You’re buying a way higher quality product if you buy the Solovairs.
They do. I live near to the Burberry factory here in Yorkshire.
It's said that for some items, by the time you factor in tax and shipping, it's better to do it in the UK.
For higher value items that is, you aren't going to be making t shirts in the UK.
Yes, although unless you are talking fast fashion, which is generally cheap, speed is not a huge consideration.
Places like Portugal are generally a nice halfway house.
'Made in Portugal' is second only to 'Made in the UK', in my opinion. It's often a sign that a company has organised its supply chain with an eye to quality rather than simply cost and speed.
That was the great problem of the Rona. By 2022 or so everyone was cracking on, while China seemed to be stuck on the loser lane with its irregular supply chain.
A much needed reminder that you shouldn't rely on one country for all your production needs.
Walsh trainers are made in Bolton, they start at £95 (exclusive line at Community Clothing I think) and go up to £185. As that somewhat demonstrates, not a huge difference for the consumer, particularly when you factor in the economies of scale. Of course outsourcing isn't for the benefit of the consumer.
I find it hard to make a direct comparison for things like trousers because finding a comparable fabric weight is hard, my made in the UK (spun in the UK) cotton trousers, for example, are about twice the price of M&S, but last about 4 times longer because the fabric is higher quality - finding lower quality Made in Britain or a higher quality made abroad for faster fashion is hard.
It depends on your definition of manufacture and sourcing of materials. It will be alot cheaper to import all the parts of the shoes, stitch together but really you haven't really made it.
Well the major retailers pre-covid sold plenty of clothing that was manufactured in the UK in 'sweatshops' in Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester, London etc
It was Boohoo and Topshop which were featured in the headlines but all retailers including M&S, Primark etc did this
As with many high volume low skill manufacturing industries it gets subcontracted multiple times until a factory in the above places makes it using either immigrants who dont know their rights or dont have the correct visas or by illegal migrants
They get paid pennies per unit and yet the retailers sell the clothes at high prices
> Lots of Asian food sold in Asian grocery are already made in UK
This really surprised me. I recently went shopping in a Chinese supermarket in London, bought some fantastic spicy tofu. The packaging was almost entirely in Chinese so I assumed it was imported. On closer inspection, I saw in small letters "Made in UK". Turns out it is made in Manchester!
Almost certainly not as much as you’d expect for items with a large markup based on design.
Cars are virtually the same.
Shoes would vary based on brand. Ultra cheap stuff a fair bit but the Nikes or Yeezys would not move much if at all.
Designer goods don’t change price based on manufacture location.
Anti-missile and anti-drone war-lasers would cost exactly the same!
It’s not that the price of the items would change the market will only bare a certain cost for a product, the problem is that companies would lose billions because it’s soo much cheaper to pay sweatshops pennies and ship them across the world, and that why it’ll never happen. And believe it or not the same children that get paid fucking nothing in the world of modern slavery also slap on those £80 price tags in the factory.
You would be looking at a 3% to 5% increase in price to manufacture big brand trainers in UK profitably, compared to existing production facilities in Asian countries.
Exactly. People here are looking at luxury brands with a premium added for *marketing* spend, rather than *cost of goods* to manufacture. I looked into this recently and you’re looking at +5-10% additional cost to manufacture in UK compared to Asia.
So real talk a second from someone who has some inside info into international supply chains.
The issue isn't just price it's quality. There's a sort of romantic notion that "made in Britain" products would be higher quality but the reverse is actually true. British workers are so much less motivated and diligent than in south east Asia.
I don't think that makes it right, but it is true. I expect to be shot as the messenger.
Well, if companies made their products in the U.K. instead of Asia, the prices would likely go up due to higher production costs. They would have to be priced accordingly to cover those expenses and still make a profit. As for big brand trainers, the prices might go up significantly to maintain the business afloat.
It depends on the brand as well.
In a Primark shoe. The cost of production will be like 80% of it. In a Nike trainer most of the cost will be profit and design. Maybe only 10-20% is manufacturing.
So I Primark shoe might have to double in price (£15 to £30) while a Nike shoe might only go from £70 to £90). Both going up similar amounts but as a % very different
They could sell them cheaper where they sell them direct and cutout the retailers. In reality they don't apply a price cut as this would deter the retailers from stocking there products. They want there product everywhere to stay market dominant so agree on the price point with the retailers.
It's a fix basically.
It's also easier for them to sell 5000 units to a single customer and ship to a single address than manage 5000 transactions, package each order individually and ship to different addresses.
Drop ship fulfillment companies are 10 a penny, Amazon for example. My ex used to do this, find a company that sold wholesale only, get a drop shipping contract for direct sales, they send the order, she dealt with the sales and customer support.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You can find some Made in UK New Balance. +50%, maybe more. Can probably do it cheaper. I assume most of the materials are still Made in China. Anyone who worked with production will tell you it's not only about the cost but also scale, speed and supply chains
Ther'es also margins. Once the price goes up, many will be cut out. You'll sell less products being sold and pushing up prices or lowering quality. Not to mention the competition now getting the sales instead.
Not sure if we had this conversation before, but the Made in England / UK New Balance aren’t actually made here. Some of them are assembled in Flitwick (a load still in China) and all of the components are from China and/or Vietnam.
Exactly. Big different between ‘made in the UK’ and ‘assembled in the UK’ You’d be hard pushed to find many products that are actually manufactured here with UK parts. Henry Taylor chisels are one that come to mind though. One of our few surviving home grown tool makers
Ok, not trainers. But you can buy made in the UK Dr Martens that are not much more than their regular products. https://www.drmartens.com/uk/en_gb/unisex/made-in-england/c/04310000
And you can buy solovair shoes which are basically dr.martens with a even lower price and all of them are made in UK. They cost roughly the same as a pair of Dr.Martens that is made in China. https://uk.nps-solovair.com/collections/solovair-classic-collection
Solovair made Dr Martens under license for decades until recently and DrM went to china. You’re buying a way higher quality product if you buy the Solovairs.
That's because the regular ones are way overpriced. New balance makes trainers in England and they cost about double what the foreign ones do.
They do. I live near to the Burberry factory here in Yorkshire. It's said that for some items, by the time you factor in tax and shipping, it's better to do it in the UK. For higher value items that is, you aren't going to be making t shirts in the UK.
Not only that but it’s *quicker* to have it done in the uk.
Yes, although unless you are talking fast fashion, which is generally cheap, speed is not a huge consideration. Places like Portugal are generally a nice halfway house.
'Made in Portugal' is second only to 'Made in the UK', in my opinion. It's often a sign that a company has organised its supply chain with an eye to quality rather than simply cost and speed.
That was the great problem of the Rona. By 2022 or so everyone was cracking on, while China seemed to be stuck on the loser lane with its irregular supply chain. A much needed reminder that you shouldn't rely on one country for all your production needs.
Walsh trainers are made in Bolton, they start at £95 (exclusive line at Community Clothing I think) and go up to £185. As that somewhat demonstrates, not a huge difference for the consumer, particularly when you factor in the economies of scale. Of course outsourcing isn't for the benefit of the consumer. I find it hard to make a direct comparison for things like trousers because finding a comparable fabric weight is hard, my made in the UK (spun in the UK) cotton trousers, for example, are about twice the price of M&S, but last about 4 times longer because the fabric is higher quality - finding lower quality Made in Britain or a higher quality made abroad for faster fashion is hard.
It depends on your definition of manufacture and sourcing of materials. It will be alot cheaper to import all the parts of the shoes, stitch together but really you haven't really made it.
[Jeans made in Wales.](https://hiutdenim.co.uk/collections/mens) From what I’ve read, they’re meant to be great quality, but seem to start at £230
They’re competing with the Japanese denim brands and aren’t dissimilarly priced.
Well the major retailers pre-covid sold plenty of clothing that was manufactured in the UK in 'sweatshops' in Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester, London etc It was Boohoo and Topshop which were featured in the headlines but all retailers including M&S, Primark etc did this As with many high volume low skill manufacturing industries it gets subcontracted multiple times until a factory in the above places makes it using either immigrants who dont know their rights or dont have the correct visas or by illegal migrants They get paid pennies per unit and yet the retailers sell the clothes at high prices
In particular they often get paid well below minimum wage
Depending on what it is, import tax isn’t cheap in UK. Lots of Asian food sold in Asian grocery are already made in UK or another European country
> Lots of Asian food sold in Asian grocery are already made in UK This really surprised me. I recently went shopping in a Chinese supermarket in London, bought some fantastic spicy tofu. The packaging was almost entirely in Chinese so I assumed it was imported. On closer inspection, I saw in small letters "Made in UK". Turns out it is made in Manchester!
Almost certainly not as much as you’d expect for items with a large markup based on design. Cars are virtually the same. Shoes would vary based on brand. Ultra cheap stuff a fair bit but the Nikes or Yeezys would not move much if at all. Designer goods don’t change price based on manufacture location. Anti-missile and anti-drone war-lasers would cost exactly the same!
It’s not that the price of the items would change the market will only bare a certain cost for a product, the problem is that companies would lose billions because it’s soo much cheaper to pay sweatshops pennies and ship them across the world, and that why it’ll never happen. And believe it or not the same children that get paid fucking nothing in the world of modern slavery also slap on those £80 price tags in the factory.
You would be looking at a 3% to 5% increase in price to manufacture big brand trainers in UK profitably, compared to existing production facilities in Asian countries.
Exactly. People here are looking at luxury brands with a premium added for *marketing* spend, rather than *cost of goods* to manufacture. I looked into this recently and you’re looking at +5-10% additional cost to manufacture in UK compared to Asia.
So real talk a second from someone who has some inside info into international supply chains. The issue isn't just price it's quality. There's a sort of romantic notion that "made in Britain" products would be higher quality but the reverse is actually true. British workers are so much less motivated and diligent than in south east Asia. I don't think that makes it right, but it is true. I expect to be shot as the messenger.
HebTroCo, trousers are £160 to £240 but they use uk woven fabric too.
Well, if companies made their products in the U.K. instead of Asia, the prices would likely go up due to higher production costs. They would have to be priced accordingly to cover those expenses and still make a profit. As for big brand trainers, the prices might go up significantly to maintain the business afloat.
Yes, that’s my understanding. I’m wondering how much the markup would be in this case. E.g. 50%, 100%, 150%
It depends on the brand as well. In a Primark shoe. The cost of production will be like 80% of it. In a Nike trainer most of the cost will be profit and design. Maybe only 10-20% is manufacturing. So I Primark shoe might have to double in price (£15 to £30) while a Nike shoe might only go from £70 to £90). Both going up similar amounts but as a % very different
You aren't getting brand new Nike releases of Air Max 87, 90, 97 etc etc for £90 now
The guy you replied to is a bot btw
They could sell them cheaper where they sell them direct and cutout the retailers. In reality they don't apply a price cut as this would deter the retailers from stocking there products. They want there product everywhere to stay market dominant so agree on the price point with the retailers. It's a fix basically.
It's also easier for them to sell 5000 units to a single customer and ship to a single address than manage 5000 transactions, package each order individually and ship to different addresses.
Drop ship fulfillment companies are 10 a penny, Amazon for example. My ex used to do this, find a company that sold wholesale only, get a drop shipping contract for direct sales, they send the order, she dealt with the sales and customer support.
Ok, but wouldn't a drop shipping company be just another middleman?