FTC Cuffs Down Shinola - Remove "Where America is Made"

The Federal Trade Commission has compelled Shinola to stop using the phrase "Where America is Made". 'Built in Detroit' remains okay.

"The corrective actions included transitioning away from Shinola's "Where American is Made" slogan and redesigning the back of Shinola watches to add the phrase "Swiss and Imported Parts" just below the existing slogan "Built in Detroit." The company also is editing its advertising claims and adding hang tags to its watches, bicycles and other product to alert consumers about the significant foreign-made content."
http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...buke/86044878/

Kudos to Shinola's amazing marketing plan that caught the Detroit cachet wave, pulled off the snob-appeal illusion and gets to sell everyday items for ridiculous prices.

Yet it turns out they are no different that our "Detroit" cars or coneys - final assembled items made from parts from everywhere.

What manufactured good made anywhere in the world is made fully of locally sourced parts, which in turn are produced from locally mined and harvested raw materials?

There's a very good chance that even T-shirts made in Bangladesh contain US grown cotton.

I actually think the term "assembled in" Detroit or America has as much marketing appeal as "made in" as it plays off the manufacturing heritage.

Saw this on Yahoo's main page. "Built in Detroit" is already completely gone from Shinola's website, replaced with "The first watches assembled at scale in the United States in decades."

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it. :cool:

You know they're working overtime to try and control this PR nightmare.

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Originally Posted by Lowell

...Yet it turns out they are no different that our "Detroit" cars or coneys - final assembled items made from parts from everywhere.

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I'm proud of things assembled in Detroit. I don't see the problem here, Lowell.

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Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

I'm proud of things assembled in Detroit. I don't see the problem here, Lowell.

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Don't get me wrong. I'm very happy to see things made here no matter what or from what. And I am enjoying that the owners want to use the name Detroit again instead of hiding from it.

So much for freedom of speech.

obama just gifted a shinola watch to a foreign dignitary

They'd like us to believe that there's no alternative to swimming in their sea of deception.

Where professional liars profit, honest citizens lose.

Wesley?

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Originally Posted by Király

What manufactured good made anywhere in the world is made fully of locally sourced parts, which in turn are produced from locally mined and harvested raw materials?

There's a very good chance that even T-shirts made in Bangladesh contain US grown cotton.

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Most cotton used in textiles is grown in the US or Egypt. Nearly all of it is spun into thread in India. From there it's assembled into shirts, towels, etc... in dozens of countries, including the US.

The phenomenon of producing T-shirts is so prevalent in the economic development of a country it's used as a benchmark by economists. The US used to be the offshoring destination of choice for Europe in the early-to-mid 1800s. Then it was South America, then Eastern Europe after the wars, then Japan, then Hong Kong, then Vietnam, then China, etc...

After a while your country gets better at producing things, wages go up, and it gets too expensive to produce T-shirts there, production moves on - now primarily to developing/recovering South American and South-East Asian countries.

The only way China has managed to keep prices down is through extreme currency manipulation, which is now coming around to bite them, as it nearly always does [[see Japan in the 90's for an example.)

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Originally Posted by Casual

obama just gifted a shinola watch to a foreign dignitary

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That does it, I've GOT to have one!

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Originally Posted by Casual

obama just gifted a shinola watch to a foreign dignitary

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From Switzerland, perhaps?

And they just hired former Lion exec, Tom Lewand as CEO. Wonder how he pulled that off?

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Originally Posted by Casual

obama just gifted a shinola watch to a foreign dignitary

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Obama gives Shinola watch to British prime minister

David Cameron

hopefully the company will expand, preferably locally.

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Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

I'm proud of things assembled in Detroit. I don't see the problem here, Lowell.

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I think the problem is the difference in assembled and manufactured,we used to be a nation of builders and now we have become a nation of low payed assemblers for the countries that we once considered less advanced.

We are becoming the India,China,and the Japan of the past and they will soon be looking to us to provide those low cost goods as they climb to a place where we were at one time in the past.

Maybe just me but I see that as a huge problem.

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Originally Posted by Richard

Maybe just me but I see that as a huge problem.

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Everyone needs to start working for $5 a day, problem solved.

These 14 cars are the most 'made in America' — and one of them is actually Japanese

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And for the fourth consecutive year, General Motors brands maintain the lion's share of the top spots, including three cars that tied for number one and 17 other GM vehicles in the top ten [[there were many ties).

The study factored in to its rankings several elements like where the company is headquartered [[and therefore where the profits wind up), the source of major components like engines and transmissions, and the location of final assembly....

5. Honda Accord — 81.00
4. [[tie) Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban — 82.50
4. [[tie) Buick LaCrosse — 82.50
4. [[tie) Cadillac Escalade — 82.50
4. [[tie) GMC Yukon — 82.50
4. [[tie) Chevrolet Malibu LTD — 82.50
4. [[tie) Chevrolet Malibu E2 Gen — 82.50
4. [[tie) Chevrolet Impala — 82.50
4. [[tie) Chevrolet Equinox — 82.50
3. [[tie) Chevrolet Corvette — 83.00
2. Ford F-150 — 85.00
1. [[tie) GMC Acadia —90.00
1. [[tie) Chevrolet Traverse — 90.00
1. [[tie) Buick Enclave — 90.00

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Originally Posted by Jimaz

These 14 cars are the most 'made in America' — and one of them is actually Japanese

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Kinda nice to see that 7 of the 14 were made in Michigan [[3-Detroit; 1-Dearborn; 3-Lansing).