Six countries, one thread: where each market fits
China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Mexico. What each country is actually for in an outdoor and hardgoods supply chain, and why the footprint is a list of relationships rather than a list of capabilities.
Every few years a new tariff cycle sends the same question across my desk: where else can we make this? The honest answer starts with what each country is actually for. Capability lists say everyone can make everything. Relationships say otherwise.
China, since 1989
Dozens of factory relationships across the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze, and the inland regions. This is the thread that runs through everything else. Much of the technical know-how in the other five countries was trained, tooled, or financed from here first. Diversifying away from China concentration is a real project. Leaving China altogether is usually a different and worse one.
Vietnam
The first serious diversification market, and the one where direct mill access for technical fabrics matters most. Vietnam works when you go upstream. The factory decision is only half the answer. The mill decision is the other half, and it is the one most brands leave to an agent.
Taiwan
Hardware, technical components, and the precision engineering tier. Small-batch and dependable. When a buckle, a pole section, or a moulded part has to be right the first time, this is where I look first.
Korea
Premium technical fabrics, finishing, and the work that justifies a higher landed cost. Korea is not where you go to be cheap. It is where you go when the fabric is the product.
Thailand
Stable, long-running production for technical sport and lifestyle. Quietly reliable. The factories that have been making the same category for twenty years tend to still be making it well.
Mexico
Near-shoring, when the math demands it. Lead-time-critical programmes for North American brands. The landed cost has to be run honestly, with the duty, the freight, and the weeks of inventory you no longer carry all on the same page.
The thread
The footprint is not a list of capabilities. It is a list of relationships, built one factory at a time, mostly in person, over a long enough period that every new tariff cycle is a familiar one.
Most of what I do is one of three things: diligence, diversification, or fixing a product programme that stalled. Diversification is where the footprint earns its keep, because the plan is only as good as the factory that answers the phone.