Why is New Zealand made good to you?

Firstly kiwi-made means a greater chance that kiwis prosper as a result. Whenever possible I buy locally made. (The downside of this is the more successful a business the more likely they'll move offshore). Then there's kiwi ingenuity. Designed and made by kiwis for our unique NZ conditions. Let's never lose this wonderful trait that has become world-renowned. Feedback on product design. A higher chance of seeing product development and advancement. National pride.

I'm not fixated on buying locally made at any cost, but sometimes I'll pay a little more if most things are equal. The main factor I consider with respect to it is the support. With brands like Cactus and Earth Sea Sky, it's actually possible to have a direct conversation with the people who make the stuff. I know at least one person who, when Macpac was still primarily a NZ company, phoned them up and got a customised pack with a different pocket configuration than any standard design. That's a type of relationship that I attach some value to, but it's next to non-existent with nearly all brands targeting mass production for global markets. With manufacturing shipped overseas and New Zealand now a considerably smaller part of the total target market, you'd be hard pressed to get Macpac to do anything similar today.

Yeah these days I like to buy what work for me. I like to buy New Zealand brands where I can, but I'm happy to buy quality offshore brands too. What is New Zealand made anyway. The materials and packaging are not made in New Zealand. All we are really supporting are a few machinists. Which is a very noble thing to do. That's food on the table for a dozen families. But that's pretty much where the buck stops. The people running the Internet sites, Marketers, business owners, distribution teams are all making a wage whether or not the product is physically made in New Zealand. It's hard because in New Zealand we are a little naive in regards to successful business. We are all so wrapped up in being totally independent, possibly because of our tyranny of distance we have learned to be and now take blind pride in. But no successful international business does this anywhere. It's just the nature of capitalism and it's basic tenement. We need to back brands like macpac and Kathmandu because they are New Zealand companies. But just as naively we forget that these businesses become very successful and sold to overseas investors and then we need to take another look at supporting our attempts at world domination. They are waving a New Zealand flag but slipping the profits into Australian or Asian pockets. There's a flip side to the whole kiwi ingenuity as well. Yes we have had our innovations in regards to developments of outdoors products. Made well for our conditions. But we can be blinded to this to and dismiss overseas made gear. This can at times be very naive and ignorant. These countries have just as proud outdoors cultures and conditions as rough and tough, sometimes much more so, than ours. There is a lot we can learn from them. You can see the way our local companies are going that this is the case. I have a lot of light weight modern gear developed or made overseas and it has more than stood up for years grovelling around the tararua. I love the idea of garage industry, as it really is supporting our own and relationships can be made to help support both business and consumer. But these are few and far between. So it's a tough question that has some simple answers. At the end of the day like a true capitalist I'm buying what works for me.

@Gaiters, tell us about your light weight modern gear developed or made overseas that's done well here. Sure would be interesting to know what brands they are cause I've had less than a good run with mine, eg; assembling, stitching, inferior fibres - I call them "one season wonders".

I just like quality. Period. However, there are some cases when prices become somewhat prohibitive. Case in point: Swazi. I LOVE that Davey insists Swazi is made in Levin! However, the price of some items means that for the same money I can buy multiple quality items elsewhere. I have several Swazi products, and I do really love them. But I am a low-paid tour guide. I simply can't afford a $1000 jacket. Just can't. I will support NZ made wherever it is practically possible. Oh, and thanks to Honora, I'll only buy NZ-grown-and-made wool products. :)

"But just as naively we forget that these businesses become very successful and sold to overseas investors and then we need to take another look at supporting our attempts at world domination." Where this is concerned, I wonder if there's also an issue where many New Zealanders with a bit of money don't tend to trust or go near the stock market. Instead, they buy property.

For the most part I agree with izogi, The main advantage of NZ made is local support, and to a lesser degree the ability to customize a product. Although I am sure there are cottage manufacturers overseas who are just as willing to offer customization. Economically as a country we are no better off by buying NZmade.. By importing, it means NZD go offshore, and that money has to return to NZ (it might go via half a dozen banks, but it returns to us eventually)... So our exporters benefit when we import. The net impact is no difference to the NZ economy.

Although not related to tramping, I have a Carbon Art windsurf board, which simply works better for NZ conditions (compared to a Starboard board I also own). If you have lots of quite benign space to exercise, that's what a lot of people will be doing. Here in NZ we don't have a lot of benign spaces, if you windsurf, it'll be in the Harbour or Ocean, not on a lake. So definitely a case where I would buy NZ made (and there's not much price difference). Same for tramping. From the TA trampers you get the feeling our average conditions are quite far on the extreme side of things for them if they have done overseas tramping. Even in the US you have the West coast/East coast differences, Philip Werner recently even asserted that companies on the West coasts simply couldn't make proper tents for the East coast as they simply didn't understand wet conditions. Local knowledge will always remain important, but where it's made was less an issue. But with computer driven manufacturing possibly a lot of manufacturing will return locally.

Try telling people from Washington and Oregon that they don't understand East Coast conditions. I may be wrong but I believe tarptent is a Seattle based tent manufacturer.