Can you trust the label?

Just because something is made from New Zealand Merino doesn't mean it's made in New Zealand. Icebreaker make all their clothing in China and whilst the US company Smartwool produces a lot of gear using New Zealand merino, but it's production is based in Fiji and China as well as the US.

Misleading?

Companies that use expensive advertising and New Zealand web addresses and domain names, are deliberately trying to give the image of being New Zealand-made when they're not. They push clean green New Zealand-made credentials when they don't have any!

Many people who have bought Icebreaker in recent years have felt exactly this when despite all the wonderful pictures of New Zealand that cover Icebreaker's advertising and their claims to be clean and green, they discover the "made in China" labels on the inside of their garments.

Whatever the means, the result is many people feel downright conned when they buy something with a Kiwi tag only to find out it's been made in China. So, if the company you're buying from won't tell you exactly (i.e. the physical address of the factory) where their gear is made, ask yourself what they're trying to hide.

To add to the confusion there are on-line shops based in New Zealand that have been deliberately set up to target the UK market and using UK domain names that sell Chinese-made Icebreaker clothing to the UK. How misleading is this? Not only that, but the carbon footprint of sending raw New Zealand merino fleece to China to be processed into clothing there, re-importing it back to New Zealand, and then sending it back across the world is hardly environmentally friendly.

"China's environmental mess will impact on entire planet"

Investigative journalist Barbara Burstyn says

Icebreaker is manufactured in a country that quashes all dissent, that controls information, that jails environmentalists, that hides their environmental mess, that is teetering on the very brink of catastrophe that will impact unimaginably on the entire planet. This is not the 'relationship with nature' that Icebreaker proclaims to be so proud of.

Check out our Eco-News page to read about the environmental problems being created in China by unregulated industries. Below is a pic sent to us showing Shanghai, the main textile center in China. Looks a lot different to the pics Icebreaker use in their advertising!

The fact is that China uses coal as its main source of generating electricity. Not only is this "dirty" power, China's coal mines are considered the most dangerous in the world. In contrast, The electricity sector in New Zealand uses mainly renewable energy sources such as hydropower, geothermal power and increasingly wind energy. The 70% share of renewable energy sources makes New Zealand one of the lowest carbon emitting countries in terms of electricity generation.

Chris in New Zealand, who sent us this link that shows China's pollution problems, says is this the criteria Jeremy Moon used for his "global search for world class technology and capacity"? I don't think so, and neither do the Kiwis who lost their jobs as a result. Moon shifted his production to China is because it's cheap.

Leading Brands manufacturing in China

Icebreaker may not be the only leading company to have outsourced their manufacturing from their original country of origin. According to the Hong Fan Merino Wool Company's catalogue, (Kunshan, China) their "brands under OEM" include a whole host of famous European names amongst which they list:

Ullfrotte Woolpower - Sweden Seeland Harkila Nordkapp - Norway Bear Grylls - UK Endura BaaBaa - UK Janus - Sweden

Stromberg - Norway Devold - Norway Norheim Afars - Norway McKinley Outdoor / Intersport International - Switzerland & Germany

The Chinese company Hong Fan Merino actually sent us their list and catalogue in the hope that we too would be interested. Thanks - but no thanks! However someone is being "economical with the truth". Is it Hong Fan, who are trying to claim responsibility for manufacturing leading brands when they don't? Or the companies who insist they do not manufacture in China?