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Does It Matter Where Your Treadmill or Home Gym was Manufactured?

By Robert Braun

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Published: 08Nov2009
Word count: 402
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A decade or more ago, the label "Made is the USA" was commonly seen. The suggestion was that buying a product with such a label not only gave you superior quality, but also supported American families. This slogan was often associated with unions that promised family wage jobs. However, in the past decade, the decline in manufacturing in the U.S. has steepened dramatically, as jobs have been exported to China and other lower wage countries. Does it still make sense to try to buy American-made exercise equipment? As they say these days, "Not so much."

Americans seem to have become accustomed to the idea that they can get good quality and save money by buying foreign-made products. Foreign car manufacturers have led the way in this change in attitude. Part of the reason for this shift is the realization that many large companies are truly multi-national. With Toyota and Nissan being made in America with American parts by American workers, it's tough to hold a grudge. Foreign exercise equipment manufacturers do virtually no manufacturing in the U.S., but at least one major American brand was recently bought by a Chinese company. This also makes it tough to determine just what country your equipment is "from."

Typically, exercise equipment sold by an American company has much of its manufacturing done in China. This is a different proposition that buying a Chinese company's products in the U.S. because the American company can have its products made in China to its U.S. specifications and standards. In this way, the company ensures at least as much quality as a U.S.-made product, but a substantially lower cost. Even some of the most expensive exercise equipment is now made in Asia.

It may still be a good idea to support American families by buying American, but you are unlikely to find any exercise equipment made purely in America. There may be foreign brands that are made overseas that are of inferior quality, but those are typically not name brands seen in stores and on popular websites. In any case, those foreign brands are not significantly less expensive than the recognized brands, since they share similar labor costs. What they don't offer is the same strongly-backed warranties that the U.S. companies do. In this way, any concerns about quality can be addressed by the warranty of the American company.

Robert Braun has been using, selling, and writing about treadmills and home gyms for decades. For more informationTreadmill-World.com.

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