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Since you want to bring up Randoseru, consider that children and young people in the Nordic countries have continued using and loving Fjällräven Kånken backpack

Since you want to bring up Randoseru, consider that children and young people in the Nordic countries have continued using and loving Fjällräven Kånken backpacks even as production moved from Sweden to Asia, and it wasn’t the end of the world. The iconic design still comes originally from Scandinavia, and as long as quality doesn’t decline in the course of outsourcing production, then who the hell cares where it is put together? The chocolate analogy isn’t quite comparable here. In that example, the Swiss presumably aren’t setting up their own factories in the US and dictating the recipe. The USA and Switzerland have different food labeling laws and understandings of what chocolate is, so if the Swiss just imported just any US chocolate, then sure, it would jar with the traditional culture.

mc32 9y ago
Nestle is a Swiss company with choco factories in the US. If not, we can go with InBev AB. In addition, the arctic/ mountain fox brand is pretty new. It'd be like the north face shoppers not liking it since it moved prod abroad. Here we're talking about a national symbol as well as a sentimental item. Baseball gloves, Randoserus.
- et-al 9y ago
  Fjallraven is new to America, but old to Sweden--think of it as Swedish Jansport. But to your point, I don't think Americans have the same level of attachment to school bags as the Japanese do.
  - mc32 9y ago
    By new I meant post WWii. It hasn't had time to become iconic, I would argue. A north face also is not yet iconic. Maybe this is unfair, as most outdoor consumer products didn't come about till around the 60s and 70s... However baseball and children's iconic backpacks have generational nostalgia and have become very iconic. It's possible, I don't know, that the mountain fox itself had become ironic in Sweden in short period of time before production was shipped overseas.
    - et-al 9y ago
      Ah I see (and I don't have an answer). Is Jansport "iconic" or is it just "ubiquitous"? I'd say it's the latter. A better comparison might be Victorinox deciding too offshore Swiss Army knives to Korea or Thailand.
      - mc32 9y ago
        Yes, I think that's a good comparison. German Henckels would be another or British millerain. Jansport I think is more ubiquitous than iconic, but maybe that's just me.

mc32 9y ago

Nestle is a Swiss company with choco factories in the US. If not, we can go with InBev AB. In addition, the arctic/ mountain fox brand is pretty new. It'd be like the north face shoppers not liking it since it moved prod abroad. Here we're talking about a national symbol as well as a sentimental item. Baseball gloves, Randoserus.

et-al 9y ago
Fjallraven is new to America, but old to Sweden--think of it as Swedish Jansport. But to your point, I don't think Americans have the same level of attachment to school bags as the Japanese do.
- mc32 9y ago
  By new I meant post WWii. It hasn't had time to become iconic, I would argue. A north face also is not yet iconic. Maybe this is unfair, as most outdoor consumer products didn't come about till around the 60s and 70s... However baseball and children's iconic backpacks have generational nostalgia and have become very iconic. It's possible, I don't know, that the mountain fox itself had become ironic in Sweden in short period of time before production was shipped overseas.
  - et-al 9y ago
    Ah I see (and I don't have an answer). Is Jansport "iconic" or is it just "ubiquitous"? I'd say it's the latter. A better comparison might be Victorinox deciding too offshore Swiss Army knives to Korea or Thailand.
    - mc32 9y ago
      Yes, I think that's a good comparison. German Henckels would be another or British millerain. Jansport I think is more ubiquitous than iconic, but maybe that's just me.