The Official RRL Thread

[DJ Quaaludes]

I've seen 0livewh0's postings before and I too thought they were suspicious. What is really odd to me is some of the items look pretty much legit, others semi-legit, and the remainder completely off. They also don't seem to follow the 'usual' tell-tale signs of counterfeiters whereby they have numerous listings of a highly coveted item in a full size run.

It's almost as if they have a hookup with someone within one of the Chinese RL factories who provides them samples, materials and over-runs that they cobble together 'after hours'.

 

[justsayno]

There are many Chinese factories / workshops that can produce at or above RRL quality. Their problem is the stigma of made in China.

 

[alex99]

Are many items from FW 20 made in China? Everything I have seen lately is actually made in the Philippines. Except for a few made in USA pieces that seem to feature each season. How much is now made in China? I just checked 4 shirts and 2 tees, and only 1 shirt from 2 years ago was MIC.

 

[gnatty8]

I've seen 0livewh0's postings before and I too thought they were suspicious. What is really odd to me is some of the items look pretty much legit, others semi-legit, and the remainder completely off. They also don't seem to follow the 'usual' tell-tale signs of counterfeiters whereby they have numerous listings of a highly coveted item in a full size run.

It's almost as if they have a hookup with someone within one of the Chinese RL factories who provides them samples, materials and over-runs that they cobble together 'after hours'.

See, if things were sold as such (i.e. samples, over-runs) that would be less of an issue with me personally, although I'd still feel that I was participating in stealing intellectual property, since those designs ain't gonna design themselves. The MIC garments I have from RRL are top notch, very well made, and I'd put them up against any of my earlier RRL items that were MIA. I do obviously have a problem with sellers passing these off as RRL, and even if they didn't, not sure I'd feel great about participating in stealing intellectual property even if there was a price advantage and sellers were upfront about provenance.

 

[clee1982]

I sort of remember reading that both RL (across all RL) and JCrew use the same factory (but made to whatever buyer specific standard/fabric choice), and when I say factory I really mean the holding company that’s based in HK with factories all over China and South East Asia.

So maybe they deal with same company but the company itself has shuffle some of the production elsewhere due to cost etc (wage in China has been going up for years)

 

[Mariokartfever]

There are many Chinese factories / workshops that can produce at or above RRL quality. Their problem is the stigma of made in China.

IIRC RRL is made almost entirely in China. China has some of the best end-to-end clothing manufacturing in the world (raw materials go in, finished product comes out) which is very rare apparently.

Still gotta deal with knockoffs, although that game is increasingly moving to Vietnam and Bangladesh.

 

[zippyh]

So strategy now is to buy stuff from him, complain it’s fake, get refund and keep item. /s

 

[urbanwoodsman]

The problem with clothing made in China (and throughout India, Bangladesh, and much of Southeast Asia) isn't the quality of what's being produced but the exploitation of the work force and the casual, sometimes callous, indifference to labor laws (i.e., violation of human rights).

 

[clee1982]

the whole xiangjiang cotton thing is a different animal, but if you go to factory in coastal china I doubt you will find the kind abuse you think there is, wage in china has been going up quite a lot, low end production (read garments) have problem hiring for a while now (no one wants to work in factory as china move up in value chain, no surprise there, same path as the other asian tiger took in the past). I would not put factory in China in the same category as the rest of the countries you mention.

edit: they also have been adding factories to inland (similar to how US corporate setup production in the south in the 60s because it's cheaper there), the inland ones I have no idea, but coastal ones is more likely than not to be the state of the art (same with the newer inland ones).

 

[jhcam8]

IIRC RRL is made almost entirely in China. China has some of the best end-to-end clothing manufacturing in the world (raw materials go in, finished product comes out) which is very rare apparently.

Still gotta deal with knockoffs, although that game is increasingly moving to Vietnam and Bangladesh.

The leather with shearling collar is made in India.

 

[shryver]

Off the top of my head, a lot of my RRL is MIC overall but I do recall a lot of India (especially in the workshirts) and Philippines (especially in the t-shirts)

 

[zippyh]

The leather with shearling collar is made in India.

Same with current indigo suede and double rider leather jackets.

 

[jhcam8]

Same with current indigo suede and double rider leather jackets.

And this year's brown suede chore coat.

 

[jhcam8]

Mr P has this Belstaff for 70% off in size 52. I was going to get it but my size sold out. Similar to the RRL grizzly, but less $ (of course).

 

[keepondigging]

India has become a powerhouse in the leather industry in the last decade or so. Makes sense they would take production there. Definitely think most RRL should still be made in the USA on principle though. Designing clothes that are love letters to Americana and then having most of it made in China irks me, even if the product is still satisfactory.

I'm sure there is some sort of political allegory pertaining to the inauguration of 'beijing biden' that I could shoehorn into this post, but I'll leave it for now.