Friday, June 15, 2007

Made in China?!

The most horrible thing has happened, my Betula Birkenstocks are made in china! I ordered the cutest pair of Betula Birkenstocks the other day. I have been anxiously awaiting their arrival. My feet could not wait to wear these hippy cute things. The finally arrived to day! I excitedly pulled them out of the box, put them on my feet, wore them around the house, and then decided I better check them for damage before I headed outside to show these babies off! Much to my dismay they had a stamp on the inside leather strap "made in china". Not cool! My first thought was I had been taken for a ride and the vendor had given me a pair of knock off's for a not so knocked off price. I decided to search google before I contacted the vendor. I'm glad I did. It turns out my beautiful Betula "Birkenstocks" are LICENSED by Birkenstock and thus they are not made in Germany, like a regular Birk. Further research yielded that the Eurowellness line of shoes by (or licensed by) Birkenstock are also made in China! It is very puzzling to me that a shoe company that is synonymous with hippy foot wear would do something so unhippy, like support a shoe line made in China. One thing I have learned from this ordeal is that when buying online, from the TV, or a catalog I am going to have to check ahead and see where the item is made.

If you would like more info on why not to buy made in China products go to:
http://www.boycottmadeinchina.org/


P.S. Very trivial update: I have found a small portion of my summer clothes!!! I'm not sure if the little clothing sprites decided to throw me a bone here or what, but I am not complaining. Now if they would just give me back my 2 other containers of clothes....... ;)

4 comments:

mz said...

I'm so glad you found your clothes! YAY!
and i'm totally shocked about the birks... i would write a letter complaining about how you don't think that is consistant with them as a brand. Man that stinks. I had to buy pool toys the other day and was only able to find one plastic boat that wasn't made in china. it's hard work! But worth it.

mz said...

sorry that was mommy zabs. i'm logged in funny right now.

Happy Hippie said...

Thanks for your suggestion, I am going to take it!

Domenico said...

Hi, I'm from Italy (and I'm hippy inside like you ;-)...few days ago I discover I search a pair of favourite shoes (I'm birkenstock-lover) and I found this Betulla by B. and I can't explain why they have the same model and they cost -30%: now I have an explanation!Thank you!