I am amazed at the number of recalls, especially in the toy sector, on products made in China.  I can’t think of a single toy company or large toy retailer that has not been crippled during this holiday season by these recalls.  Millions of toys have been removed from the shelves for consumer protection reasons.  In fact, this series of toy recalls seems so coordinated that I am left to ask……”Is this a coordinated effort to tarnish Chinese manufacturing by groups that oppose the transfer of jobs?”  “Did they just start using the suspect paint and materials this year?” A serious question for those of us in our industry is bound to be…..”Will an anti-China manufacturing bias affect the scuba diving industry?”

There is no doubt about it, China plays a gigantic role in the equipment used by scuba divers in the United States.  Some of the most popular regulators are made in Taiwan and mainland China, Chinese made buoyancy vests are becoming more and more popular, and several major, name-brand scuba companies have their primary manufacturing in China.  Is this good for scuba diving?  I think the simple answer is….YES!

Divers have been well served by Asian-made scuba diving equipment for many years.  If you take a look at the variety of accessories available to divers, like webbing pockets, knives, finger spools, dive bags, slates, and a variety of other items, we would be paying much higher prices without Chinese manufacturing.  Several of the most popular regulators used by the growing number of technical divers in the United States and Europe are made in China.  Several large, name-brand scuba companies use BC vests, harnesses, wing, and back plates made in China.  One of the most popular twin set isolation manifolds sold here in the US is made in China.  There is no doubt, China and the other emerging manufacturers in the far east play a gigantic role in our industry.  If there is an consumer backlash against Chinese and Asian scuba diving equipment looming in the future, we will be paying much higher prices for the stuff we use in our sport.  Without the economy of Asian manufacturing, much of the new product we see each year simply would not exist.

We should all ask ourselves a simple question; “Have we been well served by the Asian equipment we are currently using?”  “Are scuba divers threatened by Chinese and other Asian manufacturing?  Try, for a moment, to forget where we WISH the stuff was manufactured, because that ship has already sailed.  Forget, for a moment, how we feel politically about Asian manufacturing.  Think about what is best for us as diving consumers and what is best for our sport.  Already depressed by the high entry price into our sport, we can not expect good things if we lose the lowest cost scuba manufacturing capability in the world.

These are difficult questions for me as a scuba retailer and as an avid diver.  Chinese and other Asian-manufactured goods are simply a fact of my life.  Try, like me, to be reasonable about these considerations.

Phil Ellis

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