Originally Posted by
CraigB
You're right, and given the knowledge and opportunity, I tend to avoid those products and companies when I can.
I get it, and I respect that. Unfortunately it's not always easy to know. Take the beer market as an example. The biggest U.S. brewers (AB, Miller, and Coors) are no longer U.S. owned (InBev, SABMiller, Molson Coors). That means that dozens of brands of beer that most people assume are "american" are really owned by foreign interests. That's just one example of how consumers are challenged in knowing who owns/makes/markets what.
And then take Sam Adams for instance....an american beer for sure. But...do they brew much beer themselves? No, they contract that work out to others. SA is a marketing company first. BD is a marketing company, not a bike maker or designer.
The brand names that BD sells mean very little to the general public, and probably very little to avid cyclists under a certain age. I'm 45, and I have no recognition of many of their brand names.