It is all about the money. I would hazard a guess that 60%-75% or more of the "name brand" products you buy today are little more than licensing agreements. Just about all of your small home appliances and most of the branded clothing. Another venerable brand that I am familiar with is Coleman camping equipment. They got bought out IIRC by Home Brands. The Coleman liquid fuel stuff is still made in the US everything including the LP powered stuff is from China from several different manufacturers. They used to make only camping equipment with a few licensed products, now it is mostly licensed products with a bit of camping equipment and most of it is garbage. I have some early LP Coleman stuff that is twice as heavy as the stuff you buy in X-mart today. The liquid gas lanterns are still pretty much the same. I have lanterns from the '50s up thru around 2000. Another thing that has gone away with the licensing is the availability of repairs and repair parts.

Aaron