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Lowepro Flipside 400 AW direct from China ?
Posted By: Prakticant, 04-01-2015, 02:59 AM

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I hope this is genuine Lowepro:
www.ebay.com/itm/221307872706
AU$53 + AU$12.30 shipping sounded reasonable, so I ordered one (they have also all-black version).
:



I like the Lowepro idea of back-side gear access, and I'm selling my newly arrived Canon Deluxe 200EG backpack finding Canon 200EG with its zippered-only front flap not secure enough for Pentax gear.
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04-16-2015, 06:03 AM   #16
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Yeah my Toploader Pro 75 also had too little raincover included, I did cut it's rubber band holder and dispose raincover and replace with normal plastic bag. I did check again and looks like shoulder strap hooks are metal indeed (did confuse with other 5$ only china bag) but shoulder strap is made from 2 parts and these parts are combined together with plastic ring.

04-17-2015, 06:15 AM   #17
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I'm always concerned about the material used in knock off products.....I have to wonder if some may give off fumes and gases that can royally screw up lens and sensitive electronics over time. Maybe overly cautious on my part....but you never know. I think back to the tragedy with what happened with the chinese made petfoods and it just makes me wonder.

al
04-17-2015, 05:22 PM   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by brewmaster15 Quote
I'm always concerned about the material used in knock off products.....I have to wonder if some may give off fumes and gases that can royally screw up lens and sensitive electronics over time. Maybe overly cautious on my part....but you never know. I think back to the tragedy with what happened with the chinese made petfoods and it just makes me wonder.

al
Effects on camera gear are certainly concern, and I'm also concerned about the health effects of the gasses let out from knock-off products. There's a very good chance these gasses that have a negative health impact. This is a problem with legitimate goods produced for the American market from major brands already:

Is that Smelly Plastic from China Toxic? - Heal Naturally

Campaign to Ban Chemical-Emitting Smelly Plastic from China

And by buying direct from China, and potentially knock-off goods, who knows what you're getting? Who tests it? For what? The actual manufacturer isn't necessarily going to get any negative repercussions from cutting corners that will only affect people's health years down the line in a way they won't necessarily attribute to the source.

Factor in how impacted our supply chain has already become for name-brand products by very similar looking, but inferior knock-offs:

On MicroSD Problems
04-17-2015, 10:25 PM   #19
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Why do you buy from China, and not from Poland (EU) then?
Is there only a greed?

-----
QuoteOriginally posted by nater Quote
Is that Smelly Plastic from China Toxic? - Heal Naturally
Campaign to Ban Chemical-Emitting Smelly Plastic from China
And by buying direct from China, and potentially knock-off goods, who knows what you're getting?


04-18-2015, 09:17 PM - 1 Like   #20
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QuoteOriginally posted by Prakticant Quote
Why do you buy from China, and not from Poland (EU) then?
Is there only a greed?
I'm not sure I quite understand the question... but here's a recap of what's happened in the US over the last century:

1. Most goods sold in the US used to be made here in the US. Also internationally, the US used to be dominant in some areas, like the textile industry in the 1800s and the tool and die industry up until the 1960s.
2. Mergers and acquisitions, trade agreements, cheaper labor overseas, improving technology overseas, and inexpensive international shipping all contributed to an erosion of domestically produced goods and the original companies and jobs that were responsible for them.
3. Goods sold in the US are mostly now typically made in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Mexico, and a few other places. Basically wherever labor is least expensive and a certain quality level can be achieved (as determined by the typically multi-national parent company).

In the US, certain shipping agreements have been made, such as "ePacket" for Chinese sellers selling goods on eBay to the US market, which gives them preferential shipping pricing and a direct link into the USPS from China:

USPS Gives eBay China Sellers Competitive Advantage

The economics of shipping goods from around the world cheaply rely on massive container ships which burn "bunker fuel", the lowest grade, bottom of the barrel petroleum left over from the refining process. Bunker fuel is solid at room temperature, so the container ships have additional means of heating the bunker fuel up so that it becomes liquid and can then be burned. Burning bunker fuel produces a lot of pollution, but since there are no environmental laws for international waters for the type of fuel burned, there are no legal repercussions, however at port cities where the container ships dock have very high rates of asthma, lung cancer, and other respiratory problems (that includes ports in the US).

There has been fostered a culture of apathy in the United States where the general populace has become complacent purchasing inexpensive goods at cheap prices, while domestic goods production has been moved overseas. There is a feedback loop in place where eliminating well-paying domestic jobs has eroded the middle class, incomes and buying ability of a significant portion of the US population has increased the appetite for cheap goods, which has accelerated the problem. It's unclear to me what the pain point will be when most people will be unhappy enough with the lack of a middle class and quality jobs for general unrest to occur.

And back to your question, the typical US consumer isn't paying a lot of attention to where goods are coming from, just how inexpensive they are. If Poland produced less expensive goods, US consumers would buy them, but a large portion of this situation is chicken-and-egg, where the pre-existing sheer volume of goods production in China and other places is already high enough to simplify production, agreements, assure shipping volumes and keep prices down (though the rising standard of living in China along with increasing domestic unrest at the levels of pollution there are making it more expensive to make goods in China, which has and will lead to goods production being moved elsewhere).
04-19-2015, 02:10 AM   #21
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I recently read a very interesting book by a US entrepreneur/agent in China, called ''Badly made in China'', and he uses the label 'quality fade' to describe the frequent Chinese tendency to inveigle overseas customers by creating perfect prototypes pre-contract, then slowly eroding product quality during the lengthy production runs. However, if you are very careful, you can find clone products that are good quality, but surprisingly they use different brand names! A good example is the messenger bag I bought recently it is a clone of a bag that was well reviewed here on PF, but cost me a third of the price. It may even be available in the US, the brand name is Jenova.

I also have two ripoff copies of Nat Geo camera bags with the brand name Mark Reacher. Both are well made.
04-19-2015, 05:32 AM   #22
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I purchased a Lowepro bag from that seller almost 2 years ago my bag is genuine.

If that is any help.

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