Okay, radelow’s comment about the shoes made me scratch my head.
I’m a pretty good at leatherworking; If I’m not drowning in mortgage payments, I may well quit engineering in a decade or two and make custom leather goods as a second career. I’ve made a half-dozen pairs of custom shoes, but it takes a lot of patient handwork and practice to make a high-quality shoe. It’s not easy, and I’m definitely not there yet.
I don’t see why an American or Italian shoemaker’s products are any better than a Chinese or Mexican’s. In fact, when the product I want is sold by both, I kinda want to support the Chinese shoemaker to improve his family’s standard of living.
