News flash

China has been doing our manufacturing for at least the past forty years.
I’m just speaking in general.

strike king is made in san jose costa rica. been by their factory a few times.

Search crank bait blanks on Alibaba, search reels, search just about anything fishing related, tungsten etc. You will find some things that look very similar to what you are using, just waiting for labels packaging, branding etc. Dont be naive about the way things work.

He11 , I have 3 boys and 2 of them were made in Spain.

Yup.

Im not gonna name the brands....theyre small anyway and you all dont likely know about them....but ive seen 2 companies that im almost 100% positive are selling those chinese KO blanks on tacklewarehouse and landbigfish. Ive always thought the fishing industry was like nascar and about marketing....now that ive started painting my own cranks and doing that little research on that "building/business" side of things.....man are us fishermen suckers and the profit margins have to be huge for a lot of these companies 🤷‍♂️

Its sad....we really cant get away from China! Even if you are wealthy and dont care about paying a premium for USA made.....everything just seems to trace back to China. I hate how dependent we are on those bastards....we really saw that dependence play out early pandemic. And we still havent woken up 🤦‍♂️

Most of my recent (last 2 years) bait purchases have been from 6th Sense... I love them all... I have only had 1 crankbait fail on me... It was a Cloud 9 C 20 that after one big fish, got ruined... it would not run true after that... But, the guys at the 6 gave me a replacement...

That being said, it does kinda bother me that all their stuff is made in China... but like many of ya'll pointed out, so is everything else.

Hopefully they can figure out how to hold on to margins and still produce everything here in the good ol' USA... but that cats out of the bag unfortunately.

It will not change in the US unless we act as a country like it is 9-12-01 again.

At the rate companies like strike king need to produce baits, you'd have to pay $15-$20 for a 6xd for it to be produced here, maybe more.

this is why I buy nothing from them... anything made in China goes right back on the shelf.

He11 , I have 3 boys and 2 of them were made in Spain.

I dont think that is entirely true. Bill Lewis being a prime example...im shocked they are US made considering the price of them. I think what stops a lot of the USA made stuff is the initial upfront costs/investments. cant imagine thats an easy thing to do for a smaller company starting out like 6th sense once was. Making the molds alone runs in the thousands (might be 10s of thousands, forgot what I was told), so the cost of the assembly lines they need to fund is probably prohibitive for most smaller/starting companies. Then i think once they are moving along and growing and can afford the cost....they just strike a better deal with their supplier in china to improve their margins and keep things rolling as is. Vicious cycle.

Thats just my take on it after talking to a couple blank suppliers whos words i trust. Who knows tho

Its rampant, there are reasons lots of baits look the same, they are the same. Just paint and package, you can buy reels in just about any color or style you want in bulk quantities and sticker them up however you think they will sell. Seriously look at Alibaba, it's all on there.

They show you where your screen printed logo can go....