Desoto is not a notable exception, though. Castelli, Kiwami, Fusion, Trimtex, and a whole bunch of other brands are made in Europe. Most of them are also using European made materials, usually Italian fabric and Italian Elastic Interface pads.

In northern Italy there's an enormous amount of companies doing custom sportswear and the minimum order quantities would often be smaller than what you'd be asked in China.

In some cases you'd still be going through a middleman because managing lots of small orders requires a commercial organisation that factories and laboratories often don't have. The amount of choice in terms of material, shapes, etc is enormous.

i've done some experimenting through aliexpress. quality is always hit and miss, but in the case of, say, a tech t-shirt it doesn't really matter. for a trisuit or something you want to make sure the seams and zippers are good!

probably the biggest problem i have with china-direct ordering is sizing. it's a total crapshoot, their sizing charts are often irrational, and even when garments fit in one dimension they don't in another (for instance, it fits in the waist but is waaaay off on the inseam).

so in some ways i think what you're paying the middlemen for is quality control and 'translating' the chinese products for foreign audiences.

---

____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

It's worth noting that northern Italy is basically little China when it comes to garment manufacturing.

The EU ignores it, because, well, Italians gonna do their thing :)

https://ww.fashionnetwork.com/...37.html#ralph-lauren

If anyone needs low volume custom technical garments or soft goods, feel free to hit me up in a PM. I have a lot made in my line of work.

I'm not sure what your point is but when I was saying northern Italy I wasn't referring to Tuscany (which would usually be considered central Italy).

The article you sent is about Prato, which is a very specific town, and about "fast fashion" so you'd have to clarify why is it relevant here.

Finally, about whatever you implied with your "Italians gonna do their thing": I'm not sure where you're from but where I'm from it's not considered polite to generalise the way you just did.