Where are Jack Stillman Bags Made?
Jack Stillman is a family owned Australian business, based in Fremantle WA and founded in 2014. Read our story here. All Jack Stillman products are handmade in small batches by our specialised team, in our workshop in Da Nang, Vietnam.
Why not Australia?
We are a proud Australian business but Australia does not have a broad apparel and accessories manufacturing industry. Only 5% of all apparel and accessories products are actually Australian Made this include iconic brands that many Australian believe are Australian Made. We literally lack the infrastructure, access to raw materials, machinery and qualified technicians. Trust me, I tried.
Deciding to manufacture in Vietnam is nothing to do with greed or a lack of loyalty to Australian jobs. The only major manufacturers in Australia are multi million dollar brands with pre-established operations (and most of these are dwindling). Small businesses like Jack Stillman cannot turn the tide on this due to Australia's high cost of living and free trade agreements with Asia over the past 40 years - agreements which carry huge advantages and some disadvantages.
Don't just take our word for it:
FashionJournal.com.au: Why manufacturing fashion in Australia is more difficult than you think.
ABC.net.au: Buying Australian-made clothing? It might not be as ethical as you think
Why Vietnam?
Vietnam is a technically advanced country with a high standard of living compared to other countries in the region. Vietnam is not an impoverished country with desperate workers scrambling for low paid jobs. On the contrary, there is plenty of opportunity and competition for skilled workers. Our team is small and based in Da Nang which is on the central coast. It's a great place to live for our workers as they raise their families. From Da Nang we have access to world class materials, processes, infrastructure and skills.
Do we exploit our workers?
As a company operating in Vietnam, the government there requires us to pay our workers a minimum wage plus their health insurance and superannuation. The fact is, skilled workers are in high demand so, to be competitive, we pay our team extremely well. We also pay annual bonuses. We do this because we need our operators. They are extremely talented, in fact most have dedicated their life to their trade and this is evident in the reviews of our products.
Meet the Jack Stillman Vietnam Team. 19 April 2022
I'd rather support Australian Made!
We get this daily. Did you know that 95% of all apparel and accessories sold in Australia are made overseas? So unless you are wearing 100% Australian made clobber right now - be very mindful of how you express your patriotic dreams of supporting only locally made stuff 😉.
Unlike almost all of our competitors we are open and upfront about where our gear is made and why. The truth is, all of our competitors manufacture overseas. EVEN the ones that manufacture a small percentage of their range in Australia - they just don't volunteer that information. Unless an item specifically says "Made in Australia", they are not made here. It's a matter of self preservation that most Aussie companies avoid the issue of country of origin because of the ignorance of some abusive consumers. We took a stand in 2018 in order to educate consumers on where the majority of their stuff comes from.
We'd love you to realise that our gear is designed here in Fremantle WA. You won't find mass produced generic Chinese designs in our stores. We take pride in the Australia flavour we give to our brand.
We employ a team here in Australia and pay taxes both here and in Vietnam. We also export our Aussie brand all over the world from our base here in Fremantle WA.
If you have more questions about how we make our luggage, bags and accessories please feel free to contact us on support@jackstillman.com.au.