I like to buy local, support the community, avoid “Made in China”. Products made in China symbolize everything that is, in my opinion, wrong with the economy. I associate “Made in China” with cheap, mass-produced junk.

I like to create, design, build things for myself. Building your own stuff is, in my opinion, the right way to go about it. I associate “do-it-yourself” with valuable, high-quality products.

But then I stumbled upon this webpage, by Converse, where you can fully custom configure a pair of sneakers; they will be manufactured in China, though. I could not resist the urge to design the wildest pair of chucks possible, and ordered them in my size.

They arrived today, they are way cool, and they got me thinking – maybe “Made in China” isn’t so bad, if I designed it? It would still be better, if I could buy “Made in the USA” – designed by Me.