What's your favorite brand?

I agree with devastitis if they were that concerned they'd produce somewhere else. But they still see themselves getting the better end of the bargain. It's a mutually beneficial exploitative relationship. No sympathy on my part.

I buy based on fairness to the garment worker which tends to be in industrialized "first" world nations.

Brands: IH, CF, Indigogene, red wing, Alden, Gustin (favorite chinos by a long shot), F&T, BR

That was given to me by a Black gal at Hughes Aircraft back in the 90's.  I was a big white guy, and she called me the white Suge Knight LOL.
Thought it would make a great eBay handle...

ha.....I like it.

That's what I thought. It was actually a pointed question.
I like Shinola for what it is. A USA company selling to a particular market.

If by "we" you mean our lame ass government, then yes.
But the smaller businesspeople aren't to blame for this.  I'm talking about them, not big pharma or other mega-corp's that have sold us down the river...

Yep. The value of this community is that we're all trying to be educated consumers, and in doing so we're voting with our dollars. There are rare instances, like the LD fiasco, where 'US made' became a sales pitch rather than a genuine concern for the American worker, but LD was/is an outlier.

I'd be a hypocrite if I said I only buy US made or Japanese made. My Chuck Taylor 70's were made in Vietnam and I know I have other articles of clothing that were made overseas, however, ive been trying to shift most of my spending towards companies that produce quality.

my purchases are mostly dictated by cost as i'm sure it is with most of you. When a small company says, 'hey, buy our stuff because it's made in America,' I have to be able to evaluate that company and decide what makes them a better choice over hundreds of other companies making similar product using the same made in America sales pitch. The leather crafts are a perfect example. There are a lot of talented folks out there making leather goods, but what makes Company A better than Company B, both of which produce similar items for sale and have similar price points? It'll mostly come down to that company's individuality and uniqueness.

It's a risk you take when you deal with a foreign land.  The foreign country protects their people as they should, even if it's outright theft.  And why do companies still take that risk?  Because regardless of the risk, it's still many times cheaper, and the reward is much higher profits. 

I spent 3 years in Korea working and all I heard from foreigners (being us) were complaints that the Koreans never tries to accommodate us or are never quick to protect us when it came to the law.  Well, that's the way it should be.  We're foreigners in their land trying to earn their hard earned money whichever way we can.  We need to assimilate ourselves into their culture and not make demands.  And being in their country, we'll risk getting robbed or swindled out of money.  If we don't like those risks, we have the option to leave.  Why should the country protect us foreigners at the expense of their own people?

I don't understand the US pride or defend the US company angle when it's the same US companies that took jobs or potential jobs away from Americans and outsourced it in the name of higher profits.

Just to squeeze in a word or 2 about China...

They are getting REALLY good at their counterfeiting and copying of goods, so much to the point that CEO's of companies like Nike CANNOT even tell the difference in the products! Corporate espionage is HUGE, and like I said, it's NOT just "copying goods"...

There is no IP in China, so they're not even stealing. Once you send something through the Chinese Internet, all bets are off. They've also been caught -- like the time where Autodesk found they had been hacked and everything that Autodesk customers were saving using their cloud shit was compromised, and the culprit was in Chinese IP space.

I'm not even really talking about stuff like that.  I am more concerned about important things like chips, and other tech, being stolen.
You're taking money from someone to do a job, then stealing from them.  I just choose to not support a culture like that.

Whether it's technically legal or whatever in those hellholes isn't my concern, it's just a mess.

China makes amazing fraudulent goods. It's how the factories get contracts.

Factory A will have a year contract with Nike making Jordan's. After a year factory B undercuts factory
A and gets the contract. Factory A doesn't get a contract for this year but has all the knowledge to make jordan shoes. Factory A then makes knock off shoes and sells them!