Project MEGA - GTFO of China 3

We’ve again made some big strides with our MEGA (Make Europe Great Again) project, which was originally kicked off in 2022. As 2024 comes to a close, it’s the perfect moment to shed some light on where things stand and what’s happening next.

Why MEGA?

The current world situation has been a wake-up call and sparked conversation on Europe’s capacity and capabilities to produce necessary materials and equipment in any state of emergency. And textiles are needed in all sorts of situations, crisis or not.  

China dominates the global textile market. A whole third of the textiles imported to Europe come from China (Statista 2021). In addition China makes 70% of the synthetic fibers made in the whole world (Statista 2021). We’re doing our part to challenge their position, even if just a little bit.

For us, shifting production to Europe also means shorter distances between the factory and our warehouse. No more waiting for eons to pass between product restocks, which means better overall availability for our merchandise. 

The Long March Out of China

Our journey is at a point, where we’ve managed to make significant reductions to our purchases from China. In the beginning of the project, our purchases amounted to some 1,5M euros. This year, we’ve made purchases with less than 100k euros in comparison. Very nice!

In practice, this means shifting production to Europe for items staying in our lineup, while the final batches of discontinued products have been stocked in our warehouse. Simultaneously, we’ve been fine-tuning our product range during this migration.
Below is a list of items already discontinued or on their way out. If you fancy any of these, now’s the time to make your move.

• Särmä Outdoor Pants
• Särmä Outdoor Jacket
• Särmä Windproof Fishtail Parka
• Särmä Windproof Parka
• Särmä Duffel Bags
• Särmä Wool Coat
• Särmä Peacoat
• Särmä Jacket Liner
• Särmä Wool Fleece Jackets
• Särmä Trouser Belt
• Särmä Wool Comb
  
  

Next steps

Relocating production for individual products and getting it rolling at a new factory can easily take one to two years. But we’ve made solid progress, and some of the new products have already hit the market under the Varusteleka brand.

Due to the European labor costs, products made within the EU will cost more than those made in China. Keeping that in mind, we’re redesigning most of the products that start in a new factory. The aim is to fine-tune the essentials in each item while discarding the fluff. As products are updated, they’ll likely differ somewhat from the originals.

Here’s a glimpse at some upcoming items and their expected release timelines:

• Hardshell Jacket and Pants: Winter 24–25 (gray)
• Windproof Anorak: Winter 24–25 (black and coyote brown)
• Cargo Pants: Spring–Summer 25 (improved L4 Field Pants + new colors)
• Softshell Jacket: 2025 (Multicam, ranger green, black, M05 forest)
• Windproof Smock: 2025 (improved Recon Smock + new colors)
• Women’s Cargo Pants: 2026
• New Backpacks: 2026–2027

An exception to everything mentioned above is the Assault Pack, which will still be made in China for an unspecified period of time. This is because we haven’t found an acceptable replacement for it, which would meet our requirements for production volume, price, and quality. Just yet.

In 2025  we’ll phase out the gray Assault Pack and replace it with a coyote brown version. Hallelujah, baby—the brown Assault Pack returns to the fray! We don’t know the exact timetable yet so stay tuned. Good news also to those avoiding the Made in China -tags - we are in the process of creating a similar backpack with a capacity of over 15 liters that will be made in Europe.

Towards an autonomous Europe

We do have our motivations for fussing about these supply security issues. It is a bummer that we still need to buy some of our raw materials and fabrics from China, as there just aren’t more local options available.

As this year comes to a close, it is a good moment to present a vision for the future of the European textile industry. Let’s imagine that the seven million tonnes of textile waste created annually in the region could be recycled into new raw materials within the economic area. In addition to that, we would have the needed factories and equipment for processing that material into yarn and fabric. Pretty strategically autonomous, right? This utopia would, of course, also bring about positive environmental and economic effects. 

So, we continue our pursuit of Total World Domination, hopefully, we can go after this vision with a bit more muscle in the future. At this point though, even the small changes matter!

If you’re keen on reading more about this endeavor, we’ve already got two previous articles on the subject here and here.