Where are my Shears from?
In todays market there are more than a hundred scissor companies in the United States alone that have Japanese, Japanese sounding names, or are simply trying and pass their products off as “Japanese Scissors”; when in fact this is simply not the case. Around 80% of the scissors and shears sold in the United States today are made in China and another 5%-10% from other countries other than Japan. Due to the growing skepticism of hairstylists over the last 8 years, due mainly to new marketing and sales tactics that often mislead or misinform the consumer (many who are new to the industry and don’t know what to look for), most consumers now find it harder than ever to trust and find a reputable company that sells a genuine or authentic professional hair scissor or shear.
While the United States International Customs and Import Laws are much more strict and far more effective now more than ever, mainly due to the overwhelming illegal counterfeit and copycat products that plagued the Untied States economy in the 90’s and early 2000’s, there’s still room for domestic error. Today it is much more risky for both the buying company and supplying company to engage in these deceitful deals. If companies are caught in the act of deliberately exporting or importing counterfeit products or improperly marking the country of origin in which these products are made, they can both be banned from importing and exporting through the United States indefinitely. This has helped to reduce much of the blatantly fake or counterfeit products in today's market.
While it is good that international customs on both sides are now checking the products for things like the “country of origin” in efforts to cut down on the illegal and counterfeit products that hurt our economies, it still only helps prevent dishonest practices internationally from company to company, not direct to the consumer. A good example of this is if there are scissors marked “made in Japan" but they are being exported from China from a Chinese scissor company. When international customs inspects and sees these items they would be stopped immediately and both companies would be banned from importing or exporting ever again (at least under those legal names). This is why so many scissors and shears today, around 90% of them don’t have a country of origin marked on the actual scissor. However International Customs will pass Chinese or other made scissors through with no country of origin marked on the actual scissors, as long as the box they are being shipped in is marked “made in China”. The reason for this according to International Customs; "there is nothing being violated during the exporting and importing process, everything is clearly marked for International Customs to pass the items through with no discrepancies".
Instead the liability under United States Law is then supposed to fall on the company that is selling these products to do the right and legal thing by packaging the products prorperly with their country of origin visible and able to see for all, this is to be done on the package or a sticker or tag placed on the actual product for removal, since the actual product is not marked. The reason so many companies get away with not doing the right and legal thing is because most of theses scissors and shears are then shipped domestically within the United States where there is no delivery, or domestic customs type of system, nor any authoritative agency to check that these products are being packaged with the country of origin on them. There is simply no agency that regularly checks these things unless these products are at some point reported to the BBB or the FTC, and then the company is legally served to do so correctly for future sales.
Today there are millions of products you can buy right from your phone and 99% of them, no matter how expensive or how cheap they are, will have a country of origin on them somewhere. Whether it be a removable sticker, or on a sewn on tag, almost every product includes country of origin on it. There are two main reasons for this practice.
1.The first reason for this is that other countries especially China are very proud that they make so much of the worlds products and necessities and like to mark all of their products “made in China” as prideful badge of recognition that they produce so many things we all need and use.
2.The second reason is, it’s the law! By law you as a consumer have the right to know specific information about the items you are buying. One of the main and most important pieces of information you are entitled to know is the country of origin, or where the item is made. When you begin to realize that almost everything you will ever buy has this information available to you via, on the package, a removable sticker, or on the actual item or paperwork, you should then be asking yourself why is this important information missing for my professional scissors or shears?
If one of the most important tools you will ever use for your career doesn’t have this information anywhere to be found or seen, this should tell you all you need to know about that product and company you are buying from. Of course if this isn’t enough to convince you, you could always reach out and ask the company yourself. Although beware for further disappointment, manipulative or deflecting answers, or them providing other information that they will try and convince you is more important than the information you ask. So whether you invest in a scissor or shear from us, or from another company, we hope you understand the importance of why the Country if Origin is so very important to know.