We recently spent time in China visiting manufacturers and factories.

Like a lot of people, we arrived with assumptions.

We left with a much more nuanced perspective.

China is home to over 1.4 billion people. Australia has around 28 million. That means China has roughly 50 times our population. It’s easy to forget the scale we’re talking about when we make blanket statements about an entire country, industry or workforce.

And yes, there is a lot of stuff being made.

Some of it is incredible.

Some of it is not.

We visited fashion districts and wholesale buildings that genuinely made us feel uncomfortable. The volume of products, the speed of production and the sheer amount of consumption can be overwhelming.

But we also met people who deeply care about craftsmanship, quality and doing things properly.

What we came home with was this:

→ Understanding your product before manufacturing is critical.

If you don’t know how to assess quality, communicate standards or identify problems, it becomes very difficult to produce something that lives up to your expectations.

→ Sampling matters.

Test. Refine. Test again.

The brands producing quality products are rarely getting it right on the first attempt.

→ Not all factories are the same.

Just like any country, there are great operators and poor operators.

Finding manufacturers that value quality, long-term relationships and worker wellbeing takes time.

→ Manufacturing knowledge matters.

At Scrub Turkey, Heike has spent more than 30 years working in apparel, textiles and manufacturing. She knows what good construction looks like. She knows how garments should fit. She knows what questions to ask.

That experience is invaluable.

We see many new product brands entering the market without that foundation, and it often shows.

→ Making a product isn’t the goal.

Making a product that deserves to exist is.

Before launching something, ask yourself:

Does this solve a problem?

Does it offer something genuinely different?

Will people still be using it in 12 months?

Or is it simply another thing entering an already crowded market?

→ We also learnt that manufacturing in Australia isn’t always an option.

For many industries, the infrastructure simply doesn’t exist at scale anymore.

Watching the production process up close was one of the most interesting parts of our trip. In one small factory, we saw how specialised the workflow was. One person sewing pockets. Another pressing hems. Another quality checking every garment before it moved to the next stage.

It highlighted just how many skilled hands are involved in producing a single product.

Australia still has incredibly talented makers, but the large-scale manufacturing workforce that once supported many industries has significantly reduced. For many small brands wanting to create quality products, overseas manufacturing is often the only realistic pathway.

That’s why understanding your product, your materials and your manufacturing partner is so important. The factory isn’t just making your product — they’re helping bring your standards to life.

→ We noticed environmental controls too.

One example we saw was entire manufacturing sectors being grouped into dedicated industrial areas, allowing waste management and environmental processes to be monitored and controlled more efficiently.

Our trip was short, and we’re certainly not experts on China’s manufacturing industry as a whole.

But it reinforced something we already believed:

Where something is made doesn’t automatically determine whether it’s good or bad.

The people, processes, standards and intentions behind it matter far more.

As a studio that works with product-based businesses, hospitality brands and e-commerce companies, we know many Australian brands will continue to manufacture overseas.

The conversation shouldn’t just be “Made in China?”

The better question is:

How was it made?

Who made it?

And was it made well enough to last?