South Korea · Germany · Taiwan · China · Japan · U.S. · Fortune Technology
Gucci told Reuters it will keep making its other products in Italy
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
Gucci built its luxury reputation on Italian craftsmanship, but its newest $1,000 sneakers break with its 105-year-old tradition with a new label: Made in China.
Key facts
- Chinese manufacturing workers earned $629 per month on average last year compared to $1,341 in Taiwan and $2,075 in South Korea, according to a survey by Japan’s trade agency
- In 2023, it paid $706 million for a nearly 5% stake in Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng and agreed to develop cars with it for China
- Gucci built its luxury reputation on Italian craftsmanship, but its newest $1,000 sneakers break with its 105-year-old tradition with a new label: Made in China
- Volkswagen also announced it would cut its model lineup by up to half and cut 100,000 jobs —the biggest restructuring in the company’s 90-year history
Summary
Gucci told Reuters it will keep making its other products in Italy. “I think symbolically, China has arrived,” Ker Gibbs, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, told Fortune. The shift is part of what some economists, like Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok, have dubbed the second China Shock. Howard Yu, a professor of management at Switzerland’s International Institute for Management Development, told Fortune China is following the path of South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan in moving from t-shirts and dupes of name brand items to home appliances and higher-end cars and products “at an unprecedented scale.”