Could Nike really be said to be American any more? It's a global brand that sort of floats above any geographic location - it's HQ may be Oregon but it's got 700 factories around the world, and I should imagine its tax affairs are so amorphous and labyrinthine that you'll find the Minotaur wondering around in them. Giving Nike money is, I think, just giving Nike money, very few others benefit.
I did make the point that the 'value' assigned to quality is in part a marketing ploy, but on the other hand, if I can show you exactly how I go about making something, where the raw materials come from, the time it takes to make and how I arrive at the price I charge, then it's pretty fair to say that the value the quality it holds is going to be high.
Your mention of buying a bespoke suit is interesting because your decision must have come from a similar value choice: you could've bought a Boateng or Ede and Ravenscroft off the peg, and objectively it could have looked just as nice, but you chose to go with the handmade because you must have made some value judgement on the quality of one over the other - the fact it didn't quite work out for you on that occasion doesn't mean your judgement was wrong or that the general principle isn't valid, it was just bad luck; though you had the option to ask the shop to correct the stitching.
Technically, Nike is an American company. Whatever tiny amount it pays in taxes does go to a certain government, many multinationals are American--whether their reach and influence transcend the country of origin is a different discussion. In any event, giving Alden or Aero money doesn't really benefit a whole lot of a people either. I would say more people benefit from Nike profits than Aero profits--but also a lot more people get mistreated by Nike than they do by Aero.
I commissioned some bespoke because I have a small frame not because I love the bespoke process of "quality". I am more vain about fit than label. Hand made products always have various issues: looping threads and not so perfect stitching are considered a part of the magic of hand made. Point was, raw materials and labour can be expensive but for a lot of luxury goods they are needlessly expensive--just to cater to a certain price point. Unless you have a name like Tom Ford firms will have to create reasons why their goods cost x amount more. It isn't always about quality, actually it more often isn't.
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