Made in the USA...

[Chosei Funahara]

I was born just right after independence from the Occupied Japan by the Allied Powers, let by the United State.
I grew up with all American good and Good Old American Culture in Japan in 1950's.
I've remembered old western cowboy TV shows, and family dramas, Old good American Movies and American Music.
Everything was made in USA and we had dreams…
Yes, now I live in USA soil and became an US citizen a while back and I drive US made cars and now I will going to use US made incredible Motion Picture Capture Device that call Red Digital Epic Motion Picture Camera.
I am very happy and Thanks to Jim.

[Mariano T.]

Same over here. I bought my lighting kit and kept an eye on where the parts come from - nearly everything was from Europe: the led modules (Holland), the battery technology (GERMANY!!!) - ok, except the cells (Toshiba/Japan), but even the stands and the rigging parts (italy) - european stuff rocks!

[Denizhan Nacar]

An American success story from Turkey , Dr.Mehmet Oz.....Only In America....

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I understand the emotions. It is a matter of pride for any country to have such high tech manufacturing.

However, trying to create the entire supply chain in the country, may not be the most efficient approach. It may have political overtones, however, if one looks at the net total benefit to the economy, then it may not be the best approach.

Apple's iPhone is manufactured by Foxconn in China. If Apple would have tried to set up that manufacturing in US, then one can safely say that iPhone would not have sold such massive numbers. The iPhone is a market leader in many geographies, in its segment. By selling in such volumes, it creates more value for US, than a limited number of completely made in US product.

In a high value, low volume product like the Epics, RED ones etc, one can afford to charge a sufficient "production premium" for being Made in USA. However, just imagine a scenario, where RED is able to source components (or manufacture in India/China) thereby creating low priced and great quality products taking the market away from a certain Japanese giant. Don't you think that will result in more value creation in US?

Sharing a link to a news report which quotes the study by the IT Industry. http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/30/news...cing/index.htm

which states the benefits of outsourcing.

We are a global economy and all the economies are more interlinked. When you guys sneeze, we catch cold. Today, I read in papers that the unemployment rate in US is some 20%. That is truly shocking. That needs some hard economic decisions by the Govt. One can't just stimulate the economy by increased spending...

In one of your earlier posts you had talked about War (read decimating competition). How on earth are you going to do that, with high cost of manufacturing? I am not challenging the ability of the amazing guys and gals working in RED or their innovativeness or your fantastic leadership skills. Am just concerned that RED could have ensured more value to the American economy by not restricting its manufacturing to CA/USA.

Regards,
Sabyasachi

Many companies say that their products "are designed in the USA." That is a hand job. Designing in the USA does create a few jobs, but that isn't enough. Most then send the designs to China for manufacturing.

Truly "Made in the USA" is what matters. That used to mean something. It does again today. At least we think so...

We are anxious and excited to create jobs here. We think we can compete by designing, engineering and manufacturing in the USA. That means performance and pricing.

90+% of EPIC is USA made. Even the boards are made in Silicone Valley. All assembly is being done at our factory in Irvine, CA. While we have nothing against China, almost nothing about EPIC has any parts made there. Only a handful of parts are made in Japan.

The future of our economy depends on Americans being productive. That means actually making things...

The very 1st EPIC-M (which went to Spiderman) took 8 people 12 hours to assemble. The 1st run had a 10% rate for "no re-work". That means that 90% had some sort of necessary re-work before it could be sent out.

Today... an EPIC-X gets assembled by an 8 person team in 13 minutes with a 96% "no re-work" percentage. And we are just getting started.

These are exciting times in a number of ways. The single best camera in the cinema industry was conceived of, designed, engineered, developed, and manufactured in the USA. Not Japan. Not Germany. Who would have thunk it?

Jim

[constantine Tirintzis]

Hello. While I agree with the pride of a product made in the USA as its an American company, and its a great thing for the USA economy offering jobs, you should really consider that 1000s of your customers are all over the world and most European,so building the camera is one thing, but service and repair is another.
If one owns a 40-75k package of camera, he is a professional and he needs the fastest service available with the less hassle as possible, because everyday with out the camera working means a lot of $$$ Loss on his business, so the bottom line is , you should also expand in a few European countries that others have very fast shipping access with out customs and complex paperwork, and fast and reliable service. And at the same time you will also create jobs for European people that also supports you putting their $$$$$ on your company. Do not forget , that the crisis is not only a US thing, its a worldwide problem, and it has to be equalized faced as such a problem for all people around the world.
Best regards

[Sergio Perez]

I understand the emotions. It is a matter of pride for any country to have such high tech manufacturing.

However, trying to create the entire supply chain in the country, may not be the most efficient approach. It may have political overtones, however, if one looks at the net total benefit to the economy, then it may not be the best approach.

Apple's iPhone is manufactured by Foxconn in China. If Apple would have tried to set up that manufacturing in US, then one can safely say that iPhone would not have sold such massive numbers. The iPhone is a market leader in many geographies, in its segment. By selling in such volumes, it creates more value for US, than a limited number of completely made in US product.

In a high value, low volume product like the Epics, RED ones etc, one can afford to charge a sufficient "production premium" for being Made in USA. However, just imagine a scenario, where RED is able to source components (or manufacture in India/China) thereby creating low priced and great quality products taking the market away from a certain Japanese giant. Don't you think that will result in more value creation in US?

Sharing a link to a news report which quotes the study by the IT Industry. http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/30/news...cing/index.htm

which states the benefits of outsourcing.

We are a global economy and all the economies are more interlinked. When you guys sneeze, we catch cold. Today, I read in papers that the unemployment rate in US is some 20%. That is truly shocking. That needs some hard economic decisions by the Govt. One can't just stimulate the economy by increased spending...

In one of your earlier posts you had talked about War (read decimating competition). How on earth are you going to do that, with high cost of manufacturing? I am not challenging the ability of the amazing guys and gals working in RED or their innovativeness or your fantastic leadership skills. Am just concerned that RED could have ensured more value to the American economy by not restricting its manufacturing to CA/USA.

Regards,
Sabyasachi

Maybe so, but nothing prevents Red from making market leading and at the same time affordable products to costumers worldwide made solely in the USA. The main advantage RED has as a company is that also its still not a Corporate giant, traded in the Stock market, with shareholders, etc. I think that that would be the biggest mistake of RED. Because in the end, when you enter into this large scale, shareholder, open trade/share like company, your shareholders are only interested in one thing- immediate profitability, and more and more money at all costs- and never look at the other not so immediate profits, some of them merely moral and ethic- but still profits.

Red, by staying a privately owned company with its own philosophy can keep its balance between profitability and at the same time "philosophy". All Red and Jim's taglines, for example, including the "We refuse to service people with a bad attitude" couldn't exist in a corporate, Sony like structure.

Sincerely, I think that as long as Jim balances out profitability vs the competitiveness of his products, he and the Red team are very well capable of creating large volume affordable professional cameras in the USA. As long as you can establish what type of profit number is sufficient for you and your company, and not establish highest profit as your only goal, this is more than possible.

Now I just hope Red never goes into the stock market, and can keep itself as the independent privately owned and passion driven company like it is today. This is what makes it a leader.

Apple, for example, lost a lot of its interest for the professional market due to its growth as a corporate giant... The recent Final Cut fiasco was really due to its new corporate philosophy as the "cool" gadget company that keeps everything a secret. Their hype machine, built around no communication and secrecy, just didn't work for the professional market. And the result was a lacklustre software that is now under heavy rework. This lacklustre software was a compromise software geared towards prosumers, with limiting features, something apple never did before in their professional line of products. This was obviously because market research showed them that their users were more prosumers and they needed to target their products more to them. Typical marketing and focus group developed product. When you follow this type of philosophy, you hardly get innovation or truly revolutionary tools. (Yes, Ipad and Iphone were very impressive. I own many Apple products, too.)

[Mark Phelan]

I am a proud American and proud that you are too Jim. Good to see someone take a stand for something that many have forgotten or forsaken these days. It takes guts and I'm liking that. Cheers to you and the rest of the RED team. Go get 'em.

[David Dennis]

Sabyasachi, I believe I understand the business case to make RED products in the USA. It's a surprisingly good one.

It is fairly obvious that RED is chronically understaffed. But there is a reason for this: The bigger the team, the harder it is to create the spirit of camaraderie and esprit de corps that is so obviously a huge part of RED.

The fewer people you have, the more expensive it is to send one of them on a plane to China for 12 hours plus.

Even in First Class or Jim's jet, it's no fun spending 12 hours on a plane. And it's tough dealing with people whose language you don't know and whose culture is a potential minefield of misunderstanding. So dealing with Chinese contract companies is hard on employees, and the one thing RED really cannot be is hard on employees. They push themselves hard enough as it is.

If you bring production to the USA, you are there to solve any problems that come up. If you have a design question, it's a half hour drive to the factory. If you have a production problem, it's a half hour drive, not a difficult and tedious effort to work things out over the phone. And you deal direct with people who know your language and understand exactly what you want. (I'm sure RED hires the best production workers they can find and I doubt they are cheap.)

So how much is this costing you? Well, if it takes 13 minutes to make an EPIC you can make 4.61 an hour. That means that if your production people cost $50 an hour, it costs about $11 in labor to assemble an EPIC. Sure, you could probably get the same labor for $3 an hour in China, a difference of a bit over $10. For products retailing for thousands of dollars, this is insignificant.

In short, for a product line that constantly changes, it may actually be cheaper and - most importantly for RED - a lot easier on their extraordinarily hard working team to make EPIC and Scarlet in the US.

It's interesting to note that despite all this it took real guts to run contrary to the outsourcing tide and produce in the US. I'm pleased to see, through the reports of high EPIC quality, that this venture has been a success. Perhaps it will encourage more electronics production here.

D

[Tom.Wong]

the pride you take in your products is a assurance Jim, when you were still in the sunglass biz, those fancy ballistic glasses Oakley made saved a few of my buddy's eyesight... not to mention the most comfortable desert combat boots I've ever had the pleasure of wearing :) glad that pride and spirit has been going into this camera too. made in USA means a lot to me as do a lot of people.

[Adam Beck]

Jim,

Thanks for staying in California, your undertaking was difficult enough as it is, let alone in an unfriendly business state like California. Where there is a will there is a way........

Mark,

Nice App.