Manufacturing in indonesia is a smart choice

According to the Freedom House 2018 survey, Indonesia is by far the most free country in Southeast Asia with a score of 64%. Vietnam comes in at 20%, Thailand at 31%, Cambodia at 30%. Among other manufacturing powers in Asia, Bangladesh comes in at 45%, Pakistan at 43% and China brings us the rear at a staggeringly low 14%!

When you’re exporting your hard-earned cash to an overseas clothing manufacturer, you’ll want to know that your money is going toward improving the lives of real people and providing them with healthy economic opportunities, rather than having your money fall into the wrong hands. 

Choosing to manufacture in Indonesia is a choice you won’t regret. Not least of all because your factory visits will be amazing work trips into the heart of some of the most interesting cultures on the planet.

The people are warm and welcoming. When you visit the factories the people will be happy to see you. From their broad smiles you’ll know that you’re not looking a “sweatshop”, these are proud workers who take their jobs seriously. Their working conditions are generally good, the hours are reasonable and they go home to their families at night. If you choose to manufacture in Indonesia you can be proud of the fact that you are contributing to the development of job opportunities in a free market economy. 

other alternatives to china manufacturing

Indonesia is just one of many options. We chose Indonesia to base our operations for all the reasons above and we depend on it as a primary resource, but in truth there are many, many other options.

The best approach when manufacturing anything is to find a manufacturing solution that requires the smallest footprint. If you’re American, for example, something made in the USA might sound like the most sustainable option. It very well might be… IF the materials are also from the USA. But what if the materials all come from China and are shipped to the US, then manufactured using imported machinery. All powered by foreign oil.

Suddenly, you can see that a product imported from Mexico, for example, and made from materials of Mexican origin would logically have a much smaller carbon footprint overall.

The point being, we need to take a look at the BIG picture when we talk about environmental sustainability, ethics, and everything else we care about. Right now, almost any alternative to China is a good alternative. Our over-reliance on China is becoming a big problem, as is our addiction to cheap goods.

For that reason, here at Prototype, we are actively developing relationships around the world. Our goal is to source cotton products from a cotton-producing region, wool from a wool producer, and so on.

We also strive to provide a choice of where you have something made. If you have a relationship with a country, like Ecuador, for example, we want to support that relationship by offering products from Ecuador that are every bit as sustainably created as products from any other region we work in.