We want everyone involved in our direct (aiming for the indirect one too, partially already the case) supply chain to have work conditions that WE WOULD LIKE TO WORK UNDER OURSELVES. And where environmental laws exist and actually are a reality.
This is currently only possible in countries with a UN Development Index (UN HDI)* of 0.90 or higher. While we believe that a fair production is possible in ANY country of the world, and it might make sense to produce there in a sense of helping weaker economies, we are way too small to ensure that the employees ALSO get the MUSTS WE WANT TO WORK UNDER (see above).
Therefore we have decided to design our products in a way that we can afford to manufacture them in countries with a UN HDI of 0.90 or higher. These are all countries that fulfill our MUST conditions both on paper and in reality (clear exceptions exist, but are only two (Hong Kong & Singapore, countries where human rights are publicly kicked with boots. The UN HDI index lacks there because it gets tricked by extremely high incomes of the super rich in these countries).
Also, we have layed out our company in a way that this is possible. Direct sales and SLOW shipping are two of the main points here. We do sell through select dealers, but that brings our margin down to an absolute minimum, not economically feasible for us. But we believe IBDs are key to bicycle culture (and we all started our bike industry careers there :) and we would like to give our customers the option to see our products in persona.

*The HDI is a people centered index used by the UN. The higher the lifespan, education level and the gross national income per capita, the higher the HDI value. Find the HDI in our corporate identity.