There's a lot of junk out there...

[drcollie]

When i was at the High Point Market on Sunday I made a lot of blitz runs into showrooms, shrugging off salesmen instantly who wanted to tell me how great and profitable their product is. I had a lot of ground to cover in one day, no time for sales pitches. Having been in the trade for 25 years now, my eyes can tell me what I need to know in seconds.

I can tell you this:

* All this Chinese and Pacific Rim product looks alike. I can tell through the plate glass of the showroom - which is a good thing because I can keep on walking by. And that's about 70% of the showrooms.

* Then there is American Cheap - a new category. Companies that are busy putting MADE IN USA on everything but its still crap. Garbage in, garbage out. Lots of that. They know that there is a Chinese backlash and there's a lot of people rushing to make inexpensive USA-made product. Be careful out there and don't think that automatically means you're getting high quality.

* When you see the good stuff, you know it. Its crisp, tight, has design line features and stands out from the crowd.

* Then there is the 'almost but not quite' group. These guys build decent quality pieces that will hold up, but they miss on the 'art' of furniture. Proportions of design are off, or they use a dozen 2" to 3" strip boards in their 'solid wood' bed headboards or drawer fronts. And nothing turns me off faster than cheap and thin plywood drawer bottoms. Ugh. Classic case of this is this Canadian maker, who could really make some nice stuff if they got rid of the shortcuts:

http://www.durhamfurniture.com/home.php

Here's the piece de' resistance of the Market. I came across this horrid small leather company who seems to be in the business of making cheap clones of Hancock and Moore designs:

http://www.ccleather.com/

Right inside the front door were these two new market intros, knockoffs of the Hancock and Moore Sundance Sofa and Chair. Ugh. They didn't even put the button tufting in the back. Sloppy tailoring, poor sit. I had to snap photos with my cell phone because its pretty bold to rip off H&M's design. I was in and out of there in less than 2 minutes....