Zaltos now made in Slovakia?

I just got in a shipment of Zalto Universals, and they have a sticker on them saying they’re made in Slovakia. I’m guessing Zalto has changed/expanded production outside of Austria? Unfortunately they’re a gift so I can’t open and inspect them yet. Anyone else have made in Slovakia Zaltos?

Think most fine stems are made in Slovakia. Austria labor too expensive and plenty of glass artisans in Slovakia.

Brent there is a certain appeal to me of handmade by artisan makers with special expertise and tradition in a very high cost of living country, vs. outsourced to the lowest acceptable manufacturing price and quality.

Haven’t been made in Austria for years. Been Slovakian or Hungarian likely since you’ve been using them.

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There can’t be skilled artisans in less expensive countries?

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I think I didn’t make my point well, it was about outsourced manufacturing due to cost vs. maintaining craft and tradition where labor cost is especially high.

Chris, thanks, I see now that it looks like Kurt Zalto sold rights to his name and design, and is off making kinky glassware now.

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You still haven’t made your point well. There can be equally skilled artisans in lower cost areas. Slovakia has long been known as a source for high quality glass, despite being cheaper than Austria.

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lol that logic sure didn’t work for the US auto industry.

lol.

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Slovakia’s glassblowing tradition is at least as old as Austria’s. Heck, until the end of WWI, the town where Zalto’s corporate is located in Austria and where they produce in Slovakia were part of the same country. We can debate merits of overseas outsourcing if we want, but this is not that.

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Maybe they learned from the Meiomi business model.

Build the brand when flagged with a vintage/AVA.

Sell it.

Then deliver something different to the customers as time goes on.

Same thing has happened with ‘Austrian’ skis and boots too.

Have you examined Austrian and Slovakian produced glasses to support your conjecture?

I have been unable to ever since Georg put me on the Osterreich Wino non Grata list for drinking a Brunello out of one his Chianti only glasses.

As well he should have. :wink:

Examples? It is true that very little shoe production (or clothing production) takes place in W. Europe outside of very high-end examples. But skis are a different story.

I do realize that this graphic is from 2018, but you will see that quite a few Austrian brands still produce in Austria (or for Fischer, for example, a mix of Austria and Ukraine).

As far as major ski brands go, you see more of them are produced in Austria than anywhere else. There seems to be a reflexive condemnation here of Austrian manufacturers here, but I think the Austrians are no worse than anywhere else in Western Europe and in some branches, like snow sports, better than most.

Slovakian glass blowing and cutting is famous. I have a number of cut crystal glasses and vases that I picked up there in the 90s.

Slovakians famous blowing puts it in to perspective…

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I am thoroughly confused. My Leki hiking poles, IIRC, are made in Austria. But I just looked at their website, and apparently they moved from Germany to Czechoslovakia, when that was a country. So I’ll have to go back and look. But it’s really not all that big a deal.

As others have pointed out, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, most of Croatia, along with good chunks of Germany, Bosnia, Serbia, Poland (and maybe a sliver of Ukraine) were part of the same country.

And that part of the world has been known for centuries for high-quality manufacturing.

Dan Kravitz

Received chard and Bordeaux Zalto glasses today. Replacements for what my f’in cats broke. Sticker on the boxes says made in Slovakia/EU.

Look nice, feel nice. Don’t really care where they are made. Unless you want to purposefully turn your glassware into a political flash point than just enjoy what you have in your hand rather than worrying about “made in” stickers.

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That’s a nice visual, but I’m not sure how up to date it is. My skis aren’t from France/Italy as their brands/history might suggest, but Eastern European nations with unbalanced vowel/consonant ratios. Same with kids and their ‘Austrian’ gear.

I don’t think it matters for my (low!) mass market recreational level of use/interest, but the goods are being presented to the end customer with limited disclosure. Kid #2 has a white labeled gear from L9 and when I looked closely its made in Romania! The Romans made coliseums, not downhill Alpine kit.