The French have not made the same mistakes – they have kept their production lines and workforces. Yes, they are expensive, but the quality shines through. Here’s a short video showing how the French make theirs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s3DJkFukHI

So the lesson clearly is: if you want long-lasting, properly-made wellies, buy French. Nothing else comes close.

Half the problem is that the rubber formulation used in the Chinese factory appears to be different to the one that was used in the old Scottish plant. The Chinese rubber contains a fair amount of clay, which is used as a filler. Whilst this makes the rubber a bit more rigid, it also makes it more brittle and therefore prone to cracking. That’s why Scottish-made Hunters flex and flop about but last years, whereas Chinese-made Hunters are self-supporting but last only weeks. Hunter of course stay very tight-lipped about the exact formulation, but it shouldn’t take long for some enterprising chemist to analyse some samples.

The fact is that Hunter lost so much money up to the time it went into administration in 2006, that the new consortium which took it over had to do something to get rid of the debts. Selling off a lot of the other product lines such as drysuits to other companies, and stopping production of traditional lines like fishing waders, did save some money.

Of much more interest was the move of the residual production line to China, with the loss of 48 jobs in Scotland. This allowed Hunter to protect its bottom line, whilst spending very little on the costs of production. A premium price is still charged for what is now a sadly-denuded product, e.g. RRP has risen by £5 in the space of one year, from £55 to £60 a pair for the ordinary Hunters.

Whilst UK customers are slowly waking up to the fact that the current production quality is crap, the same cannot be said of Hunter’s expansion into Europe and – more importantly – the US market. Hunter have therefore become a global designer label. This commercial success also means that they are starting to disappear up their own arse – witness the recently-introduced Welly Pouch for carrying keys and coins: costs only a couple of quid to make, but RRP in the shops is £30!!

By releasing new colours every so often, and linking up with designers such as Jimmy Choo for limited editions, Hunter stays ahead of the game, as the American customers go crazy over things like this.

What we really need is for UK customers to be more forceful in claiming consumer rights (yes, that means suing, and flooding the Edinburgh head office with prematurely worn-out Hunters) and for American customers – famously litigious – to realise that they are in fact being conned.

Oh, and if you want strong, long-lasting wellies, I’d recommend you buy Le Chameau. Made in France….properly.