Let me try to address the concern about the blanks being made in Korea. First of all, a lot more blanks are made there than most any of us would guess. Many of those are designed by Koreans and often do not have very good tapers or quality control. However, the Loop rods were designed in Sweden by top rod designers like Goran Andersson. Loop is responsible for the mandrels and is ruthless in their quality control. I think it was Per a couple of weeks ago on a Speyclave thread that said that Goran is in Korea now and was scheduled to be there for five weeks. Doing this several times a year does make a difference. I have a problem with a lot of reels that are made in the Far East because they are just knock-offs of reels designed and built over here. It is much easier to do that and keep the price down than it is to start with a blank screen on a CADD. At the Denver dealer show, one Japanese company featured reels that are exact knock-offs of Seamaster, Bogdan, and others. It's too bad, because they also have a couple of nice original products, but most of us avoid their booth due to the copies. The same is not happening with rods. For whatever the reason, people in that part of the world are quite good at doing tasks like tying flies and wrapping rods and making them very consistent. Are they as good as the best in the US? Nope, but very good, and it allows for pricing that is much more reasonable. When Van Staal was making rods they were very much a high-end product as their twelve weight tarpon rod cost $670.00. And they were incredible casting rods with the blanks made in Korea with tapers developed over here. I think everyone on this board knows that almost everything Redington sells is made in the Far East as is a lot of stuff that Cabelas markets.
Do I wish everyone would buy American or Swedish. Yeah, I guess so, but that's not going to happen if you want a variety of quality products in the low to mid price ranges. I have no quarrel with products made over there unless they are exact knockoffs. I know many of you feel differently and you're more than welcome to buy St. Croix, Winston Ibis, Sage Discovery, etc.