Soulcraft Made in USA?

To be clear, Mexico was the first China/Thailand. Surfboards have been made in Mexico for many many many years, and recently some blank and other accessory manufacturers have moved south again and there is a little bit of a industry revival down there. Years ago the industry was hit hard and many manufacturers pulled their production back in house. Boards are selling again, but most of your big brands get a large percentage to nearly 100% produced in a handful of factories in China and Thailand. Most boards are produced in factories in southern california, these factories are not really any different that factories all over the world. Yes, 'soulcraft' has had boards made elsewhere, using other factories. When Jeff was in Idaho building the brand, he was a one man show more or less. He moved back to Oceanside and partnered up with shop he use to manage production in, before moving out to Idaho. However, over the years some boards have been outsourced to other factories around the area, and they routinely use contract artists for art and others for builds. First thing to understand, is board building in California is largely a contract job, people are largely task managers. They come in and paint boards, or glass boards, or install fin boxes, etc. Every task has a per unit price and there is a person that does that task, a shaper or these days a $20 rub out guy who cleans up the CNC shape, a laminator, sander, painter, and the shop kid that handles QC at the end and installs the fin box screws, packing, etc. However, as you can imagine, many of these task managers are not necessarily reliable, they are surfers, surf in the morning, work on some boards surf or fish in the evening, or work on boards at night. Others are alcoholics, meth heads and opium addicts, sorry for the reality check. Every factory, aside from a few with a really tight groups are constantly looking for people to fill a the role of sander, laminators, shop kid, etc. These are basically low pay, dirty jobs and Mexico isn't stealing these jobs. These are jobs no one wants. The youth of today has very little interest in shaping and building boards. They all want to build "lifestyle" brands and pay others to build products for them. American surfboard factories are full of old grumpy men that will soon be gone. If I was a betting man I would suspect the K-skim is produced in a outside shop. That is all I will say.

Nick