Veganbike:I prefer to buy from domestic companies (though not much is 'Made in Canada' any more) and support better working conditions, so I accept your arguments.
I also know that while globalization has been a disaster for Canadian manufacturing, it has raised hundreds of millions of people in Asia out of abject poverty.
If I thought the price wasn't so far out of line that I'm just being foolish to buy, I'd have 'the real thing'. I already paid about my limit for that 'Made in UK' bell, and it was a mistake.
Further info:
Spurcycle now has a 'Compact' bell that's 100% Made in Taiwan. MSRP:$39 USD
The Chinese knockoff costs $4.75 USD including shipping.
I'd also be surprised if all the Spurcycle sub-contractors employed only US citizens or legal immigrants in shops with good pay, job security and benefits. But it's certainly a possibility.
“Our sheet metal parts are formed in New Mexico, the wire form is made in Ohio, we have a turned part that comes from Reno [Nevada], there’s another turned part from Alabama, a plating vendor that’s all the way on the east coast in Pennsylvania, and then we have some parts that are made in Pleasanton, California,” said Spurcycle co-founder Clint Slone. “We do some assembly of the bells here in Sausalito, just north of San Francisco, and we also have a subcontractor that does assembly in Pleasanton.”
Not a bunch of hippies in Seattle or SanFran hand-building those one at a time - more like 'entrepreneurs' with a great business model.
An article about the Spurcycle bell mentions the Mirrycle bell
https://www.mirrycle.com/product-category/bells/ as 'competition' (inspiration?) when the Slone brothers were developing the Spurcycle bell.