While we don’t like that they outsource to China, Snap-on still has a reputation to uphold. That, however, will only happen if people continue to support Chinese-made products.

We see this as a fair concern, especially since they often charge the same price for their Chinese-made products. People have rightfully expressed a growing concern that Snap-on will outsource more and more of the work to China. They have a factory in Kunshan County in Shanghai and a factory in Xiaoshan District. While Snap-on does produce in the USA, they have more factories outside of the US than inside. We will leave it up to you to decide if that’s a fair business practice. The big issue with Snap-on comes from how they make their products in China and charge the same price as American-made products. Some of the products made in China include welding helmets, cordless screwdriver kits, cordless power drill kits, polishers, air compressors, and safety gloves. We have seen that they do produce in the United States, but they also make some of their products in China. Now, let’s address the elephant in the room, Snap-on’s manufacturing in China. Popular Related Article: Tool Boxes Made in the USA That We Recommend

The facility has, in fact, done so well that in 2009 when they shuttered a 68,000 square foot facility in Natick, Massachusetts, they migrated the five assembly lines down to Murphy-this added an extra 38 tools to its manufacturing load. You can see the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen shining its best as a real-world example at this plant, and we don’t wonder why the plant has done so well. They walk the floors of the facility and search for new ways to improve plant operations. A large part of the plant’s success comes down to the RCI team or rapid continuous improvement team. Todd Rowe, the RCI manager for the facility, says that they want to do things extraordinarily well that Asia doesn’t do. The Levi Strauss factory shut down in the 1990s, leaving many jobless, but Snap-on soon moved into the plant to start operations. The town of 1,600 people has suffered from the loss of many jobs over the years, and the employment rate wouldn’t always be seen as picture-perfect. The 168,000-square-foot facility has 223 employees, and the goal has always been to keep the plant in operation. Snap-on constructed the plant in 2003, and they would go on to produce the pneumatic and cordless tools at this facility. IndustryWeek, an American monthly trade publication that has existed since 1882, named Snap-on’s factory in Murphy, North Carolina, as among the top 10 plants in North America in 2011. If you’re interested, you can learn more about Snap-on tools and our other favorite American-made tool brands here. We applaud them for the tools made here and won’t take that away from them. Many of the product listings that we opened were made in the USA. Overall, the brand continues to manufacture in the United States.

Safety gloves and air compressors give you another example of products made in China. While we found that Snap-on did produce in the USA, many of its power tools originated in China and Taiwan. If we were to recommend caution on a category of tools, we would advise checking ahead of time with the power tools category. For example, what did Snap-on mean when they abbreviated the country as “BLR” for one of their hole saws? The other issue with abbreviation comes from it making no sense. I would still, however, applaud them for actually listing it. It was like it wasn’t as bad as if they had outright listed it as China or Taiwan. For example, Taiwan was abbreviated as “TWN,” and China was abbreviated as “CHN.” I noticed an immediate and subtle psychological effect from them doing this rather than listing the country outright. The thing that we didn’t like but was a forgivable offense was how they abbreviated the origin. The thing that we liked about this brand was that they clearly label the origin of all of their products. The most popular American-made tools that you can buy from Snap-on include:Ĭheck the origin ahead of time with each tool to make sure. Many people complained about buying an expensive tool and learning of its origin later. We would strongly advise caution with Snap-on since some of the tools that carry a premium price tag weren’t always made in the United States.

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