Why We Make Our Gear in China (And Why It Was the Obvious Call)

Look, I get it. "Made in China" still makes some people raise an eyebrow. But here's the thing — when it comes to titanium, there's one place on the planet that has been doing it longer, doing it better, and doing it at a scale no one else can touch. That place is Baoji, China. And once you know what's actually going on there, the choice becomes pretty obvious.

Let me walk you through how I got here.

I Looked Everywhere. No, Really.

When I started building out Salty Summit, I wasn't just going to rubber-stamp the first manufacturer I found and call it a day. I went deep. I looked at suppliers across Asia, Europe, and North America. I ran the numbers, asked the hard questions, got samples, and put gear through its paces.

Here's what I kept running into:

Some places could hit a great price point. But when the samples showed up, you could feel the difference the second you picked them up. Thin walls. Rough welds. That slightly off feeling you get when something was built fast, but not built right. Not what I want my name on.

Other places could genuinely nail the quality — but the price tag was brutal. We're talking double or triple what we needed to land at to make Salty Summit accessible to the people it's made for: Cyclists who want something that actually lasts without selling a kidney to afford it.

And then there was Baoji.

What Actually Makes Baoji Different

Baoji is a city in Shaanxi Province, China, and it's been quietly running the titanium world for decades. They call it "Titanium Valley" — and that nickname is earned.

The city is home to over 600 companies operating in the titanium industry, and it produces around 65% of China's entire titanium output. Globally, Baoji accounts for roughly 33% of the world's titanium production. That's not a small operation — that's a city that has built its entire identity around one metal and gotten really, really good at it.

The history goes back to the 1950s and 60s, when China started investing in titanium specifically for its aerospace and defense industries. Baoji had the right resources, the right geography, and eventually the right people. Generations of engineers, metallurgists, and craftspeople have grown up working titanium here. It's not something you replicate overnight somewhere else.

Today, manufacturers in Baoji can produce over 5,000 specifications of titanium and titanium alloy products — everything from aircraft engine components to medical implants to, yes, your bottle cages. These aren't factories that dabble in titanium. This is all they do.

The Titanium Nerd Stuff (Bear With Me)

Here's what makes titanium from a place like Baoji genuinely different from titanium sourced somewhere without that depth of experience.

Titanium is tricky. It's incredibly strong and lightweight, which is exactly why it's used in jet engines, submarines, and surgical tools. But working with it requires real expertise. It's reactive at high temperatures, it's tough on tooling, and getting the alloy composition right matters. Cut corners on any of that, and you end up with gear that might look fine but won't hold up when it counts.

The suppliers in Baoji operate under aerospace-grade quality standards — things like ISO 9001 and AS9100 certifications. Testing isn't an afterthought; it's baked into every batch. Spectral analysis, mechanical performance testing, ultrasonic checks. The infrastructure and institutional knowledge built up over 70+ years of doing this means quality control isn't something they have to try hard at — it's just how they work.

That's the kind of manufacturing partner you want behind your bottle cages and accessories.

Back to the Math

So here's where it landed: Baoji gave me the quality ceiling I was looking for, at a price that made Salty Summit actually attainable.

The alternatives were basically: pay more for comparable quality elsewhere, or pay less and get something worse. Neither of those felt right. Baoji was the place where both things lined up — where the knowledge is deep, the supply chain is fully integrated from raw sponge titanium all the way to finished product, and the output can compete with anyone in the world.

That felt like the right call for a brand that's supposed to be about getting outside and having a good time, not spending half your trip worried about whether your spork is going to survive.

So When You Pick Up a Piece of Salty Summit Gear...

You're holding something made in a city that has been obsessing over titanium since before most of our parents were born. A city that supplies the aerospace industry, the medical device world, and now, your next day on the bike.

Not because it was the cheap route. Because it was the right one.