Quality Harness Not Made in a Sweatshop?

I recently bought a Petzl Corax to replace my old one which I loved but needed to be retired. I was kinda disappointed because the new one I got was made in Vietnam and felt like a cheap toy in comparison to the old one which was made in France. I returned it and decided to put my money where my mouth is and buy an American-made harness from Misty, but I had to return it because of sketchy material quality in the belay loop (my opinion). Wondering if anyone can recommend a quality harness from a company with ethical labor practices, preferably something made in the USA or Europe.

No recommendations, unfortunately. I would love to hear more about the "sketchy material quality" in the Misty Mountain harness. What did they have to say about it?

It's outdated and also maybe a little bit prejudiced that every piece of textile that comes from South-East Asia must be from a sweat shop. There's a lot of high-quality textile mills in those countries, to the point that they're better at some things than literally everywhere else. 

Your old one might just be more old-school, which no doubt means heavier and more burly. Doesn't mean it's of higher quality. 

Metolius has quality (though somewhat old-school styled) harnesses made in the U.S. One benefit of their harnesses is that you'll never have to worry about losing gear due to a gear loop breaking. https://www.metoliusclimbing.com/climbing-harnesses.html

Ocun harnesses are made in Czech. 

Full disclosure: I work for them.

Brandon R wrote:

Metolius has quality (though somewhat old-school styled) harnesses made in the U.S. One benefit of their harnesses is that you'll never have to worry about losing gear due to a gear loop breaking. https://www.metoliusclimbing.com/climbing-harnesses.html

I also love my Metolius Safe-Tech harnesses. I'm on my third one, due to replacing each after several years, and also getting fatter and needing to go up a size. I find them to be extremely durable (like, Vedauwoo grovel chimney durable), quite comfortable, and as silly as it sounds, 20kn gear loops are just an awesome thing to go excessive on! I love the double belay loops, it makes hanging at multipitch anchors a little more comfortable by being able to separate out all the assorted crap you can end up clipped to.

 misty mountain? 

I've had a Cadillac QA for 1.5 years and have no complaints, it's the most comfortable harness I've ever had. Especially when it's loaded with a double rack. I had a warranty issue with the elastic that connects the belt to the leg loops, they sent me a shipping label to mail it back and it was repaired and back in my pack in less than a week. Great product and great customer service in my opinion. For me,  it's also a local company I want to support. Like others, I'm curious what your sketchy material complaint is?

There's already an entire thread on this.

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/123947320/what-harness-is-made-in-usa-or-europe#ForumMessage-123947483

Short Fall Sean wrote:

Ocun harnesses are made in Czech. 

Full disclosure: I work for them.

I have a twist tech and my buddy has the bigwall. We have zero complaints. +1 for ocun 

Cameron Preston wrote:

I have a twist tech and my buddy has the bigwall. We have zero complaints. +1 for ocun 

Thanks Cameron, glad you like them!

Cameron Preston wrote:

I have a twist tech and my buddy has the bigwall. We have zero complaints. +1 for ocun 

What other harnesses have you used? I need a new harness and have used Petzl for my entire climbing career. I lost weight and now I dont fit a small or medium from Petzl well. How does belay loop rise compare to Petzl on the men's harnesses?

Thomas Worsham wrote:

What other harnesses have you used? I need a new harness and have used Petzl for my entire climbing career. I lost weight and now I dont fit a small or medium from Petzl well. How does belay loop rise compare to Petzl on the men's harnesses?

As far as the belay loop it's hard to say cause I haven't owned any petzl harness. The gear loops are my make or break for a harness, second is leg loop closure. All my sport and ice is done in the ocun. Any trad and aid is done with my Cadillac. What's nice about both these harnesses is the ability to center the harness no matter how loose or tight it fits. 

Cameron Preston wrote:

As far as the belay loop it's hard to say cause I haven't owned any petzl harness. The gear loops are my make or break for a harness, second is leg loop closure. All my sport and ice is done in the ocun. Any trad and aid is done with my Cadillac. What's nice about both these harnesses is the ability to center the harness no matter how loose or tight it fits. 

Do they have floating wedding or 2-buckle waists?

Thomas Worsham wrote:

Do they have floating wedding or 2-buckle waists?

Ocun is the floating webbing. Misty s 2 buckle 

Cameron Preston wrote:

Ocun is the floating webbing. Misty s 2 buckle 

Which model is the Ocun?

DMM harnesses are made in Czech. They're good quality.

Duncan Domingue wrote:

I also love my Metolius Safe-Tech harnesses. I'm on my third one, due to replacing each after several years, and also getting fatter and needing to go up a size. I find them to be extremely durable (like, Vedauwoo grovel chimney durable), quite comfortable, and as silly as it sounds, 20kn gear loops are just an awesome thing to go excessive on! I love the double belay loops, it makes hanging at multipitch anchors a little more comfortable by being able to separate out all the assorted crap you can end up clipped to.

Pretty sure the gear loops aren't rated to 20kn of you read the manual i think it's around 7 to 10kn...burley but not "full strength belay loop burley"... 

Andrew Lamb wrote:

Pretty sure the gear loops aren't rated to 20kn of you read the manual i think it's around 7 to 10kn...burley but not "full strength belay loop burley"... 

Thanks for the heads up! Glad I never tested it!

They're certainly burly enough for aid climbing, when you have the whole kitchen sink hanging off of your harness 

Yates

Arc'teryx harnesses still made in North Vancouver.