Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Sailor Neil Pryde’s swollen ego gobbles China, beats down the working man

Neil Pryde is Asia' top racing class sailor according to, get this, Neil Pryde. Take a look at his article about himself here. This is a sport where “ego” has been elevated to an art form but I think old Neil has set a high water mark. He apparently interviewed himself about himself...maybe it’s something they do in Hong Kong, can’t say, never been there. No doubt Neil is a pretty good sailor but hey, is there any kind of ethical standard for flagrant self-promotion. The answer is no. What he failed to ask – a pitfall of interviewing yourself - were hard questions he didn’t want to answer. Such as “What are (my) your thoughts about the challenges your (my) company (NeilPryde Sails) has faced with labor relations in Asia? Or how about, “Are you (am I) actually guilty of exploiting poor and uneducated Chinese to make sails and sportswear for rich people?” Of course we’d all rather hear about Neil’s “best sailing memory” as opposed to his oppression of the proletariat. I mean indentured servitude is such a bummer. (credit to Anarchy forum for finding this gem)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, get real !! There are more important and appropriate things to write about than an effigy lynching of a Sail maker hiring cheap Chinese labor in the age old quest to earn a better profit and alluding to the rich being synonymous with all that's distasteful in the world. You sound like the hollow liberals in Congress.

How about crusading for air & water purity instead of spewing the worn-out altruistic protection of the so-called disadvantaged prolitariat. Let the workers decide their own fate and where and who they want to work for. Neil may be a jerk, I don't know, but his employees are probably happy to even be working at all. And for sure they are not forced to work for him.

Futhermore, are you going to rail against the untold numbers of other businesses doing the same thing? Are going to begin a crusade against the rich too? The rich are the one's who make the sailing world exciting as well as donating to alot of worthy causes.

I don't earn much, but I'm certainly not going to bite the hand that feeds me, and I suggest that you waste thousands of hours researching manufacturers and that you stop buying the thousands of products they make affordable by using cheap labor.

Anonymous said...

Jerry is spot on and I worked for Neil running his Windsurfing North America division from 92-96..

I spent many weekends with Neil putting to practice both his and my work ethics ..He was the best mentor a lower class kid could ask for!

I also had a lot of interaction with the factory and its various levels of employees as a factory(OEM) agent, this factory is one of the most respected and many a worker has waited to get this desirable position with this firm..

Neil has done very well in many a downturned market by being flexible and fast and working Seven day weeks.. Your work ethic may or may not be of this caliber. You be the judge.

Neil did note often : " Human beings are competitive by nature, just look at how aggressively folks drive their cars!"

Steve Reinehr--

Owner of Two top sporting goods companies , now.

I also grew up on Sunfish and Lasers that friends had or rented in Mpls, MN.. and Ice sailed a bit.

China is changing at a rapid rate and the ground swell of Middle class in this region will arise in our lifetime.

You and I do not want to spend, for example , $300 for high end tennis shoes. China ,Sri Lanka , Taiwan make products that Americans , Japaneese, and most developed nations populations will not.

The market is driven by consumer demand and this is our responsibility.. My neighbor growing up was a man by the name of Al Frankin. So you can see my liberal bleeding heart.