Quality of Disney Merch?

[fairestoneofall]

I bought a very expensive tee in November - blue shirt with a picture of the castle on the front, covered in a little glitter - very cute. Washed it in the washing machine in my BWV villa and did not dry it. It shrank up so short that it didn't even reach my waist when I tried to wear it again. Guess what Disney said about it - it can't be returned after washing! No more expensive Disney tees for me - I will just buy the cheap Disney store ones that have never shrink.

i'm sorry to hear that. my DD and i have the same shirt and i've laundered (and dried) both multiple times and they are fine. i am actually pleased with how thick the cotton is (my other recent WDW tees are thin).

i think the merchandise is hit and miss. some things are great. some, not so much. one thing i was not impressed with is a lego-style set. we bought DS the splash mountain set. the blocks did not go together easily at all. i couldn't get some of them to link where they were supposed to.

my kids also have the light-up necklaces from the vendor who walks around before the parades. one has mickeys on it--that one quit working almost immediately. they have another that is just tubing with lights in it. that one is from november 2006 and still works! go figure!

 

[duketennisgal]

Yikes! How bad is bad? Like if someone (me) wears a medium, should I buy an extra large instead so that it shrinks to a medium? Or would that be too big? Thanks.

I would go up at least a size, I wouldn't do two sizes just in case it doesn't shrink up too much. The good thing is with hoodies/sweatshirts it's ok for them to be a little big.

 

[larryz]

Disney is about making money, pure and simple, so they cut corners, and they do this with slave labour in other countries. This is one of the main reasons we stopped buying too, as we aren't comfortable with this.


Tiger

You have credible sources for this allegation, of course?

 

[Tiger926]

Internet and newspapers have lots of info on slave labour, but it is difficult to pinpoint actual factories and companies as they hide this info. I'm a highschool teacher, so my students have done lots of projects on this. I don't have the links in front of me, but one of my students is working on this right now - they are investigating Nike, but we will look into Disney today. If you look at the country of origin, you'll be able to determine pretty much where child labour is being used - places like: Haiti, Burma, Vietnam and China, for instance, are notorious for this.

U.S. and Canada want cheap goods, and the companies want to make profit, so the only way to do this, is to produce and source goods overseas in cheap factories with cheap labour. I have a teaching colleague who runs a missionary in Haiti, and she has pretty much assured me that Disney does in fact use child labour as there are very young children that she knows of (she rescues them, and places them in school) who have worked for all of the major companies, Disney being one of them.

Despite what is posted in Disney's Corporate Responsibility code, there is much evidence to support the fact that this is not the case: http://corporate.disney.go.com/responsibility/codeofconduct.html.

Tiger

 

[Doc CW]

I dont think I've ever had a problem with Disney merch, that being said I usually only buy clothing, but every time I have bought a watch or something it has worked perfectly and I have had no problems with them.

 

[jngwright]

I bought a bunch of the shopping bags (10?) for myself and for gifts. They are green and have a tree with Mickey head leaves and say "Every Tree has Character". Very cute, but within one use-the seam came apart on all of them. I called the number on a receipt (I didn't have the receipt for the bags), they took my info and sent me all new bags. The new bags did the same thing, but-oh well. Merchandising was very helpful and did try to help me out!

All of the sweatshirts, except one (my husband's, come to think of it) have shrunk AT LEAST a size. And I am talking about the $49.95 sweatshirts! I guess I will have to try harder to shrink myself down iso I can fit into the sweatshirts

 

[larryz]

Disney is about making money, pure and simple, so they cut corners, and they do this with slave labour in other countries. This is one of the main reasons we stopped buying too, as we aren't comfortable with this.


Tiger

You have credible sources for this allegation, of course?

Internet and newspapers have lots of info on slave labour, but it is difficult to pinpoint actual factories and companies as they hide this info. I'm a highschool teacher, so my students have done lots of projects on this. I don't have the links in front of me, but one of my students is working on this right now - they are investigating Nike, but we will look into Disney today. If you look at the country of origin, you'll be able to determine pretty much where child labour is being used - places like: Haiti, Burma, Vietnam and China, for instance, are notorious for this.

U.S. and Canada want cheap goods, and the companies want to make profit, so the only way to do this, is to produce and source goods overseas in cheap factories with cheap labour. I have a teaching colleague who runs a missionary in Haiti, and she has pretty much assured me that Disney does in fact use child labour as there are very young children that she knows of (she rescues them, and places them in school) who have worked for all of the major companies, Disney being one of them.

Despite what is posted in Disney's Corporate Responsibility code, there is much evidence to support the fact that this is not the case: http://corporate.disney.go.com/responsibility/codeofconduct.html.

Tiger

So, in other words, no. You have impressions, suppositions, innuendo, heresay assurances -- no credible evidence -- but you blithely accuse Disney of exploiting slave labour.

Here's some interesting reading... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation.

 

[Tiger926]

So, in other words, no.

Yes, I said a who has lived and runs a Missionary in Haiti has said, yes, so that is a direct source.

I am not trying to hijack this thread, but if you know anything about how merchandise is sourced and produced, especially Dollar Store merchandise, which Disney has tons of, it is all produced overseas. Usually, they can't even tell you where they are produced because of labour issues. By the same token, if Disney is not using child labour (and I highly doubt they are, as they have in the past), then there are even bigger problems with quality control as most of their merchandise is of horrible quality.

It is the nature of the beast with cheap goods - although not cheap to customers, Disney's goods are cheap to source and produce, which means way more profit in their pockets.

Tiger

 

[jenrose66]

Thanks for the replies. I guess it looks like there does seem to be a trend here....

For our future trips we'll only buy one or two keepsakes and spend the rest of our extra cash on nicer meals or maybe upgrade hotels from value to mod.

 

[rosiep]

I think the quality is poor, but the customer service excellent.

My first purchase was a Tinkerbell locket. The chain broke on that within 3 months. I just put it on another chain I had.

My favorite Tinkerbell pullover (made from a terrycloth like material) has holes on it from where the applique was applied as well as in the spots where there are sparkley beads. It's my favorite around the house sweater so I don't mind it being worn.

I bought my son-in-law some patchwork pants but to my horror they ripped at the seams after the first wash. I paid almost $50 for those pants and since they were a gift I felt bad. I wrote Disney asking to exchange the pants but they sent me a new one without asking for the old ones.

It's a shame that the items are so poorly made. The only things that have held up seem to be the t-shirts I bought my husband.

 

[fluffycow333]

Everything I've bought seems fine, except for my Cheshire Cat charm bracelet that the clasp broke off. I sometimes make jewlery myself so I just took the charms off and put them on a new chain. I actually like it better this way than when I bought it.

 

[Sandy Fisher]

We occasionally buy toys, books, light-up things, etc. for kids for Christmas. I'm sure they last long enough to suit the kids. However, we've been disappointed with the quality of the shirts (both t-shirts and sweatshirts) over the past 5 years or even longer. They aren't as large, the material isn't as heavy, is poorer quality, etc. I can easily pick out which things I bought recently. The shirts from years ago are still good, didn't shrink, and kept their color.
We always buy at least one HEAVY sweatshirt or sweatshirt jacket each winter. And even paying $50 to 70 or more doesn't mean it will be a good one. I examine them very carefully now before we buy and always buy the best. Not that we have money to burn (we're retired!!) but when we are buying things to send across the country to our sons for Christmas or birthdays, we want it to be something nice.
Used to be able to just look at designs and pick a shirt off the rack. Not any longer.

 

[WLSILVERCREEKSPRINGS]

All of the shirts that we bought last time were of good quality and are holding up well, the dolls that DD bought the last 2 trips are also holding up well, no complaints here

 

[MSLRAC]

I have not been impressed with the quality of the items we bought at Disney on our recent trip. We had to exchange a Tink key chain and Mickey pony tail holder while we were still there. Within a couple of days of getting home, we had a broken Mickey key chain, two plush items that needed stitched up and a hoodie that shrunk and is misshapen to the point that it can't be worn. If it had just been one thing, I would not have had a problem but it seems as if everything we got was very poor quality and it was not cheap stuff.

 

[condorthb]

Two years ago we bought my son a light up Mickely collapsable sword at MNSSHP. That thing has taken a major beating from my son and still survives to this day.

 

[Spaceship Tigger]

I noticed that the photo album that we bought last year seems to be collapsing on itself as it sits up on our bookshelf. It's as if its not made from as sturdy of material that our previous ones are made of (that sit right alongside of it and have no problems). Not sure if there's anything different or if I'm imagining it.

What I do know is that the standard photo albums don't even show the year anymore. I'm afraid the one we get this trip may be exactly the same as the one we got last year.