Concerning quality staying the same when moving production- well that is debatable. When Pendleton moved their wool sewing to "assembled in Mexico" the quality is not the same as the USA made shirts were. The wool was still made/ woven here ( and still might be) and then was shipped off to Mexico for "assembling"/ sewing.
Well, a few years ago ( probably 10) I spoke with one of the customer service reps in Portland and asked her what her opinion was of the Mexican stuff. She said- " well, the wool fabric is still the same as it always is because it is still manufactured and woven here like it has been for years. But it is the assembling part where you can see a difference. When it was all sewn here by the same people that did it for years and who all knew each other very well- the quality was just better, and you can see it in the seems, etc." She said- "You have to expect that, because you can't just go and replicate that." and she said- "The average person may not be able to tell, but we can- for one because I think, in fact I know our quality control was better before".
I can tell also, because I have A Lot of the real old Pendleton wool shirts and have a couple of the "Assembled in Mexico" ones that I got as presents; and you can tell if you look close, the quality is not the same.
Funny thing- ( well really not that funny) just like all these deals, they never pass the savings on to the consumer. Because as soon as they moved to Mexico, their prices stayed the same and have kept going up over the years.
I think their blankets may be still USA made, but not sure on that.