Australian-Made Update: What's Changed | Flat Out Updates

While many of our Flat Out products are made right here in Australia, not all of them are. We’ve made some changes over the last couple of years that have caused a bit of confusion, and it has never been our intention to mislead anyone.

We're sharing this now so people can understand the "why" behind our decisions. We know many companies move production overseas just to increase profit margins, often resulting in a drop in quality. That is not who we are. If our goal was simply to make more money, we would have handled this very differently.

What is Still Australian Made?

We remain deeply committed to the local businesses we’ve partnered with for over 25 years.

Multi-Reels: These are made in Smithfield, Sydney, by a small family business. We’ve worked with John for over 20 years, and he is a vital part of the Flat Out family.

Sullage Hoses: These are manufactured in Silverwater. We ship the Multi-Reels to their factory so the tubing can be wound directly into the units as they are produced. The fittings are made on the Central Coast, the reels in Smithfield, and the hose in Silverwater.

Apparel & Accessories: Even our T-shirts (sourced from WA) and our stubby coolers are Australian-made. We support local manufacturing wherever we possibly can.

Why Some Products Moved Overseas

Extension Leads

We spent years trying to find a way to make these in Australia. While we could source local cabling, we couldn't find a manufacturer capable of producing the high-quality, one-piece molded ends we required. The only local alternative was "screw-on" ends, which would have lowered the overall quality. We chose to go overseas specifically to ensure a superior, safer product.

The Teal Drink Water Hose

Our original Melbourne factory changed its manufacturing process and could no longer produce our white hose. We exhausted every local option to keep production in the country. Some companies could make the outer jacket but not the anti-taint polyurethane lining; others could make the lining but couldn't get it to bond to the hose.

By moving production overseas, we achieved two major goals:

1. Consistency: Our local batches often had inconsistent thickness, making them hard to reel. The new manufacturing process ensures every inch of the hose is identical.
2. Affordability: Despite the high tech involved, the move allowed us to actually lower the price for you.

Read more here: About the New Teal Hose (and what's happened to the blue one)

Our Continued Promise

Logistically, we still do things the hard way to support local jobs. For our overseas-sourced hoses, we still ship them back to John in Smithfield so he can wind them onto his Australian-made reels. If we were only chasing profits, we would have moved the reel production overseas too, but we won't do that.

We are 25 years in, and we are committed to awesome gear and honest manufacturing.

If you ever have a concern, our warranty and customer service team are here to help.

Watch as Zoe talks about this update below: