Schmetz needles are no longer made in Germany where quality control was great. If you can read the TINY writing on the packages, you will see they are made elsewhere. (Quite some time ago I pointed this out and noted the name of the country where they are now made; I was quickly deleted by admin, for "bashing" I assume. So I won't name them here; read it for yourselves.)
My local Bernina dealer mentioned how many Schmetz needle packages he is having returned these days due to breakage. He is trying to get Organ needles to package their needles more like Schmetz does for customer convenience rather than in the little paper envelopes. Organ needles are English.
