so why are the bars made in canada? i know costs but steel?
York sold most or all of their US factories (I'm not sure who handles the gym quality benches, racks, etc....). They do have good relations with York Canada, which is a related company, so the high end bars, plates, and other things go through them now. York Canada still does well, and has its own foundry, machine shops, etc.... in Ontario.
There was a bit of a scandal years ago, when York USA tried to switch all the bars to Chinese manufacture. There wasn't a huge reduction in price, and there were a few embarrassing cases of the sleeves breaking, so the high end bars were moved to Canada. Some of the higher end plates are / were made there and the US too, but a look at the website shows that the Canadian plates are reduced for quick sale, so York might be going all Chinese in the future.
York used to use a US company called Wolfe Machine / Iron Wolfe Barbell to make their high end stuff, but it got too expensive, and they didn't want to pay. Wolf Machine / Iron Wolf went on make there own line of bars for a while, and is in sort of on again/off again status now.
It's just really expensive to have any barbell manufacture in the US any more.
