Meanings
- uncountablebusinessA gradual, deliberate reduction in the quality of manufactured goods in order to increase profit margins.
The lack of a defined standard is concerning for quality fade—the phenomenon whereby manufacturers deliberately but surreptitiously reduce material quality to widen profit margins.
2021 November 1, Rotem Naftalovich, Marko Oydanich, Tolga Berkman, Andrew John Iskander, “Quality Fade in Medical Device Manufacturing: Thinness of Airway Breathing Circuit Plastic”, in Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, →DOI2 more examples
Chinese factories often engaged in this sort of quality fade—the incremental degradation of a product over time. They quietly reduced the amount of materials or else manipulated the quality of raw inputs.
2009, Paul Middler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the Tactics behind China’s Production Game, page 96In this paper, quality fade, an element of supply chain vulnerability, is defined as the unforeseen deterioration of agreed to or expected quality levels with respect to product and/or service requirements. The use of outcome‐based, behavior‐based, or mix contracts can be used to reduce the likelihood of quality fade and illustrate preferred scenarios for buyer and suppliers.
2010 August 16, Judith M. Whipple, Joseph Roh, “Agency theory and quality fade in buyer‐supplier relationships”, in The International Journal of Logistics Management, volume 21, number 3Synonyms: skimpflation
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA gradual, deliberate reduction in the quality of manufactured goods in order to increase profit margins.
Origin
Coined by Paul Midler, author of Poorly Made in China (2009).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
quality fade. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quality%20fade
“quality fade.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quality%20fade. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quality fade,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quality%20fade.
Source: quality fade on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.