Last year there was a bunch of stuff about Mathews quality failing. I don't know what the truth is, but it looked better to me. That is just based on the bow I bought, and the ones I looked at. I was shocked when I finally saw one. I really wasn't expecting much, after all the running down, and they were the nicest bows I had ever seen. No question the colours were poor quality. My rootbeer was nice, if you like cherry red. But aside from that I didn't see anything to worry about. Certainly my one bow tells me nothing about how well they would last. Quality control is all about there not being any bad one. Getting 90% perfect constitutes a big failure, so I can't speak for the wider market. But them few people really can.