My wife was extremely pleased to find that this item is Made in Japan--both because she takes it as a sign of quality and because she's Made in Japan herself.We're also familiar with this kind of product in Japan, where it's called a "gum towel."I bought two actually, one for her and one for me to use on my bicycles--thinking it would be something like a super absorbant chamois rather than a gum towel.  It's certainly super absorbant, but doesn't have the chamois quality I would need to, say, polish my bike frames.  That is to say it's more sticky than soft, more like a piece of foam rubber or neoprene than a cloth.So if I just hosed down the bike while cleaning and wanted to get on with the next steps of polishing and relubing, this towel is a great way to dry the bike when it's neither hot nor dry enough of a day for the bike to dry out on it's own in a fair amount of time.It really draws the water out too, from every knook and cranny, so no need to use DW-40 before lubing my nice clean parts.My wife uses ours for everything from picking up spills to quickly drying wet clothing that can't go in the dryer.  If you wash a sweater for example, it's best to roll it up in the Absorber before laying it out to dry, as this will cut your drying time to at least half and make it less of a hazard that the sweater will get out of shape.We use my far more grungy one as you might use a wet vac.  It actually does a better job than a wet vac though.Add that I've used several gum towels in Japan, mostly for swimming, and this is by far the thickest one I've used--therefore more absorbant.  And at 27" x 17" it's big enough to be used as a bath towel without having to ring it out over and over again.BOTTOM LINE:I recommend this particular make and model over others simply based on the large size and the thickness of the towel.Don't expect to use this to polish or dust, as the texture of the towel is far too sticky for that.I initially searched for the Sham-Wow on Amazon because I had seen it on TV, and still would like to try it out because it seems like it might be more chamois like--where you could wipe and polish with it.Overall, we're thrilled with the quality, size, and how well this item works.  Absolutely 5 stars.