This has always happened regardless of where they are made, it's just an issue with the cheap design, people think because it's made in china the quality has gone down hill but it's not true it's always been the same flawed design.

Happened to my AKG k7XX, it's unfortunate the K6 and K7 series have this design flaw as well as the elastics eventually wearing out. They are great headphones otherwise.

If you want solid build quality I would look into Beyerdynamic headphones.