Allen Edmonds - American Manufacturing

American Manufacturing

With about 98.5% of shoes sold in the U.S. produced overseas, Allen Edmonds is in a small minority of companies continuing to produce the majority of their shoes domestically. Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corporation's retired chairmen (and former owner), John Stollenwerk, once expressed a commitment to keep manufacturing in the U.S. In 2003, the company invested $1 million or 1.1% of the company's sales in a refitting of their factory intended to save 5% on the cost to produce each shoe. The factory has replaced assembly lines with teams of people working in groups where each employee does several different jobs. This new system reduces overtime, makes it easier to fill in for absent employees, reduces the time spent picking up and putting down shoes, and cuts down on the number of spoiled shoes.

Allen Edmonds pays their workers well, which puts them at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace. Wages, benefits, government regulations of the workplace, emissions permits, taxes, and health care costs are all significant costs that could be drastically reduced by locating production overseas in a developing country. Stollenwerk remarked that moving the operation to China could save as much as 60%, but expressed concern that such a move could lead to a decline in quality. He has also expressed concerns about social problems brought on by globalization, such as low wages and factory closings in the U.S.

In October 2007, Allen Edmonds was one of two currently operating shoemakers participating in a reunion of shoemakers at an exhibit in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine area.

Currently, shoe uppers for a few of Allen Edmonds styles are made in the Dominican Republic due to lack of shoe sewers in the United States. The raw materials are sent there from the U.S., where the uppers are sewn together, then shipped to the factories in Lewiston, Maine, and Port Washington, Wisconsin, where they are assembled with other shoe parts, thus allowing them to be considered "Made in the USA."

At some point Allen-Edmonds was sold to Trendmark a Swedish company that holds other brands such as Sebago, Musto and N-Z-A