A Brief History of Shoe Manufacturing the United States (Part Two)

By the late 19th century, shoes were largely stated in factories that specialized in a minute step of the shoemaking process. Materials, parts and products were shipped around the US. And a standardized American sizing system was finally put into practice.

The emergence of massive shoe factories led to the synthesis of shoemaking unions such as the Boot and Shoe Workers Union (formed in 1895) and the United Shoe Workers of America. Some of those unions continued to be major plays well to the 20th century.

By the turn of the century, the American shoemaking industry employed over 200,000 people and produced approximately 331 million pairs of shoes per year. The Northeast was still the regional capital of shoemaking in the United States, but shoe companies had begun to develop in the South and the West as well. This industrial landscape wouldn't last long. American shoe companies struggled to recover after World War I. Exporting significantly more than 75 million dollars in shoes before WWI, the American market was overwhelmed by foreign imports in the post-war years. It struggled to match advances in technology such as for example canvas shoes, shoes with rubber soles and shoes created from synthetic (rather than leather) material how to make custom high heels. It wasn't before the advent of athletic and basketball shoes that American shoe companies finally found their niche. The American sneaker quickly became an advertising success, and business (for certain savvy companies) boomed.

Things really took off for American shoe companies like Nike in the 1970s when jogging became a national pastime. Running shoes stated in the United States were at the the top of game. These new shoes were expensive (up to 80 dollars a pair) and quickly became symbols of status and style.

Today hardly any "American" sneakers are in reality produced in the United States. Globalization has led to the outsourcing of labor to cheaper markets such as for example China, Korea and Vietnam. Some American shoe companies tried to disguise the fact American sneakers were actually "Made in China", but right now, this really is widely accepted to be true. By 1997, only New Balance, Converse and Hyde Athletics maintained any shoe factories in the United States at all. (Although most of these companies also had factories in Asia.) This outsourcing of American shoes is controversial, but it will most likely not be reversed as long as Asian markets remain a low priced place to execute manual labor.