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Saving America’s Footwear
Industry - Part 1
As America continues to lose
manufacturing jobs at a dizzying pace, the footwear industry is no
exception. New Balance still makes about 30% of its tennis/walking shoes
here, but what about dress shoes and work boots?
According to the emails I have received from subscribers of the Buy American
Mention of the Week, Mason Shoes has closed the doors on its U.S.
manufacturing facilities, and the Dexter factory that made the two pairs of
shoes I currently have in my closet has called it quits in the
U.S. as well.
Fortunately, there are at least two other U.S.-based footwear companies that
continue to produce in the United
States. For more information on these two companies, visit the websites
www.danner.com and
www.capeshoe.com.
I found out about the Danner Shoe Manufacturing Company from one of the over
600 subscribers to the Buy American Mention of the Week. Danner makes all of
their shoes and boots at their 30,000 square foot factory in Portland, Oregon, where they have done so
since 1936. Danner also pays union wages.
Cape Shoe Company started in the late 1990’s, after Florsheim closed its
Cape Girardeau, Missouri factory and transferred production overseas.
Revving the facility back up was a pretty gutsy move by owner Eli Fishman,
since the outlook for an upstart footwear maker in the United States in the
late 1990’s wasn’t particularly promising, to say the least. The Cape Shoe
Company boasts that their products are 100% made in USA and all components
are provided by American suppliers in American factories.
America’s constant bleeding in the manufacturing sector continues to amaze
me. The facts and figures are clearly on the side of those who point to the
benefits of favoring domestic producers over favoring foreign producers.
It is widely known that consumer spending makes up 2/3 of the economy, yet
we continue to favor trade policies in this country that tend to only lower
the wages of American workers by putting them in head-to-head competition
with much lower paid foreign workers.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, manufacturing wages
nationwide are 20% higher than the average American wage. Even free-trade
economist Lori Kletzer from the University of California at Santa Cruz
admits workers who lose their jobs because of either trade or technology
earn an average 13% less when they find a new one, and close to 25% earn a
whopping 30% less at their new job. And of course the money lost while
trying to land that new job can never be recovered.
The National Association of Manufacturers claims that our massive and
growing trade deficit shaves up to 2% off our GDP. I can remember in the
late 1990’s when that figure was closer to 1%. The stakes are clearly higher
now.
With all the evidence pointing to a strong manufacturing base as the key to
at least part of America’s prosperity, you would think that today’s economic optimists would
actually favor a strong national manufacturing base, but they do not. I
think these optimists spend too much time analyzing the economy and not
enough time living in it.
As the current optimists (who are always optimistic as long as economic
theories from economic textbooks dictate trade policy) depend on consumers
to not only keep America’s growth engine turning, but also the growth engine
of the entire global economic system, you would think they would realize
that consumers can only be as affluent as they are wage-earners. Both
protection and favoritism for our own domestic producers over foreign
producers is the key. The longer we fail to realize that, the longer the
economy will remain in the tank.
As far as domestic production for footwear is concerned, as well as any
other industry, American consumers who once supported now-shuttered domestic
factories must redirect their dollars to the domestic factories that remain.
It is essentially vital to this economy that we continue to have at least a
minor presence in each and every manufacturing industry. So I would suggest
a visit to
www.danner.com
and
www.capeshoe.com. America’s self-sufficiency,
Independence and prosperity may depend on it. Buy American shoes and boots
now or there may soon not be any American shoes and boots left to buy.
Roger Simmermaker, Author
How Americans Can Buy American
www.howtobuyamerican.com
Saving America's Footwear Industry, Part 2
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