Allen Edmonds Shoe Corp.
201 E. Seven Hills Road, Port Washington
Industry: Men’s shoes and accessories
Employees: about 300
Manufacturing in the Milwaukee area usually conveys the image of motorcycles, mining machinery, giant gears, or other heavy equipment related imagery.
However, one of the country’s best-known manufacturers of high-end men’s footwear has been based in Port Washington, about half and hour north of Milwaukee, for almost 90 years. The shoes made by the Allen Edmonds Shoe Corp. are legendary for their quality, fit and durability – and many styles sell for $300 or more.
Allen Edmonds sells 75 different styles of shoes, all available in three or four colors and leather finishes. Ninety percent of Allen Edmonds’ shoes are made in the U.S. The company also has a small manufacturing facility in the Dominican Republic, where it makes its slipper-style shoes.
Because of its reputation for quality, Allen Edmonds is able to sell many of its shoe styles at $300 and higher, said Paul Grangaard, president and chief executive officer of the company.
“With the kinds of shoes we sell, at the upper end of the market, there is more room to get American craftsmanship and value into the shoe,” he said.
The company’s employees in Port Washington follow a 212-step process while they are making shoes. The company makes virtually every piece of its shoes itself in its facility – from soles to tongues to cork-injected inside soles that mold themselves to the wearer’s foot over time.
“That 212 step process gives us time (to add the value) that allows us to sell our shoes at that price,” Grangaard said.
Many of the company’s employees look more like artisans than someone working in the manufacturing sector. The workers frequently blend colors of dye or finish to create customized looks on specific models of shoe. Others are charged with buffing and polishing the shoes to a high glaze and shine near the end of production.
Despite the artistic flourishes, Allen Edmonds is capable of significant output, up to 1,600 pairs of shoes per day.
Allen Edmonds doesn’t just make shoes in Port Washington. It also refurbishes old Allen Edmonds shoes in a process that it calls recrafting. The company expects to recraft about 60,000 pairs of shoes this year, returning them to like-new condition with new soles, heels and other structural elements.
“We believe that we’re the largest shoe cobbler in the world,” Grangaard said. “That’s a huge part of our customer service promise.”
Allen Edmonds’ shoe factory and administrative offices are about 50,000 square feet. The company also has a second 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility across the street from its factory, where it makes cedar shoe trees, tie hangers and belt hangers. The company recrafts shoes in that facility, Grangaard said.
Allen Edmonds is owned by the Minneapolis-based private equity firm Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison, which acquired a majority stake in the firm in 2006. The company now has about 300 employees in Port Washington. That number will grow significantly in the next several years, Grangaard said.
Allen Edmonds will soon build another shoe production line in one of its Port Washington facilities, where it will make loafers. The company is selling a facility in Maine where it made loafers and will consolidate that operation into its Port Washington operations.
The company has received a $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant Economic Development grant to build the expected $3 million loafer line. The company anticipates it could hire another 200 employees as a result of the new line. If it hires all of them, the state loan will be forgiven.
“We can’t afford to run in two states,” Grangaard said. “We’ve laid some people (in Maine) off, and we’ll move the rest to Wisconsin. We’ll have all of our production in Wisconsin, where we can pay more attention to it and build it up over time.”
