For those that actually want to understand the issues… Again, robotics/automation. Those manufacturing jobs aren’t coming back.
And if you folks really care about american manufacturing, again you would put your money where your mouth is, and spend $150-200/pair for Made in USA new balance sneakers, the only company that still makes 1/4 of its shoes here in the US. But I’m guessing, despite the rhetoric, many of you don’t, do you?
Put your money where your mouth is. I can personally tell you the sneakers are great, at $150-200/pair… Plus right now, you get 15% off and free shipping.
TAKING THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRADE
New Balance, based in Boston, makes only about a quarter of the shoes it sells in the U.S. at its five New England factories, and figures that costs 25 percent to 35 percent more than it would to make them in Asia.
The private company, owned by former marathoner Jim David and his wife Ann, says it makes up for that cost disadvantage in part by producing higher-end and customized shoes in those U.S. plants. If the company were publicly traded, it would likely face pressure from shareholders to move all its production abroad.
Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike imports nearly all its shoes, and fought for the Trans Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that became a lightning rod in the recent presidential campaign. Nike said last year that it would create 10,000 manufacturing and engineering jobs in the U.S. if the deal were adopted. Nike has clarified that those jobs would largely be aimed at creating more automated factories, not old-style production that would employ thousands of assemblers.
New Balance fought the TPP, arguing that it would jeopardize its U.S. plants by giving competitors like Nike more profits they could pour into developing new machines, products and advertising.
TURNING TO ROBOTS, NOT PEOPLE
Beyond the furor, shoemakers are experimenting with ways to take human labor out of manufacturing their goods, wherever they are made.
Reebok, the Canton, Massachusetts-based shoe company now owned by Germany’s Adidas AG, is building a laboratory in Rhode Island to refine a process to make shoes with liquid plastic.
“We’re looking at the entire process of shoe making from end to end with a clean sheet,” says Bill McInnis, who heads up the program to develop the company’s manufacturing process.
