SKOWHEGAN — New Balance’s “Made in America” line of athletic footwear begins in Skowhegan with plant manager Patrick Welch.
He who knows all 300 of his employees by their first name.
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It’s just part of the commitment to success, Welch said Thursday, hosting a tour of the manufacturing plant for Assistant U.S. Secretary of Commerce for Import Administration Paul Piquado.
“I think the leader should take a big role — essentially the responsibility is mine to ensure that we’re safe, we’re making quality and delivering to our customers on time what they expect,” Welch said at the Walnut Street plant. “I know the folks that I work with, both from a management perspective and leadership group to the direct labor workforce. Without them I know I can’t be successful.”
Exported worldwide, New Balance is the only company to still manufacture athletic shoes in the U.S. The company has about 1,000 employees in Maine, including a plant in nearby Norridgewock and another in Norway. The company in 2011 reported worldwide sales of $2.04 billion, according to Amy Dow, New Balance communications manager in Boston.
Piquado, who oversees the Office of Textiles and Apparel, was accompanied for the tour Thursday by Kim Glas, deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Textiles and Apparel at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Piquado said he wanted to see the product and the people at work as part the Obama administration’s commitment to promote manufacturing in America.
“I wanted to see for myself the good work that has been accomplished here in Maine in the footwear industry,” he said. “There have been a number of initiatives the administration has taken to promote manufacturing — over 500,000 new manufacturing jobs actually have been added in the past few years.”
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about 495,000 more manufacturing jobs in the United States now than in January 2010, but about a million manufacturing jobs were lost in the year after the Obama administration took office in January 2009.
Piquado said U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson has said he wants “to build it here and sell it everywhere.”
Ten percent of New Balance athletic shoes are exported worldwide. Piquado said Maine has done a good job in exporting its products, increasing exports by about one-third since 2009.
“This place is fantastic, I have to tell you,” Piquado said of the four-story Skowhegan plant. “I was really excited to come and see this facility. I actually have never seen a footwear operation. When you go to buy a pair of shoes, you don’t really understand what goes into that product.”
The tour Thursday morning took Piquado and Glas through the “value stream” of manufacturing, from stitching the panels, or saddles, that make up each shoe to the dies and lasts that form the shoe and the stitching that embroiders the New Balance Made in America logo.
Welch said New Balance does not manufacture the soles of its athletic shoes, which make up about 15 percent of the entire shoe. They are made in Asia, he said, noting that it takes 16 weeks for the soles to be shipped by boat to Maine.
“That’s not very efficient, so we’d like to tighten that up by producing our own and not being dependent,” Welch said. “It is always a goal, a consistent attempt to create everything here in the U.S. where it’s viable and economical and environmental friendly; that’s a key to us.”
Matthew LeBretton, director of public affairs at New Balance, said under an agreement with the Department of Commerce, in order to be certified Made In the USA, a minimum of 70 percent of the shoe has to be made domestically.
“We strive to be in the 80 to 85 percent range for all of our shoes — that includes everything; the parts and the labor,” LeBretton said during the tour. “Even the inserts are made in Maine. Eventually you’re going to see instead of an exodus of manufacturing an ‘inodus’ — people coming back to work in America.”
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
dharlow@centralmaine.com
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