These are all high quality, well made, durable products that cover all my needs and are a better value for me than cheap imported products.
This is an outdated stereotype. Asian manufacturers have well and truly moved up the value chain and currently produce many high quality products.
Yes you can still buy cheap low quality shoes produced in Asia, but you can also buy extremely high quality durable shoes if you so desire.
I live in my Blunnies, I wear them daily but the quality has varied on the 500's over time, generally for the worse. I bought a pair in Australia circa 2002. I had them resoled by NuShoe but eventually the leather and elastic panels wore out. The two pairs I currently have were made in Vietnam, both about ten years old. One pair had the sole crumble and disintegrate, the other is fine. On both the leather is holding up but the elastic panels are shot. My son had a pair of Super 550's made in China that lasted a year before the leather gave up on one toe and a leak formed at the welt. I intend to replace mine with Redwing Heritage Chelsea boots and see how they hold up.
For what it's worth, John Fluevog shoe quality also went down when the manufacturing went from Vietnam to China. My first pair I bought in Canada (no idea of the origin) and ruined the leather, my second were from Vietnam and still look great after many years of light use, the third pair and only ones I ordered online were made in China and the quality is gone- the "angelic sole" is softer, the leather cracked, the stitching is poor, the insole was badly fitted and wore and the inner heel on one wore out. They look cool but I won't buy more.
I totally agree. Most imports to the U.S., however, are of the low cost, low quality variety.
I will never buy another pair of flip-flops. So comfortable and the durability is so good I'm only on my second pair after 15 years of very consistent use. I literally run the treads out.
Breaking them in takes a solid month which is just getting your foot imprinted into the cork... but any initial discomfort is 100% worth it, and minimal in my experience.
There's also a very good warranty but I haven't personally used it.
So you’re part of that 1%, congratulations.
Round House overalls and jeans, Oklahoma. (Really great quality, lightweight denim, great for hot weather.)
Justin/Tony Lama boots, Fort Worth and El Paso, TX.
Socks from Cabellas/Bass Pro.
I go out of my way to buy American, but these goods don't cost much (if any) more than normal items.
Sure there are still people finding and loving US made shoes, there’s 1% of them according to the article, which in absolute number is a pretty big number of people (around 3 million people ?)
All these 3 million people coming out of the woodwork to tell their stories feel a bit like explaining how much their town has a nice neighborhood when commenting on nationwide mass incarceration. Sure, good for them, but I’m not sure what we should take away from that.
I'm trying to support US manufacturing where I can, but as far as I can tell, the choice to outsource was made to increase margins, not because of rising costs.
For instance some of Nike's flyknit series are way more comfortable, light and flexible that what local makers have to offer. It costs more churning through pairs, and going the built to order way adds to the cost, so it's not a cheap option. Margins might be huge for Nike, but I don't think they are much higher than for instance leather shoes retailed with 4 figure prices.
Local makers will go for "hand crafted", "built to last" shoes, there are as you say specialty shoes, and some luxury level local brands keeping classic designs. But I don't see it as forgoing margins, and more going for niches that don't need huge R&D development for manufacturing at scale.