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bjbj Paul: Hello, I'm Paul Grangaard; it's my privilege to be President and Chief Executive
Officer of Allen Edmonds Shoe Corporation. This company was founded in 1922, just after
the street in Belgium, Wisconsin. Today you are on the factory floor here in Port Washington,
Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan where we make great American shoes in this facility
every day. I'm glad to have you here, I hope you are interested in learning a little bit
of how shoes are made in this country. Jim Kass will be your host and will lead you on
this tour. Jim knows more about shoes than anybody I know and I know you are going to
enjoy it, thanks for tuning in. Jim: I'm Jim Kass; I'm the Vice President of Operations
with Allen Edmonds. I've worked at Allen Edmonds for 18 years. You are going to see a lot of
operators working without guides, stitching the marks, fitting the leather together by
feel and by touch, so it's really, truly an art form as well as a modern manufacturing
facility. We are going to take one of these uppers and we are going to stretch it down
over the last form. That actually is the precise size of the shoe that we are going to make.
We will attach that upper down to the insole inside the shoe and then we're going to sew
a flexible strip of leather all the way around the perimeter of the shoe and then what we
are going to do is we're going to sole the outsole to the welt. So essentially we are
binding the whole shoe together with the welt and the sole and we don t need to use the
steel shank because of that. We are one of the last welt shoe manufacturers in the world.
Ed: My name is Ed Pawlowski and I'm one of the team members in the Product Development
and Engineering department. This will be my 24th year. So there were a lot of shoe factories
in Wisconsin at the time I started in a pattern shop. As shoe factories were coming and going,
Allen Edmonds just kept building and building. On a day to day basis, I work on designing
and engineering new patterns, create the style lines, which we send to the cutter that we
have, the operator there will take those patterns and cut them from the leather that we choose.
We believe we are buying the best quality the best quality calfskin in the world, we
check different tanneries, we bring in different leathers and trial them for wearability and
such and we are confident that there isn't any better calfskin out there. Jim: This is
a walnut burnished calf here, here is a sample of black calf, this is a piece of Shell Cordovan,
and we will make some special shoes out of this raw material. Bob: The person who does
the cutting of the leather here at Allen Edmonds is very critical; they are responsible for
locating the pieces of the upper on the skin. How they place the die on the skin. Patricia:
My name is Patricia Bley and I'm a cutter at Allen Edmonds; for 48 years. I've helped
make the shoes for the Presidents already and for the Pope and for some of the actors,
we made the shoes for Ernie Borgnine. Cutters are the most important part of the process
because if it isn't cut properly, it can affect the whole shoe by being stretchy, crooked
that it has to lay a certain ways, I might cut a 1,000 feet in one day. Jim: We are in
the pre-fit area, she is marking so that the soling operators know how to sole everything
back together. Here is the skiving operation, where we are leaving some of that thickness
off the edge pieces of leather so that when we are soling back together, we don t get
a big, thick, heavy seam. Ed: Our fitting team will take all these various pieces and
based on the marks that the pre-fit department gave them, they stitch them all together either
by a single needle stitching or double needle stitching. Allen Edmonds' shoes are totally
handcrafted, each individual operator is relying on their hands, we still wanted at the end
of the day to be a classic American-made dress shoe. We're not going to compromise on any
of the things that we've been doing for 80 years. Jim: She is sewing the foxing to the
quarter on this shoe, putting the binding around the top line of the shoe, she is going
to edge stitch the lining in. Now we've got to put the lacing holes and the eyelet holes.
So now we've got this upper complete, first thing we would have to do is build the foundation
of the shoe, which is the insole. And that's how we last the upper too, we start with the
very durable but flexible piece of leather and these are cut size for size, so in 11c
is in 11c. We would apply a piece of biuret paper on the bottom of the insole and then
this insole get put on to the bottom of the last, and then what we do is we select the
last to make with the upper and the insole, so this is our inventory of the last along
here, we have got about 50,000 pair of last in inventory, all different sizes, shapes
and styles. Bob: My name is Bob Steffes. I'm in-charge of the finishing department here
at Allen Edmonds. I've worked at Allen Edmonds for 10 years. I take a lot of pride in the
product that we make. The lasting process is very similar to what we did 20, 30 years
ago, we will actually take an upper and we will attach it to the bottom of the insole.
Jim: So we staff the size inside the shoe right before we put it to lasting and then
we are going to take the insole and attach it to the bottom of the last and then we are
going to take the upper, we're going to bring it down over the top of the last to form the
shape of the shoe. We add some heat and steam in this operation here to make the leather
nice and soft, so I want to use this lasting equipment to pack it and place, the shoe takes
it form. Those operations last a four part down, we still have the side and back that
needs to be lasted, so with the buyers these guys will pull the leather down around the
last and attach it to the insole and get it ready for the welt to go on. We are going
to protect the shoe and the leather going down the line with a shrink-wrapping process
and we leave this on and now we are actually ready to finish the shoe, keeps the moisture
in the leather and it also protects the shoe as we are working on it. This is a really
important step for Allen Edmonds, this is the welt going on with the shoe, this is an
example of a 360 degree welted shoe, where we sole the flexible strip of leather all
the way around the perimeter of the shoe and we don t have to use a shank to support it.
We are putting a layer of hard cork in between the outsole and the insole and that's where
the customer's foot actually settled into as they wear the shoe, makes it almost custom
formed to the bottom of their foot. Bob: The 360 welt allows us to be able to re-craft
the shoe, because the 360 welt creates a barrier between the upper and the sole. So what happens
is after a customer wears a shoe for a year, two years, and they worn through the sole
but the upper is fine, they can back to us through our re-crafting process. We are able
to remove the sole, remove the welt without damaging the upper, we will place the new
welt and new sole on the shoe and the customer wear just like that. Jim: These guys are starting
to build the bottom of the shoe right now with the sole, we first start with the larger
outsole and then we turn it back and we build it as we go along. We have the welt and the
outsole now attached together what permanently holds the shoe together and we sew the outsole
to the welt. What we are doing here is we are permanently bonding the heel with the
outsoles so that we don t get any gap or space in between, so we rub cement right up to a
certain margin and then we nail that heel base on. Now what we are going to do is we
are going to shape the edges on the shoe and get it ready for final finishing stages. He
is burnishing the edge of the soul right before we take the cover off the shoe. So now what
we are going to do is we are going to put our final hand applied finish of that in the
shoe one time before we actually take it off the last. Bob: And we will run it on a wheel
and they will bring out the highs on the lows of the leather, when you pick up an Allen
Edmonds shoe, you can see the depth of the leather. Jim: So we actually let those finishers
dive deep inside the leather at this point, and then we are going to let the shoe sit
and dry on the last over night to take a really good shape on the last. What happens after
the shoes come after the last as we bring them to one or four finishing stores and these
four finishing stores, they put on the final touches on the shoes. They are going to give
at the shoes a nice high shine, clean the bottom, put laces in, after we're all done
with the shoes, we are going to look at it one more time to make sure we didn t make
any little mistakes as we have done our 212 steps process. This is our final inspection
area here, where all the shoes pass through one last set of eyes, they go through with
a fine toothed comb, make sure we didn t make any mistakes and then it is ready to go on
to the customer. And once the shoes are completed, they go on to the inventory. All single pair
orders, they come right directly to our shipping department and they process and ship all at
the same day right out of the factory. Paul: Thanks for spending this time with us, I hope
you enjoyed the tour with the factory at Allen Edmonds and Jim Kass and the team, they work
together and showing you how we make some of the world's greatest shoes. This is a terrific
company founded in 1922 and I feel very honored to be a part of it. We are proud to be a Made
in the USA company and we appreciate all of your support. Without you our customers, we
wouldn t have made it this far and we just want to finish by saying, thank you very much
for your support at our company and support of this great group of people here in Port
Washington, Wisconsin. PAGE Transcribed by Transcription HUB HYPERLINK "C:\\Documents
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country-region urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags City Paul: Hello, I'm Paul Grangaard; it's
my privilege to be President and Chief Executive Officer of Allen Edmonds Shoe Corporation
e24 Transcription Normal Preferred Customer Microsoft Office Word e24 Technologies Paul:
Hello, I'm Paul Grangaard; it's my privilege to be President and Chief Executive Officer
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