American production is possible, but it often needs to be automated to be cost effective.

In a corner of Kentucky just outside of Louisville, family-owned shoe company Keen is opening a new factory this month.

The move fits neatly into the “America First” economic vision championed by the Trump administration - an emblem of hope for a manufacturing renaissance long promised but rarely realised. Yet beneath the surface, Keen’s new factory tells a far more complicated story about what manufacturing in America really looks like today.

With just 24 employees on site, the factory relies heavily on automation -sophisticated robots that fuse soles and trim materials - underscoring a transformation in how goods are made today.

Manufacturing is no longer the labour-intensive engine of prosperity it once was, but a capital-heavy, high-tech enterprise.

  • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    4·
    3 days ago

    Automation, in low cost of living area, with red-state employee “benefits” is what it takes to possibly make something as basic as domestically-made shoes affordable. That, and it’s not a publicly traded company so it might still be relatively expensive.

    Western reliance on cheap Asian labour is a problem, especially when the cheap labour starts to think they want more.

    MAGA isolationism is certainly not helping.

  • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
    3·
    3 days ago

    Anything can be made here with fairly compensated labor.

    It requires law makers to FORCE corporations to make concessions and pay their workers more.

    The price increase will be negligible compared to the increased wages.

  • anon6789@lemmy.world
    2·
    3 days ago

    Even Keen only assembles 9% of its shoes in America.

    To my knowledge, and as somewhat reflected in the article, they’re not even really made in America, but this is mainly just where foreign manufacture pieces are assembled.

    The article does address that a little more, showing Keen is working on trying to source more US made parts, but due to the limited manufacturing here and its increased labor cost, that’s a challenge.

    I’m on my third set of Keens, and they are far and away my favorite work boots. I’ve had one of the higher end non-US ones and 2 US ones. They’ve all been amazing, but the width of my most recent pair feels like it was made on a narrower last, but it’s also my first leather pair, so they may just need more break in.

  • TomMasz@piefed.socialEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Can you make [fill in the blank] in the US? The answer is “yes”, though depending on the product, there may be significant startup costs due to a lack of existing infrastructure and tooling.

    Can you make [fill in the blank] in the US at a competitive price? For high margin items, certainly. But for most consumer goods, it’s at best “maybe”.