More sneaker companies may beginmanufacturing shoes in the U.S.

Workers put the finishing touches on athletic shoes in a production line at the Nike factory on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh

City, formerly Saigon, Vietnam, February 22, 2005. AP Photo/Richard Vogel

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — U.S. shoe workers once made some of the most modern shoes in

the world, but most of those jobs are now in Asia. Now, the American sneaker factory could

be coming back — with robots doing most of the work.

Reebok said Monday it plans to open a new high-tech laboratory in Rhode Island to make

sneakers.

Bill McInnis is "head of future" for the sportswear company, based in Canton,

Massachusetts. Since the U.S. is where new ideas come from, Reebok decided to make

some of its most advanced shoes here instead of overseas, McInnis said.

A Return To The United States

In the 1970s, athletic shoe companies began making their shoes in factories in Asia where

labor was cheaper. Now, the industry is beginning to come back in the United States for

several reasons. It's getting more expensive to make shoes in Asia, because Chinese

By Associated Press, adapted by Newsela staff on 10.27.16

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workers want to be paid more. Technological advances, like robotics, are helping to

automate shoe production. Companies want to get sneakers made closer to where they're

bought.

"Brands want to move closer to the U.S." to get their shoes into stores quicker, said Matt

Powell. He is a sports industry expert with The NPD Group, which studies consumer

trends. "Today when you make a shoe in Asia, it spends months on an ocean freighter."

Other Sneaker Giants Follow Suit

Germany's Adidas AG, which bought Reebok in 2005, is opening its first U.S. factory in

Georgia next year. The factory, near Atlanta, will use mostly robots but employ at least 150

people.

This year, Under Armour Inc. opened a new design and manufacturing center in its home

city of Baltimore. Athletic giant Nike Inc. has long been a symbol of the trend to outsource

production to Asia. Even Nike has recently talked of making more of its products in North

America.

Boston-based New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. never left, and its sneakers are made in

Massachusetts and Maine. Smaller companies have also stayed put, making New England

the center of the country's shoe industry, Powell said.

McInnis said 100 percent of Reebok's products are made in Asian countries such as

China, Vietnam and Taiwan. However, that could change if the company's Rhode Island

experiment succeeds.

He said that it will make thousands of shoes, compared to the hundreds of thousands

made in Asian plants. Among its most important goals is to accelerate the process of

molding shoe soles, which can be slow and expensive.

Robots Will Do Most Of The Work

McInnis is a former NASA engineer. He said an industrial robot will draw ribbons of liquid

that quickly harden into a sole, or the bottom of the shoe. The lab is scheduled to open

early next year.

The equipment can all be programmed, so the company can quickly change from making

one type of shoe to another, said Keith Lonergan. He is the president of AF Group, a

plastics company that will be working with Reebok. "If you're selling them in New England,

you could make them in New England," he said.

There is other technology that would make it cheaper to produce shoes in the U.S., said

Matt Priest. He is president of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America. Other

advances include 3-D printers, which some companies are now using to produce shoe

parts.

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