Northshore Magazine

176 nshoremag.com July 2014 photographs by lauren poussard due north the vacant shoe-manufacturing factories dotting the banks of the Mer- rimack River are a testament to the loss of jobs in that once-booming industry. But Cheryl Andonian, Joel Rusnack, and Art Rogers aim to bring back the trade. The co-founders of United Shoes of America, a division of ShoeString Shoes LLC, will launch their second brand (Zooligans shoes are already a huge hit) this July. Their "100 percent home grown" shoes for kids are made from USA-grown cotton, materials, and components. Building a supply chain for those materi- als took more than a year, but they even managed to locate one of the three remaining manufactur- ers of shoelaces left in the States. The new brand will help create American jobs, "one shoe at a time," and will soon be available at Lively Kids boutiques in Newburyport, Lynnfield, and Ports- mouth, New Hampshire. Given the success of the Zooligans brand, what inspired you to start a new line of shoes? Over 95 percent of the shoes that Americans buy are made overseas. Fifty years ago, that number was flipped—meaning about 95 percent of the shoes Americans bought were made in the United States. With the loss of this industry came a loss of jobs. Even though we are a very small company, we want to do our part to see if we can change that trend. What influenced the de- sign, look, and feel of your shoes? We wanted the shoes to be simple, clean, and unmistakably American. Our shoes are made completely from materials and components that are made in the United States. Many "Amer- ican-made" products are only partially made here, and some are just assembled here. It was important to us to do this in a pure way, but this posed some challenges. With the outsourcing of manufactur- ing went the availability of domestically made materials. So we had to design the shoes around what could be made and/or found here. We are proud to say that we utilize about a dozen existing factories across the country for everything that goes into making our shoes. Where are you in the production process? We have all of our samples done and have spent the past couple of months presenting them to retail buyers. We've placed our order with the factory, and they will begin making our shoes in May. We will start shipping our shoes to retailers at the end of June, which is an amazingly fast turnaround time (another benefit of manufacturing at home). Our target delivery date to stores is the Fourth of July—a symbolic nod to our commit- ment to manufacturing in America. Have you made any unexpected dis- coveries while launching this brand? One really hopeful thing we discovered is that domestically made products don't have to be outrageously expensive. Our shoes are priced from $36.99 to $49.99, which is in the same range as many Chi- nese-made shoes. The cost gap between producing in China and producing in the United States is getting smaller. What do you hope to accomplish with United Shoes of America? We'd like to build a great little brand of USA-made shoes and be part of a growing Amer- ican-made movement. facebook.com/ unitedshoesofamerica q + a Born in the USA Danvers-based business applies farm-to-table philosophy to shoes. By Kiley Jacques Shoemakers Art Rogers, Cheryl Andonian, and Joel Rusnack co-founded United Shoes of America. United Shoes of America, Danvers NB_KJ_NS July 14 Due North.indd 176 5/13/14 9:27 AM

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