Walking the walk: the search for U.S.-made sneakers
Queen City Footwear makes sneakers near Burlington, Vt.
With temperatures in the teens on a January afternoon in Burlington, Vt., Sara, and I set out to look at sneakers.
But we weren’t on the city’s famous Church Street Marketplace shopping mall. Instead, we were five miles southeast of there in the town of Williston.
The address brought us to a three-building business park across the street from a John Deere construction equipment dealer.
At the left end of the rear building, we stepped into Queen City Footwear’s small retail store. The man who opened a door from the production area into the store was none other than company founder Matt Renna, who started making custom fit shoes and boots on Church Street in 1990.
He started making sneakers in 2023.
“It’s a big challenge,” he said, or words to that effect. That’s an understatement.
Other domestic brands struggle
I had discovered Queen City online while looking for American-made slippers. Renna’s company makes a hybrid sneaker/slipper that it calls a Vermont House Shoe.
But I was struck by Queen City’s sneakers, because it’s rare that you find ones Made in the USA.
The options are limited, fewer if you’re seeking something stylish, fewer still if you need a wide width as I do.
It’s tough to compete against behemoths such as Nike, Adidas, Puma with their massive marketing budgets, celebrity endorsers and cheaper labor costs because everything they sell is made overseas.
The past year has brought big setbacks for a handful of domestic sneaker producers:
After a decade in business, Sense of Motion (SOM) Footwear of Montrose, Colo., in June 2024 announced that it was for sale. It appears that the company is closing.
In October, Hurricane Helene wiped out the Opieway shoe factory, where it made upscale sneakers, in Asheville, N.C.
Psudo, a comfort sneaker brand in Los Angeles, announced its closing in December. “Despite our relentless effort,” the company posted on Facebook, “this journey proved to be an uphill battle too steep to climb.” Psudo’s hallmark was its three-piece composition incorporating recycled plastic bottles and recycled foam.
Among the domestic brands that remain are COMUNITYmade in Los Angeles, made+ in Annapolis, Md., Pingree Detroit in Michigan, Rancourt & Co. in Lewiston, Maine; and SAS in San Antonio, Texas.
The only major athletic shoe company that manufactures in the United States is New Balance, which has factories in Massachusetts and Maine.
Going from one-off to production oriented
Against that backdrop, Queen City is growing its sneaker business step by step. Renna told us that contract leather work helps sustain the business as it seeks its sneaker footing.
Domestic footwear tends to be more expensive than imported, and Queen City is no exception. The made-to-order flagship Hardwick style, for example, is $300, but the company’s website offers a 10 percent discount code.
The clean, cool design — it summons to mind the classic (and imported) Adidas Stan Smith model — sits atop a U.S.-made proprietary outsole made exclusively for Queen City.
“Originally I was doing hand-made, one-off, totally custom things,” Renna told the Williston Observer newspaper. “It’s been a process of trying to figure out how to actually produce them in an efficient way, and get all the tools and machinery in place, to really start making something that’s production oriented.”
Renna suggested to us that wide sizes could be in the offing. Sara tried on a pair that she liked; she might be the first of us to order one.
In the meantime, we bought a Queen City bandanna and leather cow keychain from Renna.
There’s always something, no matter how small, you can do to encourage the making of more Made in USA products.
Because they can be found if you make a little effort, even if that means trekking to a business park on a cold day in January.