Mason Shoe Co., Chippewa Falls, WI shoe manufacturer will close its last domestic production facility by October 31. The plant, which will be 100 years old when it closes, presently employees about 100 workers.

In 1994 the plant was producing 5,600 pairs of shoes per day. At present it is producing about 1,200 pairs per day, not enough to keep the plant open.

Rich Johnson, vice president and director of human resources for Mason Shoe, noted that while production will cease, the company will keep the distribution side of its business running. This facility will employ some 460 workers to handle the mail-order business and other duties.

“We are selling more shoes now than ever before,” said Johnson. “We are also manufacturing less.” The decision to close the Chippewa Falls facility was not an easy one, according to Johnson, but there was little choice from an economic standpoint.

With the U.S. footwear industry disappearing into China and other overseas sources where costs are substantially less, Johnson noted, vendors are also following suit, which has increased the cost of materials shipped to Chippewa Falls. As a result, “our customers can not afford our shoes,” said Johnson. Shoes manufactured in the Chippewa Falls plant sell for an average of $100, a price tag necessary to pay for materials as well as wages.

The same shoe brought in from an off-shore manufacturing facility would sell for about $40 with almost the same level of quality.  Johnson noted that over the past 10 years the Mason family had invested in opening retail stores, initiating the Field and Stream wholesale programme, purchasing the Stuart McGuire catalogue and most recently purchased the E.T. Wright Catalogue and wholesale programmes. In effect, he said, the company had acquired nine different mail order catalogues, replacing the need for manufacturing shoes.

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