A factory in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, reliant on automation, looks to help a shoe manufacturer navigate tariffs and labor shortages.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Keen Footwear recently closed its facility in Portland, Oregon, with plans to relocate production to a 60,000-square-foot site in the Bluegrass State, scheduled to open next month. The company expects the new location to nearly double its domestic output and credits that growth to increased automation.
Keen noted that the Kentucky plant’s automation would support the 24 workers it plans to initially hire. According to the Journal, the machinery would handle mundane tasks, allowing the employees to focus on more detailed work. The report mentioned that Keen plans to expand its payroll as it increases production.
The development arrives at a timely moment amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s multiple tariff threats. However, the Journal reported that Keen Chief Operating Officer Hari Perumal said the decision to invest in U.S. manufacturing predates the latest trade war drama.
Founded in 2003, Keen began domestically producing footwear in 2010 in response to rising Chinese manufacturing costs and a desire to diversify sourcing.
Keen has since shifted production of its hiking shoes, thick-soled sandals and work boots out of China. Now, the company makes a third of its shoes at its factories in the Dominican Republic, Thailand and the U.S. The rest comes from contract manufacturers in India, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Keen can avoid the new tariffs on Chinese-imported goods, but the same could not be said for the nearly 1.2 billion pairs of shoes shipped from China last year. This compares to the approximately 25 million pairs manufactured annually in the U.S., according to the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America.
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