Meridian Footwear Co. aims to bring footwear production back to America, one shoe at a time.
It’s a lofty goal when naysayers claim the pricing structure in overseas factories make it virtually impossible to product anywhere else. That’s on top of logistical concerns, such as finding skilled workers, setting up factories capable of large-scale production and having the necessary components, such as lasts.
Jon Van Drunen, Meridian’s director of sales and marketing, said those concerns weigh heavily for cut-and-sew production since that’s one of most labor intensive parts of shoe production. But the company is working on a new platform that could cut costs by eliminating 70 percent of the labor involved in stitching.
Meridian, which began as Shloop or The Shoe Loop, was founded in 2022 by Van Drunen’s dad Mike, who is chief executive officer, and his brother Michael, who serves as chief financial officer. The company also hired two footwear experts from Brazil, Vander Espinosa and Renata Cataldo, who had worked with Converse and Gildan for over 20 years.
It took two years to build out the firm’s manufacturing operation and processes before it could begin shoe production in 2024. A year later, the company was rebranded as Meridian Footwear to showcase its home base in Meridian, Miss.
The factory currently produces premium leather sneakers for men and women under the Meridian brand, which is sold on the company’s website. The in-house brand also serves a different purpose — showcasing the quality, comfort, materials and manufacturing possibilities of domestic production.
The cut-and-sew factory also manufactures its “white label” sneakers for other brands that want to place their logos onto the shoes.
To build its employee base, the company looked to the local furniture industry, which has also largely shifted overseas, to pluck workers. “We just had to teach them how to sew and stitch a shoe together. One of our strongest departments is sewing,” Van Drunen noted.
The existing factory has one line that can produce 150,000 pairs annually, with one daily shift. Two additional shifts can be added to the line. The cornerstone of the process is a 3D bonding technology, created by Spanish firm Simplicity Works, for which Meridian is the exclusive U.S. licensee and the worldwide licensee for military footwear.
The plan is to build out its factory base to include at least five new buildings. Meridian is already in talks with local officials regarding the expansion, and the subsidies that it can receive to facilitate the creation of the campus.
He said the manufacturing platform is designed to support a wide range of footwear categories. For now, the primary focus is athletic, military boots, casual and work.
According to Van Drunen, Meridian is already working with “some of the largest names in footwear” in the U.S. and Europe to produce shoes using the technology which can join all the pieces of a shoe simultaneously.
“You incorporate all the parts into one mold, and it’s a one-step process that injects polyurethane around it and bonds all the materials together into one shoe,” he explained. ‘We can 3D print all the lasts that we need [and] we can 3D print the molds, so we don’t need to use any of those overseas tooling.”
The shoes Meridian is producing for other brands are expected to hit the marketplace in late 2027. And as more orders come in, the company has already identified a new building that spans over 100,000 square feet and can meet the demand for production. Once this facility is up and running, Van Drunen said the company “can produce about a million pairs next year.”
The executive noted that connecting with partners has been an organic process. “The brands have found us. It might have to do with the tariff situation,” he said. “Made in U.S.A. has a big push right now, and I think we’re at the right place at the right time. Brands have been reaching out to us. We’ve had to push brands away because we weren’t ready for the capacity yet.”
Van Drunen said there are some exciting things in the future for reshoring.
“There’s a lot of benefits to making shoes in the U.S., especially with this technology. One, it’s pretty much cost neutral to making shoes overseas. Two, making shoes locally where your biggest market already is is way more sustainable than making it overseas,” Van Drunen said, adding that there’s the elimination of shipping back and forth and cutting lead time, which can be huge. For Van Drunen and his family, the other win is “American pride. We’re making shoes again in the U.S., and it’s something that brands can get on board with and be proud of.”
A small number of shoe brands have footwear factories on U.S. soil. They include Red Wing, which produces safety and lifestyle boots, sneaker brand New Balance and its mission to invest in Made-in-America, the Caleres-owned Allen Edmonds brand, boot brand Danner, and cowboy boot brand Lucchese.
There’s also the outdoor and running shoe brand Keen, and just last month Twisted X dipped its toes into shoe production in the U.S. market with a limited collection that launched on July 4.
Also last month, Wolverine Worldwide leaned into made-in-America product that sees it partnering with a production facility in Texas to manufacture a range of work boots.
