Dansko aims to restart US production

Having moved manufacturing away from the US some years ago, Pennsylvania-based Dankso hopes to bring some production back to its homeland during 2013, with a new clog made in Arkansas from recyclable material. At the moment, 80 per cent of the company’s clogs and other ergonomically designed shoes are manufactured in China, with 20 per cent produced in Italy.

Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Mandy Cabot is reported in a recent Philadelphia Inquirer interview as saying that the company does not want to have 80 per cent of its production based in China. She added that her goal is to spread Dansko’s risk and boost its global presence as sales grow around the world.

In 1995, Dansko commissioned a US factory to assemble its clogs. It imported outsoles from Italy, used US leather and employed Danish technicians, but found after about 18 months that attrition in the workers and workforce meant they could not continue.

Dansko moved away from the US, and its Danish manufacturing partner expanded production in Poland. After reengineered its clogs, the company began to manufacture them in Brazil in 2006, in Italy the following year and, in 2008, China. Production no longer takes place in Brazil.

The decision to start with a moulded shoe in the United States has been taken because labour costs are less than they would be with multiple-component leather footwear. There is, however, a basic problem Dansko needs to overcome. Even if its US workers receive wages similar to the company’s Italy workers’ rate ($18 to $20 an hour), it claims that the fundamental issue of finding people with the expertise (or the desire) to take those jobs will remain.

Photograph shows Dansko founders Mandy Cabot and Peter Kjellerup.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 4 of the May 2012 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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