Dave Murphy, president and chief operating officer of Red Wing Shoe Co., got hearty applause when he announced record earnings for 2010 -- $448 million, up 12 percent from 2009 -- at this year’s shareholder meeting in Red Wing, Minn. But the announcement that got the roughly 150 shareholders out of their seats for a standing ovation was not about dividends or returns. It was the 315 employees the company hired in 2010, bringing head count close to 2,200 today.

In an era of downsizing, offshoring, and outsourcing, this century-old, closely-held shoe manufacturer still buys cattle hides in Nebraska, tans them in St. Paul, and turns them into work boots in Kentucky, Missouri, and Minnesota.

Click here for April, 2011 article in Bloomberg News. Folks at Red Wing Shoes are American Made Heroes!

U.S. manufacturing continues to be an important part of the one-hundred-plus-year heritage of Red Wing Shoe Company. More than 60% of Red Wing brand footwear is either made entirely in the U.S. or is assembled in the U.S. with imported materials. Less than 40% of Red Wing styles are made complete elsewhere, at a time when 98% of all footwear sold in the U.S. today is made offshore. All Red Wing brand footwear, regardless where it’s manufactured, meets Red Wing’s high standards for quality, fit and performance. Many shoes made overseas even utilize Red Wing leather shipped from the U.S.

Red Wing Shoe Company operates two U.S. manufacturing plants located in Red Wing, Minnesota, with a union workforce, and in Potosi, Missouri, with a non-union workforce. These plants employ more than 750 skilled shoemakers and support staff in well-paying jobs. Red Wing also owns and operates as a subsidiary its own tannery in Red Wing, with a union workforce of more than 150 people. These operations annually produce more than 1.5 million pairs of U.S.A.-made/assembled work boots and other footwear. All design and most materials testing takes place within Red Wing facilities.

Additionally, Red Wing Shoe Company owns and operates more than 140 Red Wing Shoe Stores in the U.S., employing more than 500 retail store managers, truck drivers and sales associates. Together with Red Wing’s corporate staff, total U.S. employment at Red Wing Shoe Co. and its tannery exceeds 1,500 people. Red Wing also indirectly supports hundreds of additional U.S. retail jobs at more than 250 independently-owned Red Wing Shoe Stores.