For decades the State of Maine was home to dozens of shoe mills. Today those mills have largely disappeared, but some companies have managed to survive by specializing in niches within the industry. Lou McNally hosts this episode of Made in Maine from Falcon Footwear in Lewiston (a subsidiary of Magnum Boots), which has found a market for goods labeled “Made in the USA.” Laws mandating American-made boots for postal workers and those serving in the military have been good for business, and that in turn has helped employees like Lorraine Brown keep her job in same Bates Mill factory for over 50 years. Manager David Grant explains the distinction between American-built and American-made, and sales manager Roland Landry talks about what goes into making Falcon Footwear’s products.
These days, traveling over or through snow with snowmobiles or plows is easy. But it wasn’t always so, and during a fierce Maine winter people still had to get around, often in waist-deep snow. Brian Theriault and his father Edmund of Eagle Lake have been making traditional snowshoes out of white ash and rawhide for over 25 years, giving timber cutters and Maine Guides a means of getting around regardless of the terrain or the amount of snow on the ground. As the elder Theriault says, “just a little strip of wood, a piece of skin, and you have transportation.”
Viewers also meet Bart Hersey of Hersey Custom Shoes in Wilton -- since 1983 he’s been working in a converted sheep barn, making custom handmade orthopedic shoes for runners, people with oddly-shaped or different-sized feet, or those who just like their shoes to fit absolutely perfectly. Best of all, once they make one pair, they have a model to outfit customers with custom-made shoes for life.
