Serving Southwestern Illinoiswww.bellevillenewsdemocrat.com Friday, October 8, 2004

When the Munro Corporation closed itsDeWitt plant in December 2001, the news devas-tated this small Delta town in the heart ofArkansas rice country.“It was a huge blow,”said Barbara Meins,the plant’s humanresources director.

But within fourmonths BellevilleShoe ManufacturingCompany had leasedand reopened the plant(the negotiations withMunro were wrapped up in an astonishing fourdays) and Meins had resumed her HR responsi-bilities under the new management. Since then ithas expanded by about 15 percent each month,and today it employs 650 people, pumping $12million in wages into the local economy annually

— four times the $3 million Munro payroll. Theplant’s employees turn out 3600 boots each day,and every pair goes out with a proud pledge —

“We’re withyou every stepof the way” —to the troopswho will wearthem.

The pace ofgrowth underBelleville Shoeownership hasamazed both

DeWitt and headquarters managers. “We startedas a cut-and-fit operation with 80 employees,”recalled Johnnie Carr, Belleville Shoe’s assistantsecretary-treasurer and the man in administrativecharge in DeWitt. A month later the companyhatched expansion plans. “Then we went to full

production and ballooned to 600 — within 14months,” said Carr, a 30-year Munro veteran.

Belleville Shoe is the fourth owner of theDeWitt shoe factory. The first was the NorthernShoe Company in Pulaski, Wisconsin, west ofGreen Bay. Northern sold out to Briarwood ShoeCorporation and Briarwood, in 1978, to Munro.Briarwood made women’s and children’s shoesthere; Munro converted the plant to men’s andboys’ casual shoe production. Munro sold itsshoes to J. C. Penney, Sears and Dillard’s and pro-duced up to 5,000 pairs a day, but the construc-tion was uncomplicated and involved none of thedemanding specifications of military footwear.

Now the plant produces a Gore-Tex desertboot, a Gore-Tex black infantry combat boot anda Gore-Tex intermediate cold wet boot from startto finish for the Army. It also cuts and sewsuppers (the boot minus the sole) for a jungledesert boot and a black and desert steel-toe hot

weather boot for all services. Of the 300 casesthey make each day (12 pairs per case), 50 areuppers that go back to Belleville for completion.The rest are finished goods, which either shipdirectly to the military or route through Bellevillefor delivery.

Company President Eric Weidmann is excitedabout Belleville South. The company investedmore than $3 million in the plant, a risk he saidhas paid off handsomely. Contrasting it to thenearby riverboat casinos, where one party alwaysloses, he told his Arkansas employees: “This riskis different. If Belleville Shoe wins, you win. IfBelleville Shoe loses, you lose. Right now we’reboth winning.”

Good communication with the Bellevilleoffice is key to the plant’s success, Carr said. The

Please see ARKANSAS PLANT, p. 4

Reverses town’s ‘huge blow’Arkansas plant doubles company’s workforce

World War II’s global con-flict brought full-bore militaryproduction to Belleville Shoe.With American men andwomen deployed across Europeand the Pacific, the WarDepartment’s need for all sortsof equipment meant the conver-sion of virtually every kind ofcivilian plant to military pur-poses. Belleville Shoe threwitself into the war effort withcommitment and high purpose.It began war production inOctober 1940, fulfilled 36 con-tracts and produced 1.5 millionpairs of boots.

Just as importantly, the com-pany never delivered a singlepair of combats boots even oneday late. For this singularachievement the War Depart-ment gave the company itsArmy-Navy “E” Award in a fes-

tive celebration Saturday, June23, 1945. Ranking Quarter-master Corps officers stood out-side the factory in brilliant sun-shine, praised the Belle-villeshoemakers, and handedfounders William Weidmannand J.B. Reis the prized “E”flag. Belleville Shoe’s 300employees all received “E” pins.

“As you are fully aware, thecoveted Army-Navy ‘E’ Awardis not bestowed lightly,” Col.Bernard J. Finan, commandingofficer of the Boston Quarter-master Depot, told the crowd ofemployees, city officials andfriends. “It is the highest com-mendation that the Army canpay for praiseworthy, unceasingefforts on behalf of war produc-tion. I know that you people

“E” for Excellence

Please see E AWARD, p. 2A huge crowd of employees and friends of the company gathered June 23, 1945, when the U.S. War Department conferred its Army-Navy “E” Award on Belleville Shoe forits wartime production, citing the exceptional quality of Belleville’s military boots and its unfailing on-time delivery.

When William Weidmann andfour partners opened theBelleville Shoe Company in1904 with 50 workers making 50to 75 pairs of shoes a day, theysurely did not envision that itwould one day employ 1300 peo-ple using cutting-edge roboticsand revolutionary syntheticmaterials to churn out 8000 pairsof high-tech military boots daily.

This firm’s transformationfrom one of hundreds of smallshoe manufactories in the UnitedStates to the nation’s largest pro-ducer of military footwear is aremarkable story of entrepre-neurial zeal, a nimble adaptabili-ty in tumultuous market condi-tions, and corporate persever-ance in the face of globaliza-tion’s intense challenges.

“We have been,” currentPresident Eric Weidmann ac-knowledges, “a durable, fortu-nate survivor in a drasticallyredefined U.S. footwear supplyenvironment.” Eric Weidmann isthe fourth generation in his fam-ily to lead the company.

Belleville Shoe has made aremarkable range of shoes andboots. Its men’s and boys’ dressshoes sold all over the countryfor 60 years. Its athletic shoesran the bases with virtually everyprofessional baseball player inthe 1950s and ‘60s. Backpackerswore the company’s hiking boots;factory workers protected theirfeet with Belleville’s steel-toedworkboot. And for 87 years, thefirm has provided militaryfootwear to the nation’s armed forces.

The story begins with fiveBelleville entrepreneurs. Theyincluded, along with WilliamWeidmann, Adolph Knobeloch,H. E. Leunig, J. B. Reis andJames Rentchler. None had anyexperience with making shoes.

The five men decided to gointo shoemaking after a visitingMassachusetts businessman con-vinced them that the market hadample room for new players. OnNov. 3, 1904, they filed articlesof incorporation in Delaware,taking advantage of its business-friendly laws, which expeditedstock offerings and thus madecapitalization easier. (St. ClairCounty records indicate that thecompany actually began opera-tions Oct. 21, 1904.)

The Belleville ShoeManufac-turing Companyopened for business in leasedspace at the former Rentchler

Machine Shops on East B andDelmar streets. WalterWeidmann, William’s son, begandistribution beyond St. Louis,selling the company’s shoes inChicago as early as 1905. SoonBelleville Shoe had a sales forceof about 10 men, traveling acrossthe country and selling directlyto stores.

Another shoe manufacturer,the Jordan Shoe Company, hadstarted up in 1903 at the cornerof East Main and Walnut streets,adjacent to the landmark Belle-ville firm Crown Milling. But onAug. 23, 1908, Jordan Shoe andthe Crown elevator burned to theground in a devastating fire thatleft hundreds jobless and totaled$150,000 in damages. Jordannever reopened.

Growing fast

In June 1909, Belleville Shoepurchased the property andannounced plans to “erect amodern shoe factory at once,”according to the city’s DailyAdvocate. The news storyexplained that the Rentchlerbuilding had become too smallfor Belleville Shoe’s “rapidlygrowing business.” ArchitectOtto Rubach designed the newfactory with three floors. Theheaviest equipment—sole-cut-ting machines as much as ninefeet wide—occupied the base-ment. Sewing machine operators

stitched uppers, the top of theshoe minus the sole, on the sec-ond floor. Bottoming and packingmanufacturing operations andoffices were on the main floor.

Business was indeed brisk. InApril 1913 the Advocate report-ed that the company had pur-chased land just north of itsMain Street plant for an additionto the factory. “The business ofthe company has increased sorapidly … that it was found nec-essary to expand,” the paperreported.

Another important changetook place in 1913. Two hundredof the company’s employees tooksteps to form a union, joining theUnited Shoe Workers ofAmerica. On July 14, 135 unionmembers walked off the jobwhen a supervisor dischargedtwo men in the lasting room,where uppers are shaped andreadied for attachment to thesoles. Troubles continued ascompeting unions vied for con-trol. The International Boot andShoe Workers’ Union, affiliatedwith the American Federation ofLabor, claimed jurisdiction, andbecause the United ShoeWorkers Union was not part ofthe AFL the company would notrecognize it.

“The shoe factory manage-ment was willing to recognize aunion,” the Advocate reported,“but found themselves up againstthe serious problem of two

unions, each clamoring forrecognition.” The companyappealed to the Illinois Board ofArbitration to mediate.

Still the dispute continued.Striking workers gathered at thefactory at noon and 6 p.m. eachday, approachingcompany employeesand urging them tojoin the United ShoeWorkers. The troublespread to the factoryof the InternationalShoe Company onSouth Spring Street,where employeeswalked off the jobNov. 13.

Then on Nov. 14the trouble escalateddramatically. Afterdaily encounters withunionists for a week,three non-unionworkers armed them-selves that Fridayafternoon and, when assaultedwith clubs, turned on theirattackers with pistols and knives,seriously wounding two andinflicting minor injuries on twomore. Pedestrians near theJackson and B street intersectionwhere the attacks took place fledin panic. Soon afterward, ambu-lances flying down the city’sstreets drew a large crowd onMain Street.

These startling developmentsgot the attention of the mayor,

who ordered police to disperseany crowds gathering in thestreets. They got the attention ofthe Advocate’s editor, whodemanded that the parties find away to end the strike. And theygot the attention of the state

Board ofA r b i t r a t i o n ,whose secretary,H. O. Hohnquist,arrived inBelleville fourdays later.

Still, negotiat-ing an end to thestrike took twoand half months,but by Jan. 31,1914, the partieshad reached anagreement, andboth sides ex-pressed satisfac-tion with thedeal. During thestrike the compa-

ny had completed its buildingex-pansion, and it was ready toput 400 people to work. The1913 walkout was one of onlytwo strikes in the company’s100-year history; the otheroccurred in 1994 and lasted oneweek.

Three years later, BellevilleShoe received its first militaryboot order, thus beginning anenterprise that has not only sus-tained the company ever sincebut has revolutionized it from a

small operation making uncom-plicated shoes to today’s large,technology-driven business de-veloping and producing break-through footwear for the nation’sarmed forces.

By 1920 the shoe factory wasback to civilian production, turn-ing out more than 25 styles ofshoes for men and “little gents.”

The same year, the companybecame the first in Belleville tooffer workers’ incentives for reg-ular attendance, and life andhealth insurance for its employ-ees. The incentive plan paidworkers a percentage bonus oftheir weekly pay; the insurance,provided at no expense toemployees, offered both deathand disability benefits. HomerWeidmann, William’s grandson,said the company understood itmust be generous with its work-force to retain employees in ahighly competitive local labormarket, where many firms pro-duced not only shoes and bootsbut pants, shirts, dresses andother sewn goods. The Advocatewas impressed with the insur-ance plan: “In thus assisting itsemployees and their dependantsto make some provision againstthe uncertainties of the future,”the paper said, “the BellevilleShoe Company has established aworthy precedent for other con-cerns to follow. The citizens ofBelleville, Illinois are to be con-gratulated on having in theirmidst such a progressive concern.”

Selling coast to coast

The company prospered dur-ing the Roaring ‘20s. It sold itsshoes from the Eastern Seaboardto California. In 1925 it postedsales of $549,000; by 1928 saleshad grown to $775,000. TheBelleville Hosiery Companynext door closed in 1926;Belleville Shoe acquired itsproperty for expansion. TheNews-Democrat, in a featurestory for the firm’s 25th anniver-sary, described its “wonderfulprogress” and added: “The com-pany ranks as one of the leadingmanufacturers of shoes in themiddlewest… The products ofthe Belleville ShoeManufacturing Company areknown for their quality andwearing ability from Portland,Me., to Portland, Ore., and from the

Belleville Shoe marks 100 extraordinary years

Please see 100 YEARS, p. 3

In April 1986 Belleville Shoe left its 77-year-old building on Main Street downtown and moved to its present quarters in the Belle Valley Industrial Park (above). The plant wasenlarged in 2002 and now occupies 160,000 square feet. (More photos on page 4.)

“We have beena durable, fortu-nate survivor ina drasticallyredefined U.S.

footwear supplyenvironment.”

Eric Weidmann,Belleville Shoe Company

President

“We started as a cut-and-fit operationwith 80 employees. Then we went to full pro-

duction and ballooned to 600 — within 14 months.”

Johnnie Carr, Belleville Shoe’s assistant secretary-treasurer

have worked tirelessly andwell.”

Though Germany and Italyhad fallen, the warraged on in thePacific. Referring tothe firm’s workers as“soldiers in mufti,”Finan continued: “Isuppose it is difficultfor you men andwomen of theBelleville ShoeM a n u f a c t u r i n gCompany to visual-ize yourselves aspart of the Armyteam that is annihi-lating the Japanese atOkinawa and thusopening the eventualroad to Tokyo.Nevertheless… in avery real sense youare part of that team. … Ourboys in Okinawa could not dothe fine job they are doing therewithout your help.

“There is no easy road toTokyo,” he concluded. “It willbe hard and bloody, and nothingbut our best and most untiringefforts can materially shortenthe war.” With that, the flagascended the flagstaff to rousingband music.

Walter Weidman also spoke,accepting the award with grati-tude and conviction. “We of

Belleville Shoe have aprivilege today rootednot in this moment butrather in five years ofcontinuous unitedeffort — that samebrand of effort whichhas devastated two ofour enemies and whichis bringing total defeatto the third,” he said.“Our labors were weld-ed into our particulartask in 1940 andrewelded each succes-sive month since thattime. … Our energieswere and continue tobe directed toward theproduction of the finestboots and shoes in the

greatest possible numbers.”Speaking to his employees,

he added: “All of you can takejustifiable pride in your contri-bution to the war effort. There’sa little bit of every one of youthat has marched and is stillmarching over the far-flung soilsof battle. There’s a little bit ofeach of your families who havebacked you up on your jobs dayafter day in the long road to vic-

tory.”Lt. Commander L. J. Kanitz,

inspector of ordinance atAmertorp Corp., St. Louis, pre-sented the “E” pins. “TheArmed Forces salute you menand women of the BellevilleShoe Manufacturing Companyfor the determination you haveshown in bringing America’senemies to the bar of justice,” hesaid.

Herbert Fischer, president ofthe Boot and Shoe WorkersUnion, Local 143, added aheartfelt note. “You can restassured,” he told Kanitz, “thateach of us will wear the ‘E’emblem with pride; each of uswill regard it, not as evidencethat we have done a good job,but rather as a reminder that theboys in uniform on the battlefronts cannot win this war aloneand that we at home, in themines, fields and factories, havean important part to play inbringing victory.”

Homer Weidmann, then acaptain himself in the Quarter-master Corps, attended the cere-mony and remembers it as aninspirational event. “The build-ing was bedecked with flags,” herecalled. “The mayor was there.Customers from as far away as

Boston attended. There wereparties for employees, managersand visitors. There was a size-

able military contingent.”Flowers bloomed around theflagpole where his mother hadplanted them for the occasion.

“More than 90 manufactur-ers produced military foot-

wear,” he noted. “Fewer than ahalf dozen won ‘E’ Awards.”Overall, out of some 185,000U.S. war plants, only 4 percentwon this cherished honor.

The Defense Logistics Agency, main buying agent for the U.S. Defense Department, conferred a rare hon-or on Belleville Shoe when it named the company the winner of the prestigious Defense Quality ExcellenceAward in a May 29, 1991 ceremony at the Belle Valley plant (left). In 1993 Robert J. Moffett of the U.S.Small Business Administration visited Belleville (above) to announce that the company had won the SBA’sNational Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year Award, chosen from 75,000 small businesses per-forming federal contract work. Company President Eric Weidmann formally received the award in a RoseGarden ceremony in Washington.

Friday, October 8, 2004

Centennial EditionA2 BELLEVILLE NEWS-DEMOCRAT

Company brings prestigious “E”Award to Belleville | Continued from Page 1

With justifiable pride, the company’s officers, flanked by War Department representatives, display the hard-won “E” Award banner.

Lt. Commander L. J. Kanitz, inspector of ordinance, presented “E” pins to all Belleville Shoe’s employees.

“I want youto think ofyourselvesas soldiersin mufti.”Quartermaster

Corps Col. BernardJ. Finan to

Belleville Shoeemployees

Saturday, June 23,1945

Belleville Shoe has consistently impressed the federalgovernment and the Defense Department with the qualityof its products and its unfailing on-time delivery. In 1993,President Eric Weidmann traveled to Washington for aWhite House Rose Garden ceremony, where BellevilleShoe received the National Small Business PrimeContractor of the Year Award from the U.S. Small BusinessAdministration (SBA).

The company competed first regionally and then nation-ally for the award, which recog-nizes outstanding small busi-nesses that supply the federalgovernment. Belleville Shoeeclipsed 147 other nominatedcompanies to take the prize.These 147 nominees came fromthe ranks of 75,000 small busi-nesses performing federal con-tract work.

“I think the people at Belleville Shoe are darn good atwhat they do,” Weidmann told the News-Democrat at thetime, “and I’m happy to see them recognized with thisaward.”

SBA Officer Robert P. Murphy had high praise for thefirm. “Belleville Shoe’s success extends well beyond thestatistical,” he said in conferring the award. “This is a firmwhich is a definite asset to its community and its people.”

Two years earlier, in January 1991, the company wonthe Defense Department’s prestigious Defense QualityExcellence Award in appreciation for its performance inmeeting an urgent, accelerated deadline. The companydelivered 120,000 pairs of desert boots on or ahead of the

revised schedule. The DefenseLogistics Agency, which conferredthe award, noted that of 656,000boots Belleville produced in the yearfrom Aug. 18, 1989 to Aug. 17,1990, not a single boot failed to meetgovernment quality requirements.

The award, a rare honor amongdefense contractors, was presentedin a May 29 ceremony at the

Belleville plant. The company was one of only three con-tractors to receive this distinction in 1991 — out of about30,000 companies that supplied the Defense LogisticsAgency.

Company wins repeated honors for quality and performance

“This is a firm which is adefinite asset to its community

and its people.”

Robert P. Murphy,U. S. Small Business Administration Officer

The Citation‘For meritorious and distinguished service’

“For meritorious and distinguished service totheir country in its time of need, the Army-NavyProduction Award is presented to the men andwomen of the Belleville Shoe ManufacturingCompany. By their unflagging spirit of patrio-tism, by their acceptance of high responsibility,by the skill, industry and devotion they areshowing on the production front of the greatestwar in history, they are making an enduringcontribution, not only to the preservation of theUnited States of America, but to the immortalityof human freedom itself.”

BELLEVILLE NEWS-DEMOCRAT A3FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2004

Centennial Edition

Great Lakes to the Gulf ofMexico.”

Leaner times were on the way,however. With the GreatDepression came sharply fallingsales, which dropped to less than$540,000 in 1931. Officersreduced their salaries. The com-pany stayed afloat, thanks to thebelt-tightening and an enterpris-ing sales effort that made themost of hard times. WalterWeidmann, well aware thatChicago social service agencieswere providing footwear toimpoverished children, won con-tracts to supply the agencies withboys’ shoes. “The factoryremained in production through-out the ‘30s,” Homer Weidmannsaid. The company also madehiking boots under the name“High Sierra,” an expansion ofthe boys’ high-cut boot line, andsold its products to SearsRoebuck and Montgomery Wardfor their mail-order cataloguebusinesses.

The capacity developed andsustained through the 1930sproved providential for the com-pany and for the nation’s sol-diers, Homer Weidmann noted,enabling the company to get intomilitary boot production inWorld War II. In October 1940the firm received an order for45,000 pairs of boots. Additionalorders flowed in; by 1945 fully92 percent of its production wasfor the military. Sales for 1945reached $2 million, and the com-pany earned the War Depart-ment’s coveted “E” Award for thequality of its boots and thedependability of its service: itnever delivered a single pair evenone day late (see separate story).Out of 93 companies producingmilitary footwear during the war,only five received the E Award.

Business slumped briefly dur-ing the late 1940s as the compa-ny returned to peacetime produc-tion, but by 1951 sales hadclimbed past $2 million.Belleville was again making mil-itary boots for the Army, Navyand Marines, now engaged inKorea. Additionally, sales of itsengineer and logger boots dou-bled in 1952, and the companybegan to make cowboy boots,both for horseback riders and forthe growing throngs of viewersenthralled by Roy Rogers, theLone Ranger and all the otherwesterns on television and thebig screen.

Into sports shoes

In 1953 the company branch-ed out in another new directionthat would carry it through the

next two decades. The RawlingsSporting Goods Companyapproached the firm, proposingthat Belleville make athleticshoes exclusively for the Raw-lings lines. Soon Belleville prod-ucts would become the shoe ofchoice among professional ath-letes and grace the feet of starsincluding Mickey Mantle andStan Musial (see separate story).

Both Walter and HomerWeidmann took several tripseach year, introducing the firm’snew styles at regional shoeshows. They carried bulky, 12-by-6-by-48-inch sample cases,each holding as many as 30shoes. The company also contin-ued to make combat boots,though a late-‘50s recession tookits toll: in 1958 it recorded itstwelfth consecutive unsuccessfulbid for military work. Still, thecompany posted sales of$2,235,000 for 1958, $2,327,00 in1959.

The year 1959 brought anoth-er innovation for the company’sworkforce. In response to aunion request, Belleville Shoeinaugurated a pension plan forall factory employees. For eachemployee, the company agreedto fund an age-65 benefit of 90cents a month for each year ofqualified service. Thus began apension program that for nearlyhalf a century has helped thefirm’s workers provide for theirretirement years.

A 1961 News-Democrat arti-cle reported that Belleville Shoe“pumps about one million dol-lars into the local economy eachyear in wages, taxes and pur-chases.” But foreign importswere already threatening U.S.shoe manufacturing. “Theimport problem that hasscourged the industry started inthe late 1950s,” Homer Weid-mann recalled. It was a topic ofdeep concern, he said, at the1958 meeting of the NationalShoe ManufacturersAssociation, which representedthe nation’s 1600 shoe factories.The trend accelerated in the early1960s. The athletic shoe busi-ness that had promised to carrythe company forward just a fewyears before suffered a seriousblow in 1961 when Rawlingsbegan off-shore production withAnasco Shoe Company in PuertoRico. For two years the companystruggled with falling sales. Theboard again reduced executivesalaries.

But in 1963 the companywent on the offensive. On Sept. 1

it established “Belleville SportShoes” as a separate division tosell athletic shoes direct to sport-ing goods dealers. It also hiredRawlings’ own William A. Birdto head up sales. The moveinvolved extensive investment inequipment, advertising and mar-keting, but in less than two yearsRawlings capitulated, offering toshut down the Puerto Ricanoperations if Belleville Shoewould close its sport shoe divi-sion. Belleville’s renewed busi-ness with Rawlings, along withnew military contracts, reversedthe performance trends, andsales again began to climb.

These years also saw disci-plined efforts to improve produc-tivity. Supervisors pitched effi-ciencies, exhorting the work-force to increase production to1,400 pairs a day in all depart-ments. The company made con-certed efforts to reduce invento-ry. Sales climbed modestlythrough the decade.

Vulcanizing soles

More changes were on theway. The Defense Departmentdiscontinued its Goodyear Weltcombat boot, shifting instead to adirect-mold system for attachingsoles to boots. Homer Weidmanntraveled to North Carolina andGeorgia in February 1967 toinvestigate Rosearch’s vulcan-ization process for fusing solesto uppers. Making the change

would require a $180,000 equip-ment investment. The company’sinitial reaction was negative, butRosearch’s offer to loanBelleville the needed presses,heating elements and compres-sor for combat boot productionchanged the equation, and thecompany began using the newvulcanizing method. Militarycontracts increased, and by 1968the company had a large backlogof work. By August 1968 thecompany was operating 12 vul-canizing presses and planned toexpand production to three shiftsas quickly as possible.

As military production grewduring the Vietnam conflict, theathletic shoe business showedsigns of winding down. In 1969Rawlings gave its football shoebusiness to a competitor, thoughit left baseball shoe productionin Belleville. In 1970 BellevilleShoe began making sport shoesfor Wilson Sporting GoodsCompany in Milwaukee, butwithin a year that trade faltered.Meanwhile, the armed forceswere ordering more combatboots, and the company decidedto postpone sport shoe work so itcould expand combat boot pro-duction. It won new contracts forcombat boots with increasingfrequency; in 1973 alone, it bidsuccessfully on three contractsfor a total of 177,000 pairs. Salesclimbed again, and in 1975broke the $3 million mark toreach $3,236,000.

Homer Weidmann’s son Ericjoined the management team inSeptember 1975. It was a chal-lenging time to enter the shoebusiness. The December 1975board meeting minutes record afrank discussion of the problemsthe company faced. The Ameri-can “shoe industry contraction isnow 15 years old,” the minutesnoted. Additionally, the directorsacknowledged, Belleville Shoe’s“aging three-story building willrequire modernization.”

Undaunted, the companypressed ahead. Eight new vul-canizing presses came on line inApril 1976. The company couldnow produce up to 1500 pairs ofcombat boots a day, up from1200, with good expectations offurther expansion. Sales contin-ued to rise, reaching $4.5 millionin 1978, and in 1979 the compa-ny expanded its physical plantfor the first time since 1926 withthe leasing of 35,000 square feetin an abandoned store buildingon Carlyle Avenue, Belleville.Cutting and fitting operationsmoved there, freeing more spacefor lasting, bottoming and pack-ing at the East Main Street plant.The company bought new equip-ment, hired new workers andexpanded daily production to2,800 pairs. Sales for 1979topped $7 million.

Walter Weidmann, who hadserved the company since itsbeginning 76 years before, washospitalized in July 1980 anddied in September. He had beenthe driving force behind thecompany’s early nationwidesales and other innovative mar-keting efforts, and his deathmarked the end of the foundinggeneration’s era.

The company, now experienc-ing dramatic growth, requiredadditional upper-level manage-ment. In 1980, Eric Weidmannpersuaded David Herr, a friendfrom his Stanford BusinessSchool days and the husband of

his cousin, to join the BellevilleShoe team. Herr’s responsibili-ties came to include quality sys-tems, purchasing, research anddevelopment, product diversifi-cation and information technolo-gy. He also became, EricWeidmann said, “the major linkto our contract business cus-tomers,” who represent 80 per-cent of the firm’s business.

Signs of expansion abounded.In July 1980 the firm leased anadditional 30,000 square feet inthe Carlyle Avenue building andmoved the lasting operationsthere. Employment exceeded300, and sales for the year nearlydoubled, reaching $13.5 million.For 1981 they were $17.4 mil-lion.

A global recession in 1982 hitall of American manufacturinghard, including Belleville Shoe.Eric Weidmann reported to theboard that bidding for militarycontracts was the most competi-tive in memory. All successfulbids, he added, were at losingprices, with companies sellingboots below cost. Sales for 1982fell back to $13.8 million, and in1983, as the recession persisted,the company halted work for sixweeks during the summer. It wona major contract — for 286,000boots — in August, and inOctober instituted additionalcost-saving measures, includingtighter manufacturing processcontrol, better use of materialsand improved machine efficien-cies, but though the firm benefit-ed by a $1-per-pair cost reduc-tion from these measures, stillsales dropped again for 1983, to$11.5 million. Another six-weeklayoff followed in 1984.

New factory planned

Undeterred, the company laidplans to build a new factorywhere it could consolidate itsoperations and approached theCity of Belleville about movingto the Belle Valley IndustrialPark east of town. The salesslump reversed itself in 1984,and by April 1985 the companyreported the best quarter in its80-year history. In July the cityissued $2 million in economicdevelopment revenue bonds andsold industrial park acreage toBelleville Shoe for the construc-

tion of a 113,000-square-footplant, expected to cost $2.8 mil-lion. The groundbreaking wasJuly 22, 1985, and the buildingwas up and running by April1986.

Sales were strong andimproving consistently. Theytopped $23 million in 1986 andfor 1987 exceeded $27 million.

A new quality control pro-gram inaugurated in 1986strengthened the company’s per-formance dramatically. Herr,whose responsibilities includedproduct quality, discovered thework of quality expert PhilipCrosby in 1985. Crosby haddevised a method for assessing acost for quality failures, whichhe called the “price of non-con-formance” (PONC). Both Herrand Eric Weidmann attendedCrosby seminars and brought theprogram back to Belleville Shoe.

“Crosby put a ‘number’ to thecost of inspecting and reworkingmanufactured goods,” Weid-mann explained. “Quality is not‘goodness.’ Quality is makingthe product right the first time.”Belleville Shoe has tracked thesenumbers ever since, identifyingand eliminating the causes ofquality failures. “Zero defectsare a goal but never a reality,”Weidmann added. “The price ofnon-conformance number is ameasure of performance. It tellsyou how much better you are thisweek than last week.” The com-pany sets PONC goals by depart-ment, and the plant manager anddirector of quality work withsupervisors to meet those goals.

Incentives, awards and spe-cial perks like reserved parkingencourage employees’ activeparticipation, but, as Herr point-ed out, the primary incentive istheir workers’ earnest commit-ment to top performance.“Everybody here wants to do thejob right,” he said. “We givethem the training and the tools toallow them to do the job right.”One measure of the program’ssuccess is the company’s ISO9000 certification, a prestigiousrecognition of high qualityachievement, which the compa-ny received in 2002.

Making steel-toe boots

In 1990, the company under-

took development of a steel-toework boot. In March 1991 itreceived an order for 10,000pairs from Hy-Test, Inc., a lead-ing distributor of industrial workshoes. Belleville Shoe beganproduction on 10 different stylesin black and brown leather. Thecontract came at a time when theGulf War was ending andDefense Department contractswere falling off. Though thecompany stopped work-bootproduction in 1999, EricWeidmann said the enterprisetaught them important lessons.“We were making a number ofdifferent styles of steel-toeboot,” he explained. “It taught usdifferent outsole constructions,different linings, steel-toe con-struction, and it taught us how toexpand our product line” —lessons that would bear fruit laterin the proliferating styles ofhigh-tech military footwear.

Sales ranged between $20million and $30 million throughthe 1990s. With the end of thework shoe business in 1999, thecompany devoted itself almostexclusively to military footwear,as the world confronted thegrowing dangers of global ter-rorism. U.S. forces gatheredstrength and modernized, aprocess that accelerated afterSept. 11, 2001. Increasingly theDefense Department looked forspecialized, cutting-edge gearthat would serve in specific con-ditions — deserts, mountains,cockpits. They required, various-ly, waterproofing, chemicalresistance, flame and heat resis-tance, even barriers to bamboospear traps. Whereas in 1981Belleville Shoe made a singlestyle of military boot, today thecompany produces 24 styles ofmilitary footwear. Most of thatproduct line expansion has comein the last five years.

Reinventing boots

Belleville Shoe has alsoacquired numerous newadvances in boot technology. Inprior decades, the company sim-ply produced boots to theDefense Department’s specifica-tions, but since the 1990s thecompany’s research and develop-ment efforts, under Herr’s lead-ership, have increasingly helpedthe armed forces reinvent com-bat boots and adapt them to newneeds. In 1996, for instance,Herr invented the tri-layer sole,adding a polyurethane cushionmidsole between a rubber mid-sole and a rubber outsole. Theboot offered vastly improvedcomfort over the old single-layercombat boot rubber sole, provid-ing better shock absorption andreducing leg and foot injuries. Ithas since become the sole sys-tem of choice for all the services.Similarly, in 2001 the firm intro-duced injection molding toattach a polyurethane cushionmidsole directly to the boot,applying running shoe technolo-gy to military bootmaking. Eventoday, only three other U.S. mili-tary suppliers use this method.

R&D, Herr added, “is drivenby our perception of what thecustomer needs. We’ve been suc-cessful in the last eight to tenyears because we have been ableto communicate with our poten-tial customers about their needsand then develop specific prod-ucts to meet those needs.”

Open in Arkansas

The sharp increase in militaryproduction has required a corre-sponding expansion in capacity.In 2002 the company added a$1 million, 45,000-square-footfinished goods distribution cen-ter to the Belle Valley plant. Thesame year the firm took a historic

The Belleville Shoe Manufacturing Company first began operations at the former Rentchler Machine Shops at East B and Delmar streets (above). In 1909, after a devas-tating fire destroyed the Jordan Shoe Company building and the Crown Milling elevator at East Main and Walnut streets, Belleville Shoe bought the property and built anew factory (below). The company produced boots there until April 1986.

To combat offshore athletic shoe production, Belleville Shoe established “BellevilleSport Shoes” as a wholly-owned subsidiary in 1961 and hired William A. Bird(above) from the Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. to spearhead the enterprise. It oper-ated for two years, until Belleville Shoe recaptured Rawlings’ athletic shoe business.

Belleville Shoe has been fortunate in its employees’ loyalty and skill. One long-termer was Rudolph Pfeil (second from right,above), who began with the company in 1909 and continued for more than 50 years, rising to become plant superintendent. Thispicture was taken at a 1959 dinner honoring him and his wife for his half-century of service. President Walter E. Weidmann isat left and Vice President Homer Weidmann at right.

Belleville Shoe marks 100 extraordinary years | Continued from Page 1

Please see 100 YEARS, p. 4

Friday, October 8, 2004

Centennial EditionA4 BELLEVILLE NEWS-DEMOCRAT

two locations constantlyexchange information aboutpurchasing, production, ship-ping, billing, quality and all theother facets of bootmaking.Powerful new software underdevelopment by the company’sBelleville IT team will strength-en the communication linksdramatically.

Along with his enthusiasmfor the relationship between thetwo locations, Carr alsoacknowledges cultural differ-ences between the operations.“The staff here are very laidback,” he said, “though the fac-tory is fast-paced. These peoplegrew up working hard. Most ofthem had to work as children.”

Company expectations aredifferent in some ways, too,Meins noted. “The demand ishuge,” she said, contrasting itwith the diminishing productionunder Munro in its waningyears. In dealing with theDefense Department, qualitycontrol is much tighter as well,she added. Employees have hadto learn new equipment andprocesses, including vulcaniz-ing soles.

Like their Belleville counter-parts, though, they are proud tomake shoes for America’s mili-tary men and women. Carrshares that pride himself. “Itmeans a lot to me,” he noted. “Iwas a Marine.”

Maintenance ManagerJimmy Ray echoes Carr’s senti-ments. “My son is a captain inthe Army National Guard,” hesaid. “He tells me this is thebest boot he’s ever put on. It isan outstanding product. We’venever heard a bad report.”

Belleville Shoe has made apowerful difference in DeWittand its environs. The wages andespecially the benefits it offers

exceed the area standard sub-stantially. “Many ofour employeesnever had any bene-fits before,” Carrsaid. Carr andMeins also appreci-ate the company’sinvestments inequipment and thework environment.A huge Munrowarehouse space now humswith sole-lay and packing oper-ations. Parking lot paving, newand improved air conditioning,

a new roof, new break areas and

bathrooms all make the plantmore comfortable for itsemployees.

“The company has made

every effort to improve workingconditions,” Meins said grate-fully.

Because production hasgrown so quickly, the companyhas drained the DeWitt laborpool and has fanned out acrossthe area to hire the workers itneeds. “Finding and keepingskilled employees is hard,”Meins acknowledged. Manypotential employees do not havereliable cars, so the office hiredtwo transportation companies tooperate a first-shift van service.It now serves four outlying

communities, one 60 miles dis-tant. About 100 employees ridethe vans to work and home againeach day.

“Other companies mightoffer transportation,” Weid-mann mused, “but I’ve neverheard of it.”

The shuttles have beenessential to increasing produc-tion levels. “We wouldn’t havebeen able to pull it off if wehadn’t been willing to offer vanservice,” said Tim Glidewell,plant manager. “We had ex-hausted the workforce in DeWitt.”

Glidewell, fitting roomsupervisor for Munro and thefirst person back in the plant forBelleville Shoe, is still stunnedby the company’s expansion andsuccess in DeWitt. “It’s justamazing how far we’ve come insuch a short time,” saidGlidewell, who laid out the pro-duction lines and made theplant ready for military produc-tion. “It took a lot of hard work.We have really dedicated peo-ple. It was a team effort.” A keyelement, he added, was thecompany’s willingness toinvest. “Belleville Shoe hasgiven us every tool we need,” hesaid.

Ray, the maintenance man-ager, has worked at the factoryfor 37 years, going back to theNorthern Shoe days. His uncle,Bobby Rowland, helped buildthe plant back in 1959. Its 2001closing, he said, “was devastat-ing to DeWitt and [neighboring]Clarendon.” Like Glide-well,Ray is amazed at the transfor-mation. Going to full produc-tion with 600-plus employeesfrom an 80-person cut-and-sewoperation was a remarkable andunexpected change; and he wasimpressed as well when the pro-duction floor grew from 40,000to 104,000 square feet with theincorporation of the warehousespace. “It has been a rapidramp-up,” he said with someunderstatement.

For her part, Meins was con-vinced that the plant’s days wereover when Munro announcedthe closing. “I would havesworn that the building wouldjust deteriorate,” she said. “Thishas been very big news forDeWitt.”

Added Carr: “The Chamberof Commerce is thrilled todeath.”

Belleville Shoe President Eric Weidmann brims with enthusiasm about the company’s expansion in DeWitt, Arkansas. The management team there includes (from the left)Johnnie Carr, assistant secretary-treasurer; Weidmann; Tim Glidewell, plant manager; Barbara Meins, human resources director; and Jimmy Ray, maintenance manager.

Arkansas plant doubles firm’s workforce |Continued from Page 1

“My son is a captain in theArmy National Guard. He tellsme this is the best boot he’s

ever put on.”Jimmy Ray, Maintenance Manager

By 1953, the first signs ofimpending struggles in theAmerican footwear industrybegan to appear. Locally,International Shoe closed itsBelleville plant that year.Belleville Shoe, with imagina-tive marketing, soldiered onwith a combination of militaryfootwear, cowboy boots for thewestern wear craze, boots forhikers and engineers and itsmen’s and boys’ lines. Butsoon storeswould turnto foreignsuppl iersfor shoes.Europeanproducers,especiallyin Italy andGermany, werethe first to make

inroads in the American shoemarket, but they were only thebeginning, presaging unprece-dented challenges to come laterfrom Latin America and thenAsia.

In the midst of this gatheringstorm, Belleville Shoe made afortuitous connection. TheRawlings Sporting GoodsCompany, based in St. Louis,approached President WalterWeidmann and proposed a con-tract whereby Belleville Shoe

would make athletic shoesexclusively for the

Rawlings lines. For itspart, Rawlings would

pay for lasts, patternsand the installation

and maintenanceof special

equipment.Soon the

company was producingbaseball, football, soccer,golf, bowling and trackshoes. Accord-ing to theNews-Demo-crat, themajority of Olympic trackstars and almost all majorleague baseball playerswore shoes made atBelleville. And the com-pany had won the loyaltyof some celebrity sports stars,including Mickey Mantle andStan Musial.

“Stan Musial was our bestcustomer,” recalled HomerWeidmann, then company vicepresident. “He insisted on tightshoes to help him get to firstbase in a hurry. He’d gothrough six or seven pairs in aseason. As soon as the shoesbegan to stretch he’d get a newpair.”

Kangaroo tannage fromAustralia and New Zealand wasthe hide of choice for athleticshoes because it is lightweight,yet tough. “Kangaroo hide isthe strongest leather per unit ofthickness,” Weidmannexplained. One pair of football

shoes required almost all thehide of one kangaroo.

Belleville made theshoes to Rawlings’

designs, and the tradegrew in time to repre-

sent about 50 per-cent of the

c o m p a ny ’sb u s i n e s s ,Weid-mann

said. Belleville shoes were onthe feet of everyone from themajor leagues to Little League.Eventually, though, this pro-duction began to migrate over-seas as well. As early as 1956,the German firms Adidas andPuma, through aggressive mar-

keting at the Mexico CitySummer Olympics, gained abeachhead in the Americansport shoe business. Rawlingsstarted offshore production inPuerto Rico in 1961. ThoughBelleville Shoe managed torecapture that trade in 1963 andcontinued selling athletic shoesdirectly to sporting goodsstores after its relationship withRawlings ended about 1970,the company’s long-term futurewas to unfold in militaryfootwear.

Branching out Running the bases with Mickey and Stan

Walter Weidmann (left) and Homer Weidmann (behind him) toured Rawlings executives through the Belleville Shoe factoryas the two firms joined up to make athletic shoes in 1953.

Belleville Shoe pro-duced quality athlet-ic footwear duringthe 1950s and1960s, includinggolf shoes (below)and baseball shoesfavored by MickeyMantle and Stan Musial.

step and opened Belleville ShoeSouth in a shuttered DeWitt,Arkansas, shoe factory, its firstcompany-owned operations out-side the Metro-East (see sepa-rate story). The workforce hasjumped from 300 just three yearsago to 1300 now — 650 in Bellevilleand 650 in DeWitt.

Twenty-first-century technol-ogy has transformed manufac-turing in many ways. Huge com-puter-driven equipment nowcuts synthetic fabrics, replacingthe old dye-cut methods, andmolds and attaches midsoles andoutsoles. A growing bank ofcomputer-controlled sewingmach-ines compliments thethree long traditional-machineproduction lines. To manage theincreasing complexities of mul-tiple styles and a vastly enlargedwarehouse, a unique, sophisti-cated software system that thecompany’s four-person IT teamis developing will ultimatelytrack production from the firstreceipt of an order throughinventory, shipping and deliveryand integrate all the productionfunctions with billing, disburse-ments, payroll and even qualitycontrol.

By early next year, Weid-mann hopes to have a leather-cutting machine on line, anunprecedented move in theindustry. “It will be revolution-ary,” he said. “No shoe companyin America does it.” The instal-lation will borrow technologyfrom the auto industry, whichuses it for cutting leather seats.

The new equipment reflects acompany commitment to rein-vestment, also evident inimprovements to the work envi-ronment. In Belleville, the com-pany this year expanded its

parking lot from 300 to 450spaces. In DeWitt, a new roof,parking lot paving, substantialair conditioning and ventilationupgrades, new break areas andbathrooms have improved theplant.

Beacon of opportunity

Upgrading the work environ-ment in turn expresses the com-pany’s commitment to its work-force. Belleville Shoe is aggres-sive too in its efforts to hireminorities. Of 684 employees inBelleville in June, 46 percentwere minorities — 33 percentAfrican-American, 8 percentAsian and 5 percent Hispanic. InArkansas, 58 percent of theplant’s employees were minori-ty, 55 percent African-Ameri-cans and the balance Asians andHispanics. In Arkansas, 64 per-cent of the workforce arewomen; in Belleville the numberis 48 percent.

“We’ve made an active effortto reach out to minorities,”Weidmann noted. Though thefirm is obligated to do so as afederal contractor, Weidmannsaid its efforts rise out of moralconviction. “We believe in it.The percentage of minorities weemploy is in some cases twice ashigh as their percentage in thelocal labor market. We areknown as a beacon of minorityemployment.” The Bellevilleplant’s employees come from asfar away as Chester, Carlyle,Highland and Alton. TheArkansas plant also draws froma wide area — and the companyruns shuttles to transport morethan 100 workers from distantcommunities every day.

Belleville Shoe’s history has

been a remarkable story ofentrepreneurship, adaptabilityand stunning growth. In the lastfive years in particular, the firmhas claimed an increasing pro-portion of the U.S. military’sbusiness. “We have made anaggressive effort to gain marketshare,” Weidmann said,“through a combination of prod-uct development and diversifica-tion, pricing, quality, deliveryperformance and marketing. Themarket today is two and a half tothree times what it was fiveyears ago — and we may have asmuch as half that expansion.”Belle-ville Shoe competes withnine other manufacturers for thegovernment’s business.

“We’ve produced militaryfootwear every year for the last64 years,” he reflected. “But upuntil 1997 no military boot man-ufacturer was allowed to put itscompany name on its boots. TheMarine Corps started to changethat with its first purchase of aGore-Tex-lined infantry boot in1997, and 100 percent of thatcontract was awarded toBelleville Shoe, beating outeight other companies in a fiercebidding competition. So the firstname ever to appear on boot-camp issued boots in any servicewas ‘Belleville.’

“Since then we’ve been ableto develop a recognition of theBELLEVILLE brand in the mil-itary market as representinglightweight, comfortable yetvery durable boots — the Nikeof our military world.”

And today, U.S. military per-sonnel stationed around theworld refer to their boots as“Bellevilles.”

100 years | Continued from Page 3

“Stan Musial was our best customer. He’d go through six orseven pairs in a season. As soon as the shoes began to

stretch he’d get a new pair.”Homer Weidmann