I'm a little bit more mystified why there aren't more niche shoes being made in the U.S. where buyers are both willing to pay more and where buyers are much more discerning about small differences.
For example weightlifting shoes are absolutely dominated by made in China shoes, and these are not at a low price point. The only made in US weightlifting shoes I know of (Position) are apparently quite poor quality and absolutely blown out of the water by the others (on the other hand, outside of shoes, there is a lot of made in the US weightlifting equipment which is very high quality and apparently enjoys healthy sales as a result).
Maybe I'm missing certain niches? But my uninformed impression is that this is also true for shoes in other sports such as running, and other industries such as construction.
There are plenty of high end leather shoes made in the US, UK, or Europe that will set you back anywhere from $250 to $1k+. Back when massdrop used to feature a wide selection of items, shoes used to feature quite regularly.
Probably because the people capable of building that necessary expertise choose to go into more profitable and easy to access ventures, like software as a service, and I don't mean software developers.
One such niche is dress shoes. Companies like Alden make all their shoes in the US and maintain a very high level of quality even at their price point.
For example weightlifting shoes are absolutely dominated by made in China shoes, and these are not at a low price point. The only made in US weightlifting shoes I know of (Position) are apparently quite poor quality and absolutely blown out of the water by the others (on the other hand, outside of shoes, there is a lot of made in the US weightlifting equipment which is very high quality and apparently enjoys healthy sales as a result).
Maybe I'm missing certain niches? But my uninformed impression is that this is also true for shoes in other sports such as running, and other industries such as construction.