Have you ever heard of
SAS Shoes? Do you know what SAS stands
for? Did you know they are made in
Texas?
I have heard of SAS
shoes and, wrongly, just assumed the name was short for sassy. I never really put much thought into it.
Well, SAS stands for
San Antonio Shoemakers.
We can get to San
Antonio in about an hour. When you live
in Texas an hour doesn’t seem that far.
The company was
founded in 1976 by Terry Armstrong and Lew Hayden. There is also a much larger factory in Del
Rio, Texas.
Unfortunately, no
cameras are allowed in the factory. Besides
Mark and I there were two other people on our tour. We boarded the bus at the General Store at
9:15. The trip to the factory took about
30 seconds! Our guide, Celia, has worked
with the company for over 30 years. She
was very nice and knowledgeable. There
were a couple of rules we had to follow.
Probably the most important was to not talk to the workers. We were told that they get paid by the piece
and to not disturb them. Everyone was
friendly and we got a lot of smiles. At
every station Celia would pick up the finished piece for that station and
explain what the employee was doing.
We learned that the
leather is cow hide that comes from Mexico, Italy, and the northern US. Even though the tour was only about an hour
long, we were able to see the entire production of making a hand-crafted
shoe. Of the couple of hundred or so
employees, that we saw, there were only a handful of men. Celia wouldn’t tell
me how many people were employed here but she did say that most of them were
women.
I will say, these
shoes are expensive. After seeing how
they are made, I can see why. There were
no conveyor belts with shoes whizzing by while computers did all the work. Every station had a person either doing all
the work or part of the work. We saw
employees laying out giant cow hides that would be cut by a computer but we
also saw employees hand stamping the leather pieces (just like cutting out
cookie dough!). Others were hand laying
and gluing the various pieces together - they had to fit perfectly. There are 65 - 100 steps, depending on the
style, for every shoe made.
But the sight that
will stay in my mind forever - the women hand sewing the shoes! Holes are pre-cut into the leather so that
every piece lines up perfectly but it still looked like a lot of work pushing a
needle through the leather.
After the tour we went
back to the General Store. I saw some
sneakers that I really liked (mostly because they were orange), but I didn’t
find my size so no purchases were made.
There was a small area inside the store were kids shoes were being made.
Mark holding a tiny shoe.
Industrial size sewing machine.
There was one employee
working in this area. She was very friendly and didn’t mind talking to us.
Roughing up the botton of the shoe before the sole is glued on.
The founders of the
company were also car collectors and there are many displayed outside the
General Store.
It was killing me not
to be able to take pictures of this fascinating tour! If you like factory tours, this is worth the
trip.
Teri
Teri
