But consumers can purchase a colorful version – the first performance shoe SAS has ever manufactured and sold. The Mission 1 is made in all black and began shipping out in July. In 2017, SAS bid against major athletic shoe manufacturers and won a government contract to design and produce the athletic training shoes worn by all U.S. “What we know from every market study we’ve ever done, as well as our gut, is that if we get you into a pair of shoes, you’re coming back for another pair. “What really drives the growth for us is the strength of the product,” Richardson said. Like other premium comfort shoes, SAS shoes aren’t inexpensive, with prices ranging between $125 and $300. But there’s a difference between SAS and its closest competitor brands – Ecco, New Balance, Rockport, Clarke, and Naot, to name a few. The typical SAS customer is 40 and older, people who work in jobs that require them to be on their feet for long periods or who wear hard-to-find sizes. “What I often hear from retailers is, ‘All this fashion stuff is great, but what pays my rent every month is the SAS inventory,’” Richardson said. The SAS model of offering the same style shoe, instead of following fashion trends, allows retailers to order only what they need instead of making a large upfront investment on a guess. Some styles are so popular and ubiquitous, they’ve been around nearly as long as the company, though 40 percent of all SAS shoe styles were developed in the past five years. SAS makes 116 combinations of sizes and widths in men’s shoes and 88 for women, with almost every style conceived, designed, and manufactured in-house. It also serves as the distribution point to 1,000 other retail outlets in the U.S. Located in the former La Salle High School buildings on South Zarzamora Street, the SAS Shoemakers headquarters is where the family-owned enterprise manages 125 company stores across the country and three factories – one in San Antonio and the others in Del Rio and Acuña, Mexico. even though 99 percent of all shoes sold in America are manufactured elsewhere, according to a Business Insider report. About 25 million pairs of shoes are made annually in the U.S. SAS is now one of only 230 shoe manufacturers in the United States, according to a spokesman with the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America. Now in the hands of Armstrong’s kids, the company is run by Nancy Richardson, named CEO in 2012. Terry persevered and prospered and eventually bought out Hayden before his death in 2005. “No one would lend them money,” her sister Cheryl Remmert added. “When we moved here, we went from rental house to rental house because our dad was sure we weren’t going to make it.” While Terry’s wife, Regina, supported the family with a job at UPS, Terry struggled against the tide of shoe manufacturers moving operations overseas in the 1970s. “They were young, they had their ideas, and they decided they could do it themselves,” said Lisa Armstrong, Terry’s daughter. Night after night eventually turned into several years of hard work, and by 1979, the business was beginning to grow. But the early days were hard, with Terry bringing home small pieces of leather from the factory so his teenage daughters could pitch in to help, hand-sewing shoe uppers for full assembly back at the factory the next day.
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