Just got back to Beantown after working with our footwear manufacturer in China. It was a whirlwind 7 days, including more than 48 hours of travel to oversee the production of our samples before they get put through our wear test trials over the next few months. There were long days with our footwear technicians, late nights with the factory owner and enough Tsingtao’s and green tea to last us until our next visit.
A few people have asked us about where we’re manufacturing. The short story of our company’s history is that the grandfather of the YORK bros manufactured performance footwear for athletes from the 40s-70s in Manchester, NH. When footwear manufacturing started to move overseas due to the rising cost of manufacturing and the demand for affordable prices, the factory couldn’t keep up. The family business evolved into a mom and pop sporting goods retailer and is still in existence today, no easy feat. A dream of ours is to one day reshore the manufacturing of our footwear but guess what, it’s really fucking expensive to make the kind of shoes we want to make here in the US. And we would have to buy and ship the necessary machines and equipment from Asia to build a factory from the ground up, simply because the capabilities to make these kinds of shoes doesn’t exist here. So for now, we are so proud of the partnership we have built with our crew in China. Keeping with the family vibes, we are working with husband and wife duo Jackie and Kelly, who have worked relentlessly to get us into top quality factories and mills in the effort to bring our community a well-made & credible performance trainer at a fair price.
Funny enough, we ran into several old industry friends from the Adidas and Under Armour running teams while we were out there. It felt good being a bit of the underdog, the small guys paving our own way and pushing through the best doors.
Here are 5 reasons why we love our sneaks and why you’ll love them too :
-Simplicity. No fuss or bullshit, we’ve created a blank canvas that allows you to speak for yourself-100% performance. You can train & run hard in these
-Comfort. One of the first sounds we hear each time someone new tries them on is a pleasure filled ‘yeah’
-Durability. We want these to last so we’re thinking through the details, like reinforced webbing at the back of the heel and hot melt TPU seams
-Color. Or lack thereof. Finally a sneaker offered only in a minimal palette of black, grey, and white
PHOTO JOURNAL :
Finally, shoe in hand. Proud moment.
Checking the durometer on our compression molded lightweight EVA midsole before proceeding with our wear test samples.
Our mold supplier took us out to a cool little lunch spot where you could pick out your own poisonous snakes & fish for lunch. We had chicken instead.
Family owned from Boston to China. Meet our development team. Jackie, Kelly and new baby Yang, our husband and wife operation based in China. This other guy, Gary Siriano, was an elite runner back in the day and is the best in the biz when it comes to performance footwear development.