The most expensive decision we ever made
Bringing sole-making in-house nearly broke us. It is also the only reason we can promise a date and keep it.
For years, the answer to "why is the order late" was almost always the sole. A supplier's schedule slipped. A compound arrived at the wrong hardness. A mould correction took a month.
A factory that can otherwise turn a shoe around in four weeks sat waiting.
So we stopped buying them
Compounding, moulding and a tool room, all on our own site. It cost more than anything else we have done.
What it bought was control. The hardness of a sole is now a decision rather than a delivery. A correction to a mould takes days. And a repeat order two seasons later matches the original, because the recipe is written down rather than remembered.
It also turned into a business of its own — a good share of what the workshop makes now leaves as components for other factories.
Written by the Lab Multi team. For press enquiries or to speak to the people behind this work, contact info@labmulti.com.
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