Lovejoy Wharf - Hoffman Building | 160 North Washington Street | West End

Love this building. Truly reflects the old Garden Era

Liberty Mutual Insurance Building Fit perfectly in the BackBay
LoveJoy Building fits perfect in the North Station Era.
 
It just hit me that two major shoe companies are moving into the city, New Balance and Converse. Any others in the New England area that might join them?
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
It just hit me that two major shoe companies are moving into the city, New Balance and Converse. Any others in the New England area that might join them?
Click to expand...

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/n...and-athletic-shoe-manufacturers.html?page=all
Vibram, Saucony, Reebok, Addidas, and Puma are all in Mass acorrding to that article.

Also Sperry Topsider is in Lexington (as well as on my feet right now). And Frye was originally from Mass, not sure if they have any offices here anymore.
 
What the heck...I never had any idea the area was such a hotbed for shoe companies.
 
They have a common history - and the downtown buildings have distinguished predecessors...

000654.jpg


Built in 1930, the United Shoe Machinery Building is Boston's best example of the Art Deco style. This 24-story structure was the first building designed to comply with a 1928 zoning amendment which allowed taller buildings, but required setbacks to provide light and air to abutting structures. By 1919 the United Shoe Machinery Corp. controlled 98% of the shoe machinery production and distribution in the United States.

The original United Shoe was broken up in a landmark antitrust action in the 50s...
 
New England was a huge manufacturing center before it all moved south after WW2. I'm not surprised that shoes were big here.
 
fattony said:
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/n...and-athletic-shoe-manufacturers.html?page=all
Vibram, Saucony, Reebok, Addidas, and Puma are all in Mass acorrding to that article.

Also Sperry Topsider is in Lexington (as well as on my feet right now). And Frye was originally from Mass, not sure if they have any offices here anymore.
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Of the major brands, only Saucony/Stride-Rite/Sperry-Topsider, which is located in an office park at 128/2, would plausibly move. I was actually shocked when I looked at Google Earth how enormous and fancy-looking Reebok's complex in Canton is. It's the same kind of thing as Nike and Adidas have in Portland (and as NB is trying to build in Brighton with an urbanist bent)

Puma's website claims they're at 1 Congress St in Boston, which would put them in the GC Garage. I wonder if they'll be a major tenant in One Congress when it goes up. I hope so, because "Puma Tower" would be an awesome name.
 
Don't forget that United Shoe's factory up in Beverly (aka "The Shoe") was when new the largest factory in the United States, and maybe the world.

m65l.jpg


Also, New Balance isn't moving anywhere besides down the street -- they've been headquartered in Brighton since the early 2000s.
 
Haverhill was also a huge shoe-making town. Something like 10% of all shoes made in the US came out of Haverhill at one point. This area has a rich history when it comes to shoes.
 
Brockton too...

Boston has arguably the greatest shoe industry history and presence. It actually is amazing when you think of it how undersung it is
 
Bridgewater, Middleboro, Stoughton, and so many other towns in metro Boston had multiple shoe factories. It was the shoe capital of the world! My dad, many aunts and uncles worked in the shoe factories. The amazing story here is that Massachusetts remade itself as the shoe industry moved to the south or overseas with the resulting loss of thousands of jobs unlike the rust belt where many parts of PA, Ohio, and Michigan have yet to recover from the loss of their steel mills.
 
atlantaden said:
Bridgewater, Middleboro, Stoughton, and so many other towns in metro Boston had multiple shoe factories. It was the shoe capital of the world! My dad, many aunts and uncles worked in the shoe factories. The amazing story here is that Massachusetts remade itself as the shoe industry moved to the south or overseas with the resulting loss of thousands of jobs unlike the rust belt where many parts of PA, Ohio, and Michigan have yet to recover from the loss of their steel mills.
Click to expand...

And it wasn't just a shoe industry -- it was a complete leather industry. Greater Boston was a major center for the tanning of leather hides, mostly in the North Shore and South Coast river towns (ecological note, do not stir up the sediment in those rivers, it is full of toxic chromium and cadmium).

This regional industry is why Boston has a historic "Leather District" -- that was the trading center for the global shipment of leather goods.
 
atlantaden said:
Bridgewater, Middleboro, Stoughton, and so many other towns in metro Boston had multiple shoe factories.
Click to expand...

Lynn dwarfed them all. Per WGBH, in 1900, 234 shoe factories in Lynn were cranking out 1 million pairs of shoes a day.

http://wgbhnews.org/post/how-lynn-became-shoe-capitol-world

Already by 1850--a decade before the Civil War--Lynn was making 4.5 million shoes a year--or 12,000 shoes a day, per NE Hist. Soc.:

http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/great-new-england-shoemakers-strike-1860/

In this light, the insane folly of the Confederacy declaring war in 1861 on New England's industrial juggernaut (not to belittle the rest of the Union states' output) would only be exceeded 80 years later by Hitler's madness choosing battle against a region that included one shipyard that in three years would assemble 227 ships, 90 of them destroyers:

http://www.smithyacht.com/history-of-the-hingham-shipyard/
 
DBM said:
In this light, the insane folly of the Confederacy declaring war in 1861 on New England's industrial juggernaut (not to belittle the rest of the Union states' output) would only be exceeded 80 years later by Hitler's madness choosing battle against a region that included one shipyard that in three years would assemble 227 ships, 90 of them destroyers:

http://www.smithyacht.com/history-of-the-hingham-shipyard/
Click to expand...

... and where today the Wahlbergs are making hamburgers.

Not necessarily complaining; just saying.
 
kz1000ps said:
Don't forget that United Shoe's factory up in Beverly (aka "The Shoe") was when new the largest factory in the United States, and maybe the world.

m65l.jpg
Click to expand...

FWIW - the USM "Executive Golf Course" is visible in the top of this photo. YOu dont see those very often any more, but you don't see 98% market share that often either...
 
Will they have a factory outlet store, like NB does?
 
jass said:
Will they have a factory outlet store, like NB does?
Click to expand...

I don't think there's any retail space in this project... BTW, they just opened a new Converse retail store at Assembly Row back in May.
 
There will be a Converse flagship store and other retails space. There was an article (Globe?) a while back about how Converse, in it's lease, made the developer agree that no other athletic apparel store would be located in the retail component. There were specific tenants listed including ones that you don't think of as Converse competitors (I specifically remember Lulu Lemon).
 
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