N.Y. company buys Skowhegan shoe plant

SKOWHEGAN – A New York-based shoe company has acquired Custom Shoe of Maine with plans to boost employment at the factory to 75 within a year.

American Shoe Co. has bought Custom Shoe’s inventory and equipment, said Kenneth Silverman, president of American Shoe.

The company will make custom orthopedic footwear for people with serious foot problems, Silverman said. Twenty-eight people now work at the plant.

“Right now we’re doing between 20 and 30 pairs a day. We think in six months we’ll be up to 60 to 75 pairs a day and a year from today up to 100,” Silverman said. “At that point we’ll probably be employing 75 people.”

Silverman said a dozen people from American Shoe’s New York office are now in Skowhegan to train production workers at the factory.

Custom Shoe of Maine, formerly the MacDonald Footwear Co., was close to going out of business when the deal was struck, company officials said.