Falcon Shoe rebounding after British firm’s buyout

LEWISTON – Falcon Shoe Co. is pursuing military boot contracts as it enjoys a new life a month after being purchased by a British-based boot manufacturer.

Since being acquired by Hi-Tec Magnum, the 42-year-old company has hired new employees and quadrupled the space it is using at the Continental Mill. Company officials said they are betting that its prototype boot using stealth technology will pay off down the road.

Roland Landry, the general manager, held up a boot with a mosaic pattern of various shades of brown. The pattern makes the boot invisible to night-vision goggles, a technology that has already been incorporated in U.S. military uniforms.

A green version of the same boot rests next to the brown one, a prototype for the Canadian military, which uses green-based camouflage.

“We want to be among the first to manufacture with this type of technology,” Landry said. “It could be a year to get a contract, but that’s what we’re going for.”

Falcon Shoe was plucked from the edge of insolvency in March when Hi-Tec Magnum bought it. The sale meant continued employment for the 26 Falcon employees who were still working for the firm – which once employed nearly 500.

Since the sale, Falcon has increased its work force by 14, with plans for 40 more new workers by year’s end. It now uses 180,000 square feet of the Continental Mill, up from 48,000 square feet it used before the sale.

The company is modernizing its production, pulling out machines from the ’60s and ’70s and replacing them with a new production system where the boots are assembled in one continuous operation rather than assembled piecemeal in batches.

The company is also adopting what is known as just-in-time manufacturing procedures, producing orders as they come in rather than building up an inventory. Landry said he used to have a $3 million leather stockpile. Now all the leather he needs for a week’s production can fit into three large cardboard boxes.