A Journey of Challenges, Innovation, and Perseverance

In 2015, as many footwear manufacturers in China were moving production to Southeast Asia, Len and Allen, the two co-founders of Summitz Footwear, decided to take a different path.

Rather than following the industry to Southeast Asia, they chose to build their factory in the world’s largest consumer market—the United States. Their vision was to provide footwear brands with “Assembled in USA” manufacturing, specializing in shoes built using cold cement construction.

But there was a major challenge: the U.S. had very few skilled footwear workers. Simply bringing the traditional production lines used in Asian factories to the U.S. was clearly not a viable option.

So Len and Allen took a different approach. They decided to use robotic automation to handle the key skilled tasks involved in the shoe assembly process.

When their search for off-the-shelf automation equipment capable of performing these tasks proved unsuccessful, they decided to build it themselves.

That marked the beginning of their journey：

2015 — Len and Allen decided to build a shoe factory in the U.S.

Tacoma, WA, became the first location on their site-selection list, due to a customer headquartered in Seattle.

2016 — Sucessfully developed the first-generation semi-automated production line and tested it in mass production.

2017 — Evaluated San Diego, CA; Portland, OR; Houston, TX; and Phoenix, AZ, while working with local economic development agencies to understand incentives, labor regulations, and other requirements.

2018 — Upgraded the semi-automated production line to its second generation.

2019 — Selected Goodyear, Arizona, in the Greater Phoenix Area. Just as preparations began to lease a facility, COVID-19 hit.

2020–2022 — Paused the U.S. factory project due to COVID-19. Continued developing the semi-automated production line, advancing it to the third generation.

2023 — Restarted the U.S. factory project and resumed site selection. Selected Las Vegas, Nevada, in November and incorporated Summitz Footwear Inc.

2024 — Prepared for the Nevada facility and upgraded the semi-automated production line to its fourth generation.

2025 — Leased a brand-new facility in April. Designed and built the factory and offices in six months. Completed the first trial production order for a leading footwear brand in late September.

2026 — Another two Co-founders Eric and Jason joined Summitz.
Trained local workers and began producing trial orders for some customers and official production orders for others.