SKOWHEGAN — Pride in American manufacturing was the theme of the day as officials from town government to Congress celebrated New Balance’s new shoe manufacturing facility, alongside the more than 400 employees now working under one roof instead of two.

Monday morning’s ceremony marked the completion of the $65 million expansion of New Balance’s factory on Walnut Street — now dubbed its “Central Maine” facility — that the company announced in 2022.

The new 120,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, built next door to the former factory that New Balance bought in 1981, was part of the company’s efforts to support manufacturing on U.S. soil, its leaders said. 

The company claims to be the only major athletic shoe manufacturer that has maintained factories in the U.S.

“We believe that when you think global, and also act local, you can better serve the local communities where our associates live and work, while also enhancing our focus on craftsmanship and quality integral to our global business,” President and CEO Joe Preston told workers and officials gathered in the factory’s cafeteria.

The expanded factory does not bring with it a significant number of new jobs in the region, but it does mean more than 200 workers who were working at the old Skowhegan factory and more than 200 who were working at a now-closed factory in Norridgewock are working together in one place. About 430 to 450 people are now working at the Skowhegan factory, company officials said.

Each factory had four production lines; the new Central Maine expansion has eight, according to Kevin McCoy, the company’s vice president of manufacturing.

McCoy said the plan all along was to consolidate the Skowhegan and Norridgewock facilities into the expanded Central Maine factory.

That contradicts what other company leaders said before New Balance announced the closure of the Norridgewock factory in July 2024, a move that took local officials by surprise.

A company spokesperson later said that what McCoy said was not accurate, and the company was not planning to consolidate the factories when it began the expansion project.

Putting everybody under the same roof means that there is no more need to call in one worker with certain skills from another factory, McCoy said.

The facility also has new equipment and a better layout than the two old, mill-style factories, McCoy said.

“With this facility being wide open, and fixed cement floors, we’re able to bring in state of the art technology that’s helping us with safety and quality,” McCoy said.

What exactly the facility makes varies, he said. Some New Balance shoes are only made there, and the focus is mostly on “heritage lifestyle” footwear.

“I am trying to have the ability to make every shoe in every one of our factories the best we can, so we can have somewhat of a redundancy based on order volume,” McCoy said.

Officials and politicians who spoke at the ceremony praised the quality of the products produced in Skowhegan.

U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, compared shoemaking to the intricate nature of shipbuilding at Maine’s Bath Iron Works.

“If you didn’t have the people here — you all that are doing this work so skillfully and amazingly and with dedication — this investment wouldn’t have happened,” he told the hundreds of workers gathered to listen to remarks.

Along with King, Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, spoke about the importance of New Balance to U.S. manufacturing.

“This expansion is in response to the increased demand for that “Made in the USA” label here and around the world,” Collins said. “Here, in Skowhegan, as well as in Norway, you’ve kept that label alive.”

The Boston, Massachusetts-headquartered company has five manufacturing facilities in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which in total employ about 1,200 workers. It has about 600 employees combined at the Central Maine factory, another factory in Norway, and three retail stores.

New Balance reported $7.8 billion in sales in 2024. 

Preston, the CEO, said Monday that, on average, each associate nationwide supported 2 1/2 additional jobs. Maine operations contributed $112 million to the state’s economy, and across the U.S., the company’s workers contributed a total of $479 million to the economy, he said.

The company also supports the communities where it operates through the New Balance Foundation, which gave $12 million in 2024. Company officials on Monday announced a $75,000 donation to the Skowhegan River Park.

The company’s old Skowhegan factory is set to be repurposed into office space, gym, conference areas, and meeting rooms, McCoy said. It will not be used for any production.

Meanwhile, in Norridgewock, where New Balance has completely moved out after operating its factory since 1982, talks are underway about what to do with the industrial building.

Amy Dow, a company spokesperson, said New Balance is looking at several options but had no specific information to share.

State Sen. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock, said after Monday’s grand opening that a group of investors is looking at buying the property to redevelop it into a mix of retail space, industrial space and housing.

The talks are in the very early stages, Farrin said, but he estimated the investment would have to be in the range of $10 million. He said he is cautiously optimistic about what will come of the shuttered factory, noting that it already has important infrastructure for a new development already in place.

Farrin also said he was thankful that New Balance leadership has agreed to wait for the potential investors to evaluate the opportunity before making any move on its end.

“The ownership of New Balance recognizes that it did have an impact on Norridgewock and wants to try to do what they can do to alleviate that,” Farrin said.

The former New Balance factory is a top priority for town officials, Town Manager Richard LaBelle said. The main goal is to make sure it does not become a liability for the town.

This year, the closure of the Norridgewock factory resulted in a net loss to tax revenue of about $45,000 to $50,000 from personal property, according to LaBelle.

“People felt that a little bit more than we had hoped,” LaBelle said.

But the local economic impact of the more than 200 workers now spending their day in Skowhegan instead of Norridgewock has not been as bad as initially feared, LaBelle said.

“I haven’t heard a whole lot of negative feedback from our business community,” LaBelle said.