Temporary Production Slowdown... and great leg workouts!
The workshop has been pretty crazy and disjointed since the catastrophic failure of our hydraulic clicker last week (see last entry). Until our new machine is shipped, we have installed a temporary solution... our 1930's era Famco "KICKER"....
This little guy is giving DeAnn, Leah, Keita and Tim a great leg workout as they have to "kick" the dies 3-4 times to make an impression in the leather or sheepskin from our dies. (You can see some of our dies hanging in the photo behind DeAnn). Then we are still handcutting out most of the pieces as the "kicker" isn't really all that great at cutting... but at least we have an impression to cut by!
Tim originally used this machine 21 years ago in the back of his school bus / workshop when he and Jeanne first started Soft Star Shoes. When we moved to our new location last July he wanted to scrap it but we begged him to hang onto it for nostalgic purposes... good thing :-).
We hope to be back up to full production capacity in about 2 weeks once our new clicker is installed ... meanwhile we are doing our best to keep up to the holiday orders that are starting to come in.
Soft Star Shoes is a family friendly company located in Corvallis, Oregon. Viewpoints in this blog are those of individual workshop elves, and do not necessarily represent those of www.SoftStarShoes.com
Growing up in rural Wisconsin, Tricia spent her summers running around barefoot with her sisters and brother. These early memories later inspired her to build a brand which embraced the joy and freedom of childhood with the health and science of minimal footwear. After 20+ years at the helm as C. Elf. O, Softstar proudly transitioned to employee-owned, and Tricia became the C.F.O. at Softstar. She is a frequent expert panelist for both e-commerce and entrepreneurship conferences.