An American dress shoemaker founded in 1922 in Belgium, Wisconsin by Elbert W. Allen, who set out to fix the crude metal shanks and nails used in shoes at the time with a more responsive cork insole. The company is now based nearby in Port Washington. Shoes are Goodyear-welted, a construction that lets a worn sole be replaced rather than the whole shoe discarded, built across a 212-step process. It's one of the last American shoemakers to have kept manufacturing at home rather than moving it overseas.