ANNAPOLIS — A company in Annapolis is reducing waste by using 3D printing and advanced knitting to create shoes that are mostly made out of the recycled material.
For shoe makers Trey Hentz, Alan Guyan and Kevin Fisher the operation of starting a footwear focused on waste reduction started in a garage in Annapolis.
Now craftsmen and digital machines create Made Plus in a small factory in Annapolis.
"We built a shoe factory and a shoe brand and a shoe all together at the same time and we did that in 18 months,” said Trey Hentz who is the Chief Manufacturing Officer for Made Plus.
All three creators have a background working with shoes. Trey came from Nike while Kevin and Alan came from Under Armour, giving them the knowledge it takes to craft a detailed shoe brand.
"We use advance knitting operations 3d printing technology and computerized stitching operations,” said Alan Guyan who is the founder and CEO of Made Plus.
The made to order shoe company launched June first of this year.
"Were crafting the shoe for the individual customer, so that's number one. Number two because we're doing a one for one literally also beside for our standard items, the customer has the opportunity to customize their shoe,” said Hentz.
They say their brand is also based on ethically creating the product.
"The shoe laces are recycled, the internal components have been recycled, unfortunately we can't recycle yet the outsole and the insole we're still trying to figure out ways to get through there,” said Hentz.
Each pair of shoes is made from about seven water bottles. This first collection is named after a boat Skiff from the bay in Annapolis.
"We chose the name skiff because it is a very small boat in the Annapolis community particularly for the bay but it's also a small boat as we are a small company,” said Guyan.
Currently the shoes only ship in the U.S. but they are looking to expand.
"Our traditional process is about 30 days but we're really shipping in about 14 days right now,” said Guyan.
Achieving their goals one step at a time, "Traditional shoemaking in athletic space could be between 360 and 400 steps our first goal out of the gate was to be under 50 and we achieved that,” said Guyan.
Alan and trey said they are competitively priced costing a little more than the traditional big brands.
To order a pair of these locally made shoes head to https://www.madeplus.com/
