BIG RAPIDS, MI -- Some of the boots and shoes issued to U.S. soldiers are made in a 66-year-old factory in Big Rapids, the last of its kind in Michigan.
The 600-person operation is one of the biggest among a handful of footwear plants supplying the U.S. military.
In the last 30 years, the majority of the footwear industry in general has migrated to countries such as China, Vietnam and Brazil where labor and other costs are cheaper. That includes Bates' parent company, Rockford-headquartered Wolverine World Wide Inc., which sells 15 brands from Sperry to Merrell.
The 75,000-square-foot Big Rapids factory at 1005 Baldwin St. has remained viable, thanks to contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense. Bates brand makes up to a million pairs of combat boots or military dress shoes annually.
But a change in federal regulations jeopardizes the future of Wolverine's only U.S. manufacturing facility, making it tougher for the Wolverine brand to bid on U.S. military contracts.
"Lacking the ability to compete, Bates will be forced to lay off all our workers and close our manufacturing plant in Big Rapids," Onder Ors, then-president of the Bates brand, said in a letter sent to the federal government in 2014.
How serious the threat remains for the company a year later is unclear, but the company remains hamstrung in bidding for new military contracts when competing with smaller manufacturers. The plant also produces military footwear outside of these contracts.
The company declined to be interviewed for the story. It has been working through official channels to reach a resolution.
When the Small Business Administration made changes to the criteria defining the size of small companies that can sell goods or services to the Department of Defense, it raised a red flag for Bates.
In the reworking of criteria in 2012, several footwear categories were merged into one. As a result, more mid-size companies can now compete as small businesses. Bates is considered a large business because parent company, Wolverine has a global workforce of 8,000 and had sales of $2.7 billion in 2014.
Before making the change, the SBA neglected to research the impact it would have on the industrial base that serves the military, Ors pointed out in his four-page letter to regulatory czar Howard Shelanski last year.
Wolverine is the only U.S. supplier with the capacity to make the different kinds of footwear need by the military, he added.
U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, has been working to correct what he sees as a bureaucratic error that can have far-reaching consequences beyond the loss of skilled manufacturing jobs in Michigan.
"Obviously, it impacts Michigan and the jobs there, but I'm afraid of what it does for our standing in the long term and the readiness with our troops," Huizenga said.
Huizenga hasn't been able to undo the SBA change yet. But his amendment to the 2015 appropriations bills cut off funding, so the bidding rules for military footwear couldn't go into effect.
"We are disappointed this has been difficult to get addressed," Huizenga said.
Huizenga said what troubles him is the SBA's failure to perform due diligence on how the changes would affect the U.S. footwear industry. By law, U.S. military uniforms must be American-made.
If Wolverine drops out of the military supply business, the market will be at 80 percent of surge capacity in the event the DOD needs to have a large order filled quickly. Bates and Rocky Brands in Ohio, another company affected by the rule change, make more than half the 542,000 military shoes produced monthly for the Defense Logistics Agency, an arm of the DOD, according to Huizenga's office.
"Companies that are a similar size to Bates aren't going to be able to have the capacity to pump out more boots or shoes in short order," Huizenga said. "That's a dangerous place to be in a very dangerous world with very precarious situations around the world. That's why we would argue that maintaining the industrial base here is also a national security issue."
Huizenga says he is working with U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, and Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Hills, on an amendment for the 2016 appropriations bill that would help the factory.
The Berry Amendment, which dates back to World War II, requires the Department of Defense to give priority to buying U.S.-made products.
The only exemption was athletic shoes because there wasn't enough produced in the U.S. That changed last year when the DOD -- under pressure from Wolverine's Saucony brand and Boston-based New Balance -- agreed to require military recruits to buy American-made athletic shoes with the allowance provided by the government. This new market would be different than traditional military contract work.
Wolverine would like to see Congress exempt the Berry-compliant footwear industry from the SBA's new requirements.
Huizenga recently took his first tour of the Big Rapids plant where he is trying to help preserve production levels.
"A number of veterans, who wore the product that they are now building, were there," said Huizenga, adding he was impressed by the production process during his May 28 visit.
Bates is known for its Tora Bora, a line of special forces boots that can retail for more than $500 a pair.
The plant is in the fourth district, which is represented by U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland. Huizenga was brought in to help with the issue last year by Moolenaar's predecessor, Dave Camp.
Helping out made sense, because some of the Bates employees live in Huizenga's second district.
The recent tour of the plant was led by Blake Krueger, CEO of Wolverine World Wide, and included Moolenaar.
"I had never been in a facility like that before," Huizenga said. "American jobs cranking out product for American troops. They were clearly very skilled in what they were doing."
Shandra Martinez covers business for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.