Council supports footwear business
DEXTER — A new company is working to bring a part of the shoe industry back to the community. Since starting several years ago Mainesole, LLC has developed to having sewn and sold over 900 pairs of slipper socks for the Acorn Slipper company and employing seven residents part-time while also producing numerous samples of handsewn penny loafers that have attracted the attention of several familiar industry brands.
During an Oct. 13 meeting of the Dexter Town Council councilors approved a $50,000 Community Development Block Grant application on behalf of Mainesole with funds to be used for working capital to keep the startup moving forward as additional orders are confirmed.
“I have been in the shoe business all my life, 40-something years,” Mainesole owner Kevin Cain of Kennebunk said. “I was struck several years ago when I met this group of guys and their interest to revive the shoe business in Dexter, Maine,” he said about meeting several former employees of Dexter Shoe.
Cain said the venture is intended to make money but “I thought ‘the shoe business has been good to you and how do you pass that on?’”
Mainesole has been using space at 16 Church Street since February of 2015, starting out on a rent-free basis for the first six months and now leasing space for $400 a month. Cain said former Dexter Shoe employees Dick Hall, Jim Costedio, Lloyd Goodine, Ron Richards and Dave Garrison volunteered their time with the company at first and in late July Mainesole issued its first payroll.
The company has reached out to the Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Cooperative for the employees to be able to teach new workers the craft. Cain said this growth could lead to long-term employment opportunities with benefits.
If awarded, grant funds would be used to cover expenses such as about $5,000 worth of electrical work at the Church Street site, the now $1,400 monthly rent for a larger space needed to make shoes on a larger scale and the purchase of $5,000 in leather and $4,000 worth of cutting knives and other materials for producing additional penny loafer samples in different sizes for potential customers.
“We shipped our first 1,000 pairs of slippers about a month ago,” Cain said, with payment for the items to be coming.
Mainesole officials purchased $100,000 in equipment with a federal Small Business Administration loan through the Eastern Maine Development Corporation, secured through Cain’s home and life insurance. Weekly salaries of $1,400 have been paid from Cain’s retirement accounts.
Cain said three new employees could be hired later in the fall, and projections call for 12 full-time workers by 2017.
“You are surrounding yourself with the cog that turned the wheel, that’s for sure,” Council Chair Michael Blake told Cain about his group of former Dexter Shoe employees.
He said the town will be applying for the grant on behalf of Mainesole. “If something should happen we are not liable for any financial obligation,” Blake said.
In other business, the council accepted a $2,000 donation from the Plummer Memorial Foundation to be used by the Dexter Fire Department for additional fire-fighting gear.
Town Manager Shelley Watson said on Nov. 8 residents will be voting on three council seats, which will be for three-year terms apiece starting in December. The ballot also includes a one-year term, to start in November.
Incumbents Ronald Apel, Sharon Grant and Mark Robichaud and former councilor Peter Haskell are the four candidates for the trio of three-year positions. Listed for the single one-year seat are Adam Briggs, Charles Ellms and Noreen O’Brien.