Interesting trivia on Allen Edmonds.  I didn't realize they provided boots for the U.S. Army during WWII.  I remember reading somewhere that they are now owned by a PE firm.  Interesting.

Not sure about the piece about LL Bean though.  I used to live relatively close to their flagship store, and slowly watched more and more of their gear being outsourced to third world countries.  Not even sure the famous Bean boot is even made in US anymore, although I am probably wrong on that one.