Oak Street Manufacturing Company, FTC v.

Oak Street Bootmakers built its name on American craftsmanship. Its marketing promised footwear "handcrafted 100%" in the United States, made "from heel-to-toe, using no pre-assembled components from overseas," and even "More than Made in USA." In July 2025, the FTC sends the company a warning letter about those claims. In April 2026, as part of a national Made-in-the-USA enforcement sweep, the FTC files a federal complaint in the Northern District of Illinois. It alleges that since May 2023, the uppers of certain shoes were produced in a factory in the Dominican Republic, outsoles were sourced from Brazil, and in some cases even final assembly happened offshore. Oak Street settles by stipulated order: a permanent injunction and a monetary judgment, entered by the court in May 2026.

The FTC's position is that "Made in USA" means what it says: all or virtually all of a product must be made here, and consumers who pay a premium for American manufacturing are deceived when components and assembly quietly move offshore. The other side of the argument is about proportion. A small heritage brand that finishes shoes in the United States using some imported components is the reality of modern manufacturing, and the "all or virtually all" standard leaves little room for honest gradations between fully domestic and fully imported.

If enforcement like this holds, the "Made in USA" label keeps a strict, verifiable meaning, and companies either meet the standard or drop the claim. If the standard softens, the label becomes marketing rather than fact, and the premium consumers pay for it buys less than they think. Either way, small manufacturers now know the FTC reads their product pages as closely as their customers do.