At a new factory in Kentucky, robots will help make your Keen boots

Inside a new factory near Louisville, Kentucky, bright orange robots will soon begin carefully loading boot parts into a machine that adds soles.

It’s one step in the highly automated process of making a Keen work boot—and an illustration of what it looks like now to bring factories back to the United States.

[Photo: Keen]

Keen, which is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, started planning the new factory last year, long before current tariffs were in place. And the company, unlike the majority of shoe brands...