1944 - Bartschi Purchases the J. Edwards Shoe Company

In 1944 Bartschi organizes a purchase of the J. Edwards company for $1 million. Bartschi doesn’t have the liquid capital to buy the company alone, so he recruits a number of financial partners. Bartschi is named chief operating officer of the company and for the next 25 years oversees its growth, developing three additional manufacturing plants and expanding production significantly.