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With the help of their community, Opie Way sneakers and countless other Asheville-area companies are rallying back

December 10, 2024

Photo: courtesy of Justin James

The Opie Way factory after the hurricane.

Three days after Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina, when Justin James was finally able to connect to a Starlink, he got the news: The factory in Fletcher where James and his wife, Amanda, ran Opie Way, a hyperlocal (and hyper-chic) sneaker brand that took home G&G’s top prize in the 2020 Made in the South Awards, had been utterly destroyed by the storm. 

“Our landlord sent me a bunch of pictures, but only two came through,” James says. “One was of the outside of the building, and you could see there was a van with a water line all the way up to the windows. The parking lot was full of our rubber soles.” 

photo: courtesy of Justin James

The flooded factory.

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