Allen Manufacturing - A History

The Allen family has been in manufacturing for almost 85 years. Harry Allen started supplying parts to the shoe industry during the Great Depression. His company was Allen Manufacturing. He ran his company well and taught his son, Bob, about business and the shoe industry.

After serving in the military, and at the age of 24, Bob went out on his own and started his own factory. Over the last 55 years, Bob has made shoes, safety equipment, gloves, handbags and thousands of other items.

In 1975, Bob opened Fancy Stitchers. Fancy Stitches began in a small factory in Auburn Maine with 15 employees. Fancy quickly out grew its’ Auburn location and moved across the Androscoggin River to its twin city of Lewiston Maine. Fancy’s facility had 105,000 square feet and 550 employees producing 86,000 leather handbags every week. These bags were sold by Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Filene’s to name just a few. Until the mid 90’s Fancy was the largest manufacturer of leather handbags in the USA.

In 1983 Mr. Allen, along with his four children, founded a chain of handbag stores, Mainely Bags. These stores were located in outlet districts across the country. In 1991, after many years of success, the chain was sold. At that time, his youngest son, David, went into the new technology world of the internet, building an internet service provider. In 2004, one of the major internet providers approached him and he sold out and went to work for that major internet provider.

In 2010, Bob asked his son to come back to manufacturing. David came to work with the goal of bringing the company into the 21 century.

In 2011, plans and goals changed when Bob turned 80 and decided to retire. At that time, David decided to open his own company. As a tribute to his grandfather, Harry Allen, David named the company: Allen Manufacturing, Inc.

When David decided to open Allen Manufacturing, he asked his dad to consult. After all, Bob had 60 years of manufacturing experience. Bob agreed to consult as any father would do for any son. Along with having Bob’s expertise, Allen Manufacturing employs the same general manager that Bob had for over 30 years.

Allen Manufacturing makes sword cases for the Marines, tote bags for numerous companies, sound deafening parts for Toyota, notebook folios (using recycled rubber and leather), wallets (using salmon, leather, used denim, bison leather), tool pouches for Harley Davidson, fleece flip flop socks (SammySocks.com), oven mitts, toiletry kits, handbags (using used sailcloth, leather and other materials) and hundreds of other items.

Talk to Allen Manufacturing and see how they can help make your project a success.