BrandlandUSA™

Got to love the funny little American brand names that serve small product niches. With these brands, the product markets are small, and so is the competition. Little advertising is needed, and is mostly word of mouth. One such niche is the category of brands that solve unique problems; in this case the “problem” is [...]

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Recently, Coleman brought back its original steel cooler. It’s sold as an exclusive for the 50th anniversary of the sporting goods supply company Cabela’s. It’s part of a trend of retro products, reintroduced as specialty products for particular retailers, similar to Fisher-Price toys sold at Cracker Barrel and vintage Tide sold at Target. The cooler [...]

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This vintage flour sifter was made by the cooking utensil brand Androck. Androck products were made by the Washburn Company, which was founded in the 19th century in Massachusetts. Androck was a brand for all sorts of colorful and cool kitchen items. Well-made and amusingly designed, their products are still collected by chefs and people [...]

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WEST PARIS, MAINE – There is something very American about toothpicks, and a great, American-made brand is Penley. Rather a shame that many brands sold today are made in China. After all, how difficult is it to make a toothpick, and can’t the production be automated enough? I find it shameful that Jarden, which owns [...]

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BLOSSOM, TEXAS – We hear from fans of the Peanut Rounder. It’s “soft and delicious” soft textured peanut candy made by Anderson Candy Company. Blossom is in Lamar County, in the northern part of the state. The company apparently has its roots in the 1940s, when a fellow named Dan Hearn, through trial and error, [...]

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TEMPE, Arizona – One of America’s oldest houseware brands, Jacob Bromwell, is doing it the old-school way. The U.S. company is still making retrograde products such as tin cups, frying pans, chimney flue covers and fireplace popcorn poppers. The products are handcrafted, and made in a historically correct fashion, much like Colonial Williamsburg reproductions. The [...]

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We were thinking today, as we killed a nasty Florida cucaracha, that we admired Enoz fly swatters. Enoz is also America’s classic brand for moth balls. To buy some, click on Enoz Cedar Pine Moth Balls, and Amazon will serve some up. The Enoz brand was originally made by the Enoz Chemical company of Chicago; [...]

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We tend to think that carriage brands that might have been around during, say, the time of Little House on the Prairie would be gone. Perhaps most are, but one wagon brand is still around. It’s the company Swab Wagon Co., makers of fire and rescue trucks, pumpers and animal transports. A bit about Swab [...]

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Today’s New York Times talks glass, namely the glass that is going into the World Trade Center. It’s Chinese. We don’t need to get into the debate over free trade vs. protectionism, but we did notice something. And from two factories in the Ohio Valley, operating 24/7, the Anchor Hocking Company churns out baking dishes, [...]

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That there can be small companies that make just a few products and stay independent is evidenced by Mrs. Stewart’s Bluing. The company was born in the 1880s, when a traveling salesman name Al Stewart carried around a family concoction.  He sold the rights to a fellow named Luther Ford in 1883, or thereabouts, and [...]

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