The company’s story began in 1890s Kewanee, Illinois, when a farmer, frustrated by the challenges of husking corn, combined a leather strap and a metal hook to create the Perkins Boss Husker. This simple invention led to the establishment of the Perkins Husker Company, which later became Boss Manufacturing in 1893. Boss built its reputation by responding to the needs of local farmers, craftspeople, and industrial workers by providing innovative, high-quality work gloves and gear.
When Boss Manufacturing Company was established in Kewanee in 1893, the new company conceived the idea of manufacturing work gloves by taking note of the apparent needs of farmers in the Kewanee area. It was common practice in the early 1890s for farmers’ wives to purchase cloth goods and make work mittens for their husbands.
Prior to making gloves, the company, then known as Perkins Husker Company, made husking pins. Husking pins were a leather strap with a metal hook that was worn on one hand to remove ears of corn from the stalk. All the corn raised then was picked by hand with the help of husking pins.
Today’s gloves can be a simple cotton glove used for chores on the farm (Boss’ roots) to high impact hand protection used in mining and oil drilling.
Boss has kept up with emerging technology and continues to offer innovative glove designs for the changing work environment.
Boss gloves have been shipped all over the world. They even went to the Antarctic with Admiral Richard E. Byrd in the 1930s. The company proudly displays a 1936 letter from Byrd to Boss Manufacturing in Kewanee thanking them for outfitting his expedition to the South Pole.
Today, the company’s headquarters and distribution center are still located in Kewanee. Boss Manufacturing is a subsidiary of Boss Holdings, Inc., with a total of 225 employees located throughout the United States and Canada.
According to starcourier.com; bossgloves.com. Source of photos: internet
