Sewing Machines Manufacturers in USA

To do this they entered into contracts with established sewing machine manufacturers who would supply standard models but with the name of choice substituted for the normal brand name.

For the past 20 years I have been compiling a list of who actually made what and there are now over 5000 names in the file.

The situation is further confused in that retailers might switch makers at the end of a contract period and the same name would then appear on a completely different machine by another manufacturer.

Hawaii member Charles Law has attacked the problem from a different direction, specifically targeting the giant Sears Roebuck company and its branded products. GF

1890s -1950s:

Founded in 1893, Sears Roebuck & Co. was, next to Singer, one of the most important suppliers of sewing machines in North America from the 1890s through 1950s. In 1886, Richard Sears bought a supply of watches that a jewelry company had mistakenly shipped to a Minnesota jeweler. Seeing a chance to make a profit, Sears purchased the watches and sold them to his co-workers.

Seeing a great opportunity, Sears began the R.W. Sears Watch Company in Minnesota. With business growing briskly, he hired Alvah C. Roebuck, an Indiana watch repairman. Having concentrated on watches and jewelry up until 1894, the company then expanded its product lines, with sales of other items such as clothing, firearms, carriages, musical instruments, clocks, and sewing machines.

Sewing machines sales were a immediate success. A large part of this was due to the very low prices for which they sold their machines. Owing to the fact that Sears Roebuck was a mail order company, the overhead costs were comparatively low. Sears was able to sell high quality treadle sewing machines for between fifteen to twenty dollars ­ far less than the forty to sixty dollars that retail dealers charged for equivalent models. A copy of the Singer Model 12 New Family was only nine dollars. Moreover, sewing machine sales were also only a minor component of the company's business. As such, the company was able to supply sewing machines to retail buyers at near-wholesale pricing for many years.

Featured in the 1894 catalog were copies of the Singer Models 12 and 48K and a vibrating shuttle model made by the Goodrich Sewing Machine Company of Chicago, Illinois. The two Singer machines were marketed as the 'Improved Singer' and 'Improved High-Arm Singer', in blatant violation of trademark laws. The 'Improved Singer' would appear in later catalogs as the 'Success' ­ probably a result of threatened or actual litigation by the Singer Manufacturing Co.

The two Singer copies were June machines manufactured by the newly formed National Sewing Machine Company of Belvidere, Illinois. National also happened to be the supplier of sewing machines for Montgomery Wards & Co., Sears Roebuck & Co.'s chief competitor. However, unlike Montgomery Wards, which would continue to get all sewing machines from National until the sewing machine company met its demise in 1954, Sears would switch its suppliers several times in the following years.

In 1897, the company introduced a number of new models including another vibrating shuttle machine badged as the 'ACME' and manufactured by The Free Sewing Machine Company of Rockford, Illinois. 1899 saw the introduction of a vibrating shuttle sewing machine made by The Davis Sewing Machine Company of Dayton, Ohio. With a few exceptions, Davis would become the sole supplier of sewing machines to Sears until about 1912. It is during this time period that we have many of the Minnesota brand machines including the Models A, B, C, D, and K to name a few.

Beginning in 1911, the company introduced a number of machines based on Singer designs. They were the 'Franklin' (1911) and the 'Minnesota A' (1914), copies of Singer's Model 27/127 class manufactured by the Domestic Sewing Machine Company of Buffalo, New York. The 'Franklin' was decorated with Egyptian styled decalcomania, clearly in imitation of Singer's beautiful 'Memphis' decoration scheme. The 'Minnesota' was decorated in the same type of gold filigree used on the Davis-made 'Minnesota A.'

The Domestic company had been founded by William A Mack, inventor of the Mack-Patent High-Arm sewing machine ­ the first truly modern high-armed lock stitch machine. However, by the 1910s the company had been reduced to manufacturing machines based on Singer designs. Sears likely changed its main supplier to Domestic because the Buffalo company could supply Singer copies. The only other retailer that sold more sewing machines in the United States was Singer. Both the Franklin and Minnesota Model A were near-exact copies of the Singer Model 27/127 (the most popular Singer model at the time). Sears Roebuck also marketed them as a lower priced, equivalent quality alternative to the pricey Singer. As such, the action was likely an attempt by Sears to increase its market share in the sewing machine business.

In the proceeding years, Sears slowly phased out sales of Davis sewing machines in favor of models made by Domestic and other manufacturers. These included the Minnesota L vibrating shuttle and the Economy rotary, both manufactured by the Standard Sewing Machine Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The last Davis model to be carried by Singer was the Minnesota K, which no longer appeared in the catalog after 1919. Davis would eventually go out of business about 1924, having apparently become dependent on supplying Sears with sewing machines over the previous twenty years for its main venue of income and unable to make up the loss from other sources.

In 1924, Sears Roebuck opened its first department store next to the Chicago mail-order facility. With the success of this new venture, Sears shifted its emphasis from a mail order company to a major retailer with a mail order catalog service.