Jump to content

The wabash / Stifel thread


Iron Horse

Recommended Posts

As mentioned in another thread, we don’t have a wabash/Stifel mega thread here.

First things first, the history:

J.L. Stifel & Sons was an American textile and jeans manufacturing brand which became prominent from 1835 to 1956 and a precursor one in indigo-dyed cotton calicos. Smoother than canvas or denim but very resistant, calico made success in workwear clothing. Typical calicos such as polka dots, flowers and dotted lines on bandanas and ticking were the most popular motifs.[1]

1984stif.jpg

In 1833, Johan Ludwig Stifel, a young and poor German immigrant came to the United States after having been an apprentice dyer and calico printer in his homeland. Walking barefoot to preserve his shoes, he reached the burgeoning city of Wheeling in West Virginia and began to work for a local farm. However his interest in textile dying returned and in 1835, he spent all his savings on a single bolt of unbleached cotton from the local mill, hand-dyed and sold it, then repeated the process another time. A new business was about to blossom. 

Wheeling, as a growing industrial city, notably in the steel and cigar sectors required a large workforce and consequently cheap and reliable garments. Johan Ludwig Stifel decided to convert this demand in a business opportunity giving birth to a prosperous enterprise. Meanwhile, having been married to Barbara Becht, in 1859, his sons Louis and William joined the company which turned into J. L. Stifel & Sons. In the beginning of the twentieth century the third generation of Stifels was operating a 70,000 square foot manufacturing plant employing 50 workers.

Jewel-Tea_JLStifelt-wm.jpg

The brand logo, a boot (meaning"stiefel" in German) with the word “stifel” inside, was definitely adopted. J.L. Stifel & Sons was associated with quality and their products were exported to Latin America, the Philippines, India, Canada and Africa reaching its peak with a monthly production of 3.5 million yards of clothes.[2]

watermarkstifeloa4.jpg

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.L.Stifel_and_Sons

Edited by Iron Horse
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you’ve noticed, the majority of Wabash/Stifel-fabric shirts were polka dot fabric; dot stripe was generally reserved for coats, overalls, pants and hats.

Here’s the only instance of dot stripe Wabash shirts off the top of my head:

01_zpse5dd8aad_1024x1024.jpg?v=157141013

 

Edited by Iron Horse
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here’s an example of a pre-bankruptcy Joe McCoys which is definitely more Bootleggers than McCoys. The name ‘Bootleggers’ should be taken quite literally - Mr. Nakamura, Yasui and Komori did ...

853D4E77-8F80-4FE9-A274-7007E6CC5BF2.jpeg

396ACD05-B3FD-4CAA-BEA7-39C5E7C07F2C.jpeg

7B928602-73AC-43C1-A125-4C7ECAEF891B.jpeg

0459857E-8075-417E-8DB0-918EC5D9CB9C.jpeg

5D496312-4EB7-43E1-8762-1C2E1CA9D36F.jpeg

7931E567-9438-4A73-9C31-8DE35D3724D0.jpeg

5237CFC5-2ED3-4FA4-8742-C50E74E45C4C.jpeg

04771622-7135-402D-A28B-CEA80B8E0BE0.jpeg

5C874CE3-BC92-4724-9562-7BAA5EF41B09.jpeg

10634995-FBD1-44FE-9C10-BA9D41F66958.jpeg

77111B2B-5629-4ABA-BE03-818234652ADC.jpeg

B2978C21-63AC-462A-B67F-83FA1938A010.jpeg

2E3D1D14-8DDE-45AB-8558-F304C4791A73.jpeg

E79AA54D-BDB1-4C65-8404-B8F18DFFDD50.jpeg

5F6B516F-2BF7-4686-80E1-09396848D7B6.jpeg

Edited by Duke Mantee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t have much Wabash these days but here’s some:

The Rite Stuff Wabash scarf in 5 oz selvedge chambray. I have the sample version with the selvedge edge; through some miscommunication the factory cut the selvedge off all the final production scarves so I had a choice of having them remade (and God knows what would have happened to the amputees) or keeping them and selling them at a lower price. 

Modelled here by my wife:

 

953B97F5-27A9-472A-BBEA-3DE87C0FB44F.jpeg

3614D2D4-BB67-4D28-B895-ED880DDEFDE5.jpeg

C5ADDEB7-A887-458A-9FF3-92C9C50B1B87.jpeg


The final version, sans selvedge:


B5552D50-3650-4566-A40B-B528C60206D8.jpeg

40F85FE1-1911-42DA-BBD1-506A9544B77D.jpeg

Edited by Iron Horse
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Duke Mantee said:

I think I’m right in saying you won’t find these trademarks on any repro other than Freewheelers (and this is Freewheelers cloth if anyone is thinking otherwise)

You are right. I believe FW owns the Stifel trademark.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Duke Mantee said:

I think I’m right in saying you won’t find these trademarks on any repro other than Freewheelers (and this is Freewheelers cloth if anyone is thinking otherwise)

You're wrong there Michael :D ive seen them on some t-shirts over on DB, would this be a major, major copyright infringement?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...