The term “Mainers” has long been used to refer to Maine residents, but a Trenton company known for making industrial personal protective equipment is using the word to expand into the consumer market.
Tempshield, founded more than 40 years ago as a manufacturer of industrial gloves used for handling very cold industrial equipment, decided to branch out into retail mittens just as the COVID pandemic was about to arrive in Maine.
The timing, obviously, was not great, though the pandemic did increase demand for their cryogenic products because of the temperature storage requirements of the Pfizer vaccine. The small company ended up waiting one more year before making another push to promote its new retail brand to the buying public.
Now, the company’s high-end “Mainers” gloves and mitts are being sold by iconic Maine retailer L.L. Bean and in some other stores, as well as online. It’s one of the more recent products made by small-scale manufacturers in the Ellsworth area, and the company also recently expanded its footprint in Trenton.
Paul LaRochelle, the company’s chief operating officer, said its high-end mitts and gloves are made for people who enjoy outdoor pursuits in sub-freezing weather. They are a natural extension of the company’s PPE business, in which they make gloves and aprons for handling extremely cold industrial items such as frozen vials or pressurized canisters of liquefied gas.
“I’m a pretty avid snowmobiler,” LaRochelle said, adding that the company first produced and marketed its mitts to winter sports enthusiasts. After an initial line of four types of long, wrist-covering mitts, it has in the past year expanded the Mainers lineup to include 20 varieties, including gloves and shorter mitts.
“We use more insulation than probably anyone else on the market,” LaRochelle said, adding that they’ve examined other gloves on the market. “We’re using true hardcore 3M Thinsulate and other known insulative materials.”
The company’s Mainer gloves and mitts sell for $160 to $270 per pair, he said. Those price points may be higher than for many other styles of consumer gloves, but they’re consistent with other high-end gloves and mitts marketed to winter outdoors enthusiasts. That price range also reflects the products’ durability, handmade craftsmanship and comfort, he said.
LaRochelle said Tempshield got its start in 1980, when founders Ted and Laura Sweeney saw an opportunity to make gloves for handling pharmaceutical compounds. As the company grew from their kitchen table, they quickly expanded into gloves and aprons specifically designed for handling very cold industrial equipment.
“There wasn’t a product on the market,” LaRochelle said. “Everyone was using welding gloves or something else.”
The idea for getting into the retail market with Mainers has been spurred by James Woldenberg, a Chicago-area business executive who bought Tempshield in 2018, LaRochelle said.
Woldenburg, who according to his LinkedIn page also serves as president of Illinois supply company Heathrow Scientific, has been looking to grow Tempshield’s business. To give it more room as it branches into the retail market, this past summer the company bought a former boat storage building across the road from its Trenton Business Park location.
The expansion into the neighboring 10,000-square-foot building gave Tempshield a new place to store its raw materials, and for some of its larger machinery, including cutting equipment for the fabric its sews into gloves.
By moving those uses across the street, Tempshield made more room in its 15,000 square-foot building for packing and shipping its products to buyers and retailers, and for its dozen or so workers who sew the gloves and aprons into finished products. LaRochelle said he was Tempshield’s 14th employee when he joined the company in 2012, and in more recent years it has fluctuated between 25 and 30 workers.
LaRochelle declined to release figures about Tempshield’s production volume or sales, but said that the company definitely wants to grow, and will if its sales of Mainers continue to increase. He said they are going to more retail trade shows, have boosted their marketing and design budgets, and are promoting Mainers more on social media.
“We’re seeing year-to-year growth,” LaRochelle said. “It’s all about how much product we can get out there.”
In addition to L.L. Bean, Mainers also can be bought through the manufacturer’s own website, mymainers.com, and other online retailers. Mainers also can be found at brick-and-mortar businesses such as Bangor Motor Sports, Kittery Trading Post, Kennebunk Outfitters, and Toad & Co, according to LaRochelle.