Finding aid for the Work Wear Corporation, Inc. Records, Series II

History of the Work Wear Corporation, Inc.

The Work Wear Corporation, Inc. was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1915 by Samuel Rosenthal (1885-1957) as the Cleveland Overall Company. Originally selling to retail stores, the company soon switched its focus in 1921 to garment rental, providing rental uniforms directly to companies. Another successful innovation was to assure renters adequate industrial laundry capacity to clean rented garments. The company accomplished this by providing capitalizing and technical support to industrial laundries in Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, and Buffalo, and then throughout the nation. By the 1940s, the company also produced work apparel for men and women including service uniforms, coveralls, jackets, pants, shirts, aprons, and blouses.

Under Leighton Rosenthal (1914-2003), son of founder Samuel Rosenthal, Cleveland Overall became the publicly held Work Wear Corporation in 1961. In the 1960s, Work Wear continued its expansion, in 1968 acquiring the Belgian garment manufacturer Van Moer and in 1969 purchasing Mars Manufacturing Company, a domestic producer of disposable products. In 1968, Work Wear's acquisition of industrial laundries opened it to charges of violating the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, resulting in its divestiture of its American industrial laundries in 1977 and the incorporation of ARA Services to provide for rental services. During this shakeup, the company also changed its name to Work Wear Corporation, Incorporated. Work Wear continued to hold accounts to provide uniforms to many companies, including AT&T, Ford, and Toyota. By the 1980s, Work Wear had divisions in Canada, Mexico, Belgium, France, Malta, England, and West Germany, in addition to minority ownership in the Japanese firm Sani-Kleen. Work Wear also increased its presence in the medical disposable field during this time through its White Knight Division, acquired in 1981. In 1985 the company had revenues of $260 million and employed over 6,600 people worldwide. In 1986, Work Wear was acquired by Paine Webber Capital, a subsidiary of Paine Webber Group, Inc. After 75 years in Cleveland, Work Wear moved its corporate offices in 1990 to Greensboro, North Carolina.

Click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Work Wear Corporation, Inc.

Scope and Content

The Work Wear Corporation, Inc., Records, Series II, ca. 1940s-1996 and undated, consist of correspondence, minutes, newsletters, financial statements, deeds, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, brochures and catalogs, speech texts, and award certificates.

This collection is of value to researchers studying the national rental clothing industry in the twentieth century, the history of business in Cleveland, Ohio, especially the garment industry and Jewish-owned enterprises, and the Rosenthal family. Of special note are the brochures advertising the Cleveland Overall Company's line of apparel and the folders detailing Work Wear's partial acquisition of Sani-Kleen, which illustrate how an American firm attempted to enter the Japanese market. Among the accounts listed in Series II, the most notable include AT&T Bell System, Ford, Lincoln Electric, and Toyota. Researchers interested in the overall parent company and the undertakings of the firm as a whole will find the records of Series I useful. Researchers interested in the company's activities in Belgium, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and West Germany will find this collection useful. Researchers interested in trends in blue collar uniform standards, form, and function will find this collection useful.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

The researcher should also consult MS 4765 Work Wear Corporation, Inc. Records.

All photographs have been removed to the photograph collection.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 5094 Work Wear Corporation, Inc. Records, Series II, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gift of Charlotte R. Kramer in 2009.

Processing Information

Processed by Samuel Milner in 2010.