Pennant Fever
EXAMINING 20th CENTURY FELT NOVELTY COMPANIES AND THEIR PRODUCTS
Locations: 476 W. Broadway (ca. 1949-52); 3rd/Johnson streets (ca. early 1950s); E. Sanborn St./Mankato Ave. (ca. 1950s); 5th/Olmstead streets (ca. late 1950s); 102 Walnut St. (1962-68); then 1205 E. Sanborn St. (1969 - 1982; 1982- ). Founded: 1949 Closed: Became a division of WinCraft in 1982; d/b/a WinCraft, Inc. today. Maker’s mark: Various marks printed on the reverse side of photo pennants of the 1960s; use of ASCO insignia on pennants of the 1970s. COMPANY HISTORYI’ve covered a handful of pennant makers on Pennant Fever over the past year and a half. That list includes some of the most significant manufacturers of the past century. Although you may not have heard of them all by name, you likely have seen their products; and there’s little doubt all made serious contributions to the industry. Now I want to cover a manufacturer whose contributions are a bit less appreciated. Honestly, I can’t say they did anything too amazing during their short run; but, what they accomplished in such a short period of time, especially in terms of growth and market share, was amazing. And because this company morphed into the largest supplier of pennants today, I think their story is worth telling. I’m talking about a little known company out of Winona, MN called ASCO, Inc. Never heard of them? Well, today you may know them as WinCraft, a company located in the very same Minnesota town. I know what you’re thinking. When you think of well-made pennants, WinCraft does not come to mind, does it? But us pennant snobs cannot totally hate on them just because they don’t make contemporary products the way others used to. If they did, they probably would have folded long ago. Then nobody would be left making pennants today, and … who wants to live in a pennant-less world, right? So, be patient. Keep an open mind. And please: read on. Maybe this post will leave you with a new found appreciation of modern day pennant manufacturers, and the challenges they have had to overcome to remain in business in this ever changing world. Lars Granberg ASCO was started in 1949 by Lars H. Granberg. Granberg was a teacher and athletic coach at Houston High School located in Houston, MN, not far from Winona. Like his contemporaries, Coach Granberg was an underpaid teacher looking to supplement his meager wages with a second income. Today we’d call that a “side hustle” and, let’s face it, nowadays coach would probably be driving for UBER on the weekends. But ride sharing wasn’t a thing back in 1949, which meant Coach Granberg had to find a more creative use of his spare time to make a buck. As an athletic coach, Coach Granberg was constantly outdoors interfacing with students, parents, and spectators watching his teams play. Although we think of Minnesota for its brutal winters, it can actually get pretty warm in the summer months there. Coach Granberg came up with an idea: make sun visors out of cardboard and sell them to spectators attending these outdoor athletic events. His products were a hit! For the next few years, Granberg and his wife converted the kitchen of their Winona home, located at 476 W. Broadway, into a small factory where they made sun visors whenever school was not in session. If their kitchen was the factory, his car served as the office, which enabled him to travel across the country to various schools and colleges in search of new buyers of his product. In 1952 Coach Granberg was still coaching basketball and baseball in the Winona area; but the side-business that would become ASCO was now turning a profit. What’s more, the Granbergs' kitchen could no longer accommodate production demands. So they moved to the garage. But they outgrew that space as well. Still making exclusively sun visors, the business was forced to set up a proper shop at different downtown Winona locations that could accommodate their growing needs throughout the decade. Inception On July 5, 1955 Lars Granberg formally incorporated his new company under the name “ASCO, Inc.,” a Minnesota corporation. He would serve as the company’s first president. What does ASCO stand for, you may be wondering? I wish I knew for certain. I noticed that many newspaper articles of the day covering the company’s growth referred to it as an advertising specialty company. I would therefore guess that ASCO once stood for Advertising Specialty Company; however, every maker’s mark, advertisement, or catalog of theirs I have seen used only the abbreviation “ASCO” or “Asco” without anything more. Since their legal name was never anything more than “ASCO, Inc.” they likely intended from inception to be known solely by this acronym.
Expansion into pennants In 1962 ASCO relocated yet again to 102 Walnut Street, a three story building located at the corner of 2nd/Walnut streets in downtown Winona, not far from the Granbergs’ home. Interestingly enough, this building had formerly been occupied by a continuation of different textile manufacturers. Perhaps this factored into ASCO’s desire to move there, as the company hoped to use this location to manufacture felt pennants, in addition to buttons and other novelty products they were already known for. ASCO launched its new pennant line in 1962 shortly after occupying the first and second floors of what came to be known as the “ASCO Building.” It’s not entirely clear what teams this first run of pennants included. Not surprisingly, the majority concerned the Minnesota Twins. They also made pennants for the Vikings and, later in the decade, the Minnesota North Stars, too. But they also churned out pennants for out-of-state teams experiencing great success throughout the decade, such as the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Dodgers. Early pennant characteristics There’s a few noteworthy characteristics to these 1960s-era ASCO pennants. First, many (all?) were photo pennants. It’s possible they manufactured traditional pennants in these early days; but, as they only placed their maker’s mark on the reverse side of photo pennants in this era, I’m only aware of their photo pennants. Second, early ASCO pennants never used tassels. To make up for this, they featured a slightly wider spine than those used by other pennant makers of the day. (Trench spines consistently measured .75” in width; whereas ASCO’s measured a full 1” across.) Together, these features help distinguish ASCO pennants from those by Trench Mfg. Co. of Buffalo, NY--at the time, the biggest pennant maker in the business. Compare for yourself: Third, early ASCO pennants were primarily monochrome. This feature really helps distinguish ASCO’s pennants from Trench’s, the latter company having switched to primarily polychromatic pennants sometime in the previous decade. Fourth, the earliest ASCO pennants were largely copies of Trench’s designs. As I have pointed out time and again in my previous posts, copying the artwork of your competitors was fairly commonplace in the felt novelty industry until the 1970s. Here’s two side-by-side comparisons that illustrate the above points: Note that the ASCO photo pennants on the right are tassel-less, monochrome, and pretty much a copy of Trench’s design on the left. That really sums these early ASCO pennants up. In essence, they’re inferior Trench pennants. ASCO’s photo pennants are inferior in one other way: whatever adhesive they used to secure their photos to the felt did not hold up over time. Consequently, you’ll find many of these pennants for sale today; but, the photo will either be detached; re-secured with modern tape; or, sadly, missing entirely. Other offerings By the end of the 1960s sports pennants and other sports novelty items had become a huge part of ASCO’s product lines. But not all of their merchandise was sports themed. Campaign buttons were huge for them; and souvenir/travel pennants were also big, like these examples, below, all by ASCO: The Button House, Idea Promotions, and the Winona connection I spent a lot of time researching ASCO. No mystery has consumed me more than some inconsistencies I have spotted concerning what appear to be ASCO pennants; however, they bear another company’s mark. To make matters more confusing, these other companies identified themselves as being from the very same town of Winona; and at the same time ASCO was in business! Have a look for yourself. Below is a pairing of World Series pennants from 1965. The Twins version bears a photo. On the reverse, the photo bears ASCO’s mark. So, ASCO manufactured the pennant, right? Duh. But, not so fast! Here’s the above pennant’s sister for the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s otherwise identical to the Twins version above: full size photo pennant, no tassels, wide spine, monochrome, and the same layout inspired by earlier photo pennants by Trench. So, flip this gal over and you would expect to find an ASCO maker’s mark, right? Wrong…. Idea Promotions? This was the first I’d heard of this company. Doesn’t exactly sound like a felt novelty company, does it? I tried to find more information on Idea Promotions, but got nowhere. I did, however, find several other ASCO-like pennants with Idea’s mark thereon. And then things got really weird. First, I came across this red variant of the above Dodgers pennant, which was purportedly by Idea Promotions. My expectations were that Idea’s mark, or ASCO’s mark, would appear on the reverse. That was not the case…. Blank?! How is that an option? It’s possible that the reverse side of this photo was always intended to be blank for reasons not entirely clear. It’s also possible that the maker originally placed a second card atop the photo’s reverse side; and this backing has since fallen off and been lost to the ages. In such a scenario, this missing backing may have had the maker’s mark printed on it. Second, in my search for more Idea photo pennants, I found additional ASCO-like pennants with a third company’s mark on the back: The Button House, also located in Winona. In the above pairing, these Twins pennants are identical. Only the photos are different, probably because they were made a year or two apart. I wondered how to make sense of all this. Was it possible that the small town of Winona had not one, but three pennant makers? (Actually four, if you count WinCraft.) That seems inconceivable to me. I have to be completely candid with you: I don’t believe for a hot second that anyone but ASCO manufactured these pennants--or, at least the felt portion thereof. They are all just too similar. And if you’re thinking: “Hey, haven’t you been telling us that pennant makers routinely copied from their competitors; so, who’s to say Button House didn’t just copy ASCO’s designs?” Fair point. But I just don’t think it’s likely that one small town could support four different pennant makers during the latter half of the 1960s. Maybe in a place like New York or Chicago … but not Winona. Especially because this was a time when felt novelty companies were getting out--not into--the pennant business due to the advent of licensing requirements being imposed in the late 1960s. It is my belief that ASCO made all of these pennants, despite the instances where other company names appear on the reverse. I suspect that ASCO made the felt portions; and, when it came to the photos they occasionally purchased these from other suppliers that could produce them to their desired specs. And, not surprisingly, they favored using local vendors capable of supplying these components, which to me explains why they’re all from the same town. Further, these photos could have been intended for multiple purposes beyond simply photo pennants, so they may have already been pre-stamped with this suppliers name on the reverse. Alternatively, Idea and Button House could have even been purchasing blank photo pennants from ASCO as their pennant supplier, so they could place their photos in them and sell the finished product as their own item, with their mark thereon. It’s also possible that these other companies were simply the distributors or retail outlets that sold ASCO’s products to the end consumer. Either way, ASCO designed, cut, screen printed, and sewed the felt portions of these products--and in my eye, that makes them the manufacturer. Or I could be dead wrong. If you know more, please contact me as I’d love to know what you think. Since I first wrote this piece, I've come a bit closer to solving the above mystery: I came across a 1970 sales catalog by The Button House. The catalog showcased the company's various offerings made with the consent of the NFL, including felt pennants. The catalog plainly identified The Button House's mailing address as 1205 E. Sanborn St. This address, you'll soon learn, became ASCO's principal manufacturing location in 1968. Moreover, the catalog references Button House as a "DIVISION OF ASCO INCORPORATED." So, by at least 1970, we can say definitively say that Button House and ASCO were one in the same company. From hereon, I am operating under the assumption that all pennants featured in this post bearing an ASCO, Idea Promotions, or Button House mark, or no mark at all (blank), were in fact manufactured by ASCO. “Fire!” By the start of 1968 ASCO had emerged as a very profitable company, well positioned for continued growth. Six years earlier they began making pennants. This was only made possible because they had moved to 102 Walnut Street, a building large enough to accommodate this new product line. The future had to look bright for ASCO President Lars Granberg. That optimism was blackened on January 11, 1968 when a fire broke out in the northeast corner of the ASCO Building, spreading into the rooftop. The northeast corner of the building was damaged; and portions of the roof collapsed. Damages exceeded a quarter of a million dollars. Most of this damage was water related--not structural. Nevertheless, much of ASCO’s raw felt and pennant stock were completely destroyed. With outstanding orders piling up, ASCO had to take action. Executive offices were temporarily moved down the street to 400 W. 3rd Street. After some clean-up, production eventually resumed at the old ASCO Building; but, their time on Walnut Street was limited. Lars Granberg wanted to continue growing his company; and to foster this, he needed a much larger, more modern plant. A new home So ASCO purchased the old Goodall Manufacturing Building located at 1205 E. Sanborn Street on the eastern edge of Winona. And on July 3, 1968 ASCO moved into their new 35,000 square foot plant. Almost immediately, they began expanding the site by another 22,000 square feet to provide even more manufacturing and storage space. By the end of 1969, ASCO’s new plant was fully operational and ready for the rapid growth the company’s founder envisioned. Just 20 years earlier, Mr. and Mrs. Granberg were making sun visors in their home’s kitchen. Now, that company was truly entering the 20th century. ASCO in the 1970s By 1970 ASCO had emerged as one of the nation’s biggest maker of promotion and novelty items. Their new Sanborn Street plant was occupied by a work force of 140 employees. Some of these employees staffed an in-house design and art department. Others worked in the graphic arts department where they utilized offset, letterpress, and silk screen printing equipment. For the most part, pennants and buttons comprised the bulk of their product lines. The previous year, these employees made 4 million pennants and 4 million buttons for nationwide distribution. To accommodate growing demand for these products the plant went on a two-shift work schedule for the first time in company history. It’s important to realize that, by the end of the 1960s, the felt novelty industry had gone through some serious changes. I’ve documented this elsewhere in previous posts, so I’ll keep it short. By the decade’s end the big four professional sports leagues, plus most collegiate athletic conferences, began trademarking their team logos, insignia, etc. This meant nobody could (lawfully) make a pennant or a button or decal with this intellectual property without first obtaining a license. This cost money. Consequently, many novelty companies got out of the pennant business because they could not obtain these licenses, e.g., ADFLAG, WGN, just to name a few. Just 50 years earlier there were dozens of manufacturers making felt pennants all over the country. But by the 1970s there were really only two companies left making officially licensed sports pennants: Trench; and, surprisingly, ASCO. I find this surprising because ASCO had not manufactured a pennant until 1962, less than 10 years earlier. And what they had manufactured was largely based upon the design work of others. So, yes, it seems odd to me that ASCO continued making sports pennants at a time when other more accomplished manufacturers chose not to. But that’s precisely what happened. Back to licensing. By the start of the 1970s ASCO had secured exclusive licensing agreements to make pennants, buttons, and other items bearing team emblems from the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB; and the Big 10 Athletic Conference. These licenses were absolutely the key to their financial success. Without them, none of this rapid growth would have been possible. Simply put: these licenses allowed ASCO the chance to distribute their goods to national markets well beyond Minnesota. Sometime after 1970 ASCO’s Lars Granberg left the company. I could find no information on his separation with the company, but I have to imagine he either retired; or passed away. By 1976 ASCO’s new president was John W. Arnold. Under Arnold’s leadership, annual sales reached $2.5 million that year. To help market the many products they now offered, ASCO circulated more than a million sales catalogs. Here’s one from 1976: Note that by the 1970s the company was offering traditional felt pennants and in three sizes (no idea why the catalog says “4 Great Sizes”): 5” x 12”; 9” x 24” (shown twice); and 12” x 30.” Additionally, photo pennants were still available as late as 1976 and offered in two sizes: 9” x 24”; and 12” x 30.” According to this 1976 advertisement, ASCO’s business now focused on three distinct areas:
By the way, did you notice this interesting little logo on the cover of the above sales catalog; and on the above advertisement? It looks like a circle with an arrow running through it; pointing due north. Sometime around 1970 ASCO adopted this symbol as their maker’s mark. We’ll re-visit this mark later on in the Maker’s Mark section; but, for now just know: on traditional pennants from the 1970s, look for it in the bottom left corner, next to the spine. Here’s a few examples: WinCraft, Inc., yet another Winona novelty company I told you up front that WinCraft would enter into this story, didn’t I? Well, that time is now. WinCraft, Inc. was founded on June 20, 1961, some 12 years after ASCO was founded. Its first location, however, was a bit larger than the Granberg family kitchen that ASCO hatched in. WinCraft’s first location stood at 107 Lafayette Street, directly above a downtown Winona watering hole called the Sunshine Bar. This was just one block west of the ASCO Building. It was a humble operation consisting of only two full-time employees, and one part-timer working out of a few small rooms. Like many novelty companies of the day, they were strictly a mail order company. Their first year was a success. They made over $61,000 in sales that year. As best I can tell, WinCraft’s first products were limited to pom poms and buttons. Their first customers were local high schools. In other words, their business model looked a lot like ASCO’s in the 1950s. That would soon change. By 1969 WinCraft had expanded their product lines somewhat. Pom poms were still their money maker; but they now offered Chenille letters, bumper stickers; and, yes, even felt pennants. See for yourself: According to their catalog, WinCraft offered felt pennants with tassels in five different sizes, including lengths of 18”, 24”, and 30.” Even by 1970 WinCraft’s business was heavily focused on high schools. The big question is: did WinCraft ever offer felt pennants for professional sports teams, as ASCO had begun doing, in the 1960s? As best I can tell the answer is: maybe. If they did, it would have occurred in the mid-1960s, before the era of licensing really took effect. Additionally, it would likely have been limited to Minnesota sports teams. It’s quite possible they made a handful of pennants for the expansion team Minnesota Vikings during the early to mid-1960s. This one resembles the Viking artwork depicted in the above WinCraft catalog; and the size is about 18” in length, which we know they offered as per the same marketing. Of course … there probably were plenty of high schools throughout Minnesota using “Vikings” as a team name. So, at the end of the day, I cannot really be certain WinCraft made this pennant; or, that it was made for the NFL Vikings. Hence the uncertainty of my answer. WinCraft’s rapid growth would continue through the early 1970s with their relocation to a modern plant of their own located at 1124 W. 5th Street, on the western edge of town. Merger with WinCraft By now you have to be asking yourself: how many more pennant companies can Winona support? Don’t worry. From hereon, the number starts contracting. By the 1970s ASCO and WinCraft were competing for much of the same business. When this occurs, you either have to drive your competition out of business; or partner up. It’s the old adage: “If you can’t beat’em, join’em.” It looks like the latter occurred. As early as 1979 the two companies began working together, according to a 2015 story in the Winona Daily News. Legally speaking, however, the merger was not filed with the Minnesota Secretary of State until August 31, 1982. The resulting company was officially named “WinCraft, Inc.” From hereon, all products were branded under the WinCraft name/logo; however, for the remainder of the decade, all licensed sports products bore additional reference to the “ASCO Division” thereon through 1991 or so. Why the merger? It appears to me that each company had something desirable that the other lacked by the end of the 1970s. At WinCraft, their School Division had taken over control of that lucrative market. At ASCO, their Professional Sports Division was thriving thanks to their exclusive licenses obtained from all of the major professional sports leagues/conferences. Merging the two companies made sound business sense. Excess resources could be consolidated, thereby lowering production costs. For example, two pennant production lines could be consolidated into one. Same with buttons. And with ASCO’s licenses, the new company was free to expand their existing product lines into new areas, such as sports apparel. All of this translates into increased profits. That’s why you merge. WinCraft, Inc. today For better or worse, WinCraft is now the industry leader in pennant sales. Actually, they’re probably the industry leader in just about every other type of officially licensed sports merchandise available. Much of that success is attributable to Lars Granberg and the small company he started in his kitchen known as ASCO. More importantly, WinCraft is one of the only remaining companies left in the felt novelty business making officially licensed sports pennants; the others being RICO, Winning Streak, and Collegiate Pacific. They survived when other novelty companies with far more experience making pennants perished. Why? Because their management saw the writing on the wall! That is to say: they correctly saw that licensing agreements were the future of the industry; and they predicted that those in possession of such agreements would be uniquely positioned to keep making not only pennants and buttons and decals; but, lanyards, key chains, beer koozies … you name it. Sure, the quality of their pennants today is hardly worth blogging about. But, look on the bright side: at least someone’s still making pennants in this country using American labor, right? |
About me...I collect vintage pennants and banners. Soon after getting into this hobby, I became curious about the companies responsible for their production. I had to look hard, but eventually found a lot of interesting information on many of them, and their products. This site is my repository for that research. Periodically, I will dedicate a post to one of these featured manufacturers. I hope other collectors will find this information useful. Featured Content:
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