Handiwork is the only work at Tabar Inc. in Bethel, a small, strongly focused company that knows the glove market like the back of its hand.
The company, founded in 1982 by Robert Tarrant, has designed and manufactured gloves for a laundry list of large brands such as Descente, Eastern Mountain Sports, Eddie Bauer, Mountain Hard Wear and REI.
Initially run as a direct to market ski glove manufacturer, the company changed its focus early on.
“Ski gloves alone were very weather dependent and are very small and narrow niche,” said Gary Schloss, president of Tabar. Tarrant, Schloss”™ stepfather, died in 1994.
The company began to retool its focus by helping brands of developing sports build their hand gear. One of the first examples is the work Tabar did with Jake Burton Carpenter founder of Burton Snowboards, the Nike of the snowboarding world.
“In 1986, Burton Snowboards was a bartender in New York with a Snurfer who was trying to create something,” said Schloss, referencing both Carpenter and the curious yellow board ”“ the Snurfer ”“ he turned into an industry. “He wanted a product specifically for a new sport that he and a few others were carving out.”
Schloss said Tabar began to look at the details and specific needs of the niche sports, like snowboarding, fly fishing and mountain and ice climbing.
“We started to work with companies that were interested in defining new glove categories for their sport,” said Schloss. “We built a glove that was specifically a snowboard glove that had a long gauntlet and tongs that weren”™t going to wear out and some cases braces for falling forward. It was sort of a leap of faith because who knew if this was going to take off.”
Today snowboarding is a billion-dollar industry and still growing.
Tabar parlayed its first successes into other sport categories that had a need or were being developed, like rollerblades, where Tabar worked on wrist and hand protection for companies such as Roces.
“We did the same with sports like windsurfing,” said Schloss.
Schloss said many of the developing sportsmen were using products made for similar sports, but lacked certain specifications, and that”™s where Tabar found a need.
“It can be like raising children,” said Schloss. “Once they get to a certain point they go off on their own.” Though, Schloss said, it is not uncommon for companies that Tabar has aided to return as clients in need of special project work or trend analysis.
“We”™ve become the go-to people for complex builds,” said Schloss.
As the categories continued to expand so did Tabar, building its design team with three former Cannondale employees. Today Tabar has offices in Bellingham, Wash., and Asian manufacturing teams located in Hong Kong, Korea and Sri Lanka.
“We”™re not selling gloves to Walmart or Old Navy,” said Schloss. “We make gloves that are on the high-end of the food chain. Our gloves need to perform, they tend to be less of an accessory and more gear. When an ice-climber is swinging an ice axe and putting all his weight on it the last thing he wants to happen is anything to slip.”
Tabar gloves come with very specific uses in mind; the company makes a high altitude expedition mitt specifically for Mount Everest. “It needs to perform. If it doesn”™t, the climber could loss his hand and ultimately his life,” said Schloss.
The company, which has earned yearly best-place-to-work accolades, benefits from ferocious loyalty by its employees, who enjoy retreats, liberal time off for childcare, flex-time options, and comprehensive health care.
As part of the company”™s culture, Tabar”™s 20 employees are encouraged to take part in the sports for which their wear is made.
“We provide an overall atmosphere that empowers each person on staff to feel like they share in the growth and direction of the company,” said Schloss. “In this day and age, with all the technologies, why not be comfortable at work, as long as their productive and doing their jobs there is no reason not to allow some liberties.”
Tabar, always looking for new avenues in the world of gloves, is looking at bringing a manufacturing arm of the company back stateside with the intention of building product for the U.S. Military.
