I found this man’s dress shirt in a box in an Antique shop.
It did not have buttons, cuff links, or a bow tie so I had to find these to
complete the shirt. The label on the shirt said Arrow Shirt Company. There was
no date on the box but the style and graphics looked like around 1950. It is
difficult to find men’s vintage clothing articles. There seems to be more
available for women.
I have included a short conversation told to Bob Phibb, The
Retail Doctor,
www.retaildoc.com/blog,
by Roger Leithead, the former CEO of Arrow shirts.
Arrow Shirts, a history.
The Arrow shirt concept came about in the 1800’s because men
only wore white dress shirts and they all went to work in a suit. Even the
blacksmith would work in that white shirt. Well this one guy was a singer and
his wife didn’t like him coming home and changing into a clean shirt just to go
out – especially since they only bathed on Saturday nights. The idea of a detachable collar and
cuffs made it easy to look presentable without all that washing.
This is the way Arrow built an empire of over 450 warehouses
across the US filled with detachable collars and cuffs. It was a recipe for
success: find out what the customer wanted and then give it to them.
A competitor, the Manhattan shirt company, had a shirt you
could buy with an attached collar and cuffs but it was built like a tent with
yards of fabric to tuck in. Also, the sleeve length was a 37. That’s why guys wore armbands, so their
sleeves wouldn’t reach over their fingers – like you see in barbershop
quartets. At the time that was based on need, not looks.
Sales were dropping off and the Arrow CEO saw the trend was
changing to a complete shirt. He
announced to his board of directors in 1930, “We will never get there doing
what we’re doing now.”
That’s when something truly remarkable happened.
He went downstairs and gave instructions to open the doors
of their main warehouse on River Street in Troy, New York, which bordered on
the Hudson River. “Clear out the warehouse.” Using pitchforks, the warehouse
men threw all of the existing collars and cuffs into the river.
Forget the environmental consequences of such an act of over
1 million dozen collars and cuffs floating down the Hudson. He threw out their
entire inventory in order to make the changes needed.
They came up with 64 combinations of neck and sleeve lengths
so that Arrow shirt fit you properly, not like a sack. They changed from
natural ocean pearl buttons that broke easily, to plastic and invented
Sanfordizing, which meant a shirt wouldn’t shrink. They again became the leader
in men’s shirts because of the CEO realizing they had to change or die.
You think it’s tough to compete now? Imagine going into a
retailer in the Depression telling them they needed all this inventory to serve
their customers; where three models could capture the market, now they needed
64.
The CEO then had marketing come up with the “Arrow Shirt
Man.” Splashy ads in the best
magazines touted how well an Arrow shirt fit. It created a need for the women who purchased their
husbands’ shirts to go into retailers and ask for that “Arrow Shirt.” Retailers had no choice but to carry
them and the rest is history.
Oil on canvas board
14" X 11"
$770.00, plus shipping
Leighann Foster, foster3@gvtc.com
Website, www.leighannfoster.com
Find new and archival work.
Website, www.artistswhoteach.org
Artists Who Teach
Find an instructor and see great artwork.
Blog, www.leighannfoster.blogspot.com
Find drawings and paintings on SALE.
