Promised Land Lost - Sheaffer Pens

[Chouffleur]

 

What made Sheaffer special?

Ingenuity: Walter A. Sheaffer invented the fountain pen in a back room of his Fort Madison jewelry store in 1912. Risk: He used all of his life savings to invest in the business, not knowing what the impact would be on his family's fortunes. And charity: Ask anyone left in town who worked for the Sheaffer family (they sold the company in 1967) how they treated employees, and the stories are all the same -- treated them like they mattered.

The other thing that made Mr. Sheaffer special was his use of high technology -- at the turn of that century, the fountain pen industry was in its infancy -- using his own technical innovations, in particular his famous lever filler, he invented a pen that was more convenient to use and carry, and much more sleekly designed.

His pen was the smartphone of its day -- used to correspond in business, to teach children the motor skills needed to write or work out complex math equations; it was how bankers conducted business, how families balanced their budgets.

It was how the world communicated.

Until it wasn't.

 

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/promised-land-lost/article/2624254

[fullfederhalter]

Thank you for sharing this article. Some have dismissed the products made in recent years by this once proud brand, but this article points to the very real personal losses that occur when ownership decides to move production elsewhere.

[estie1948]

Why is it that those owners back in 1912 - 1917 and so could manage to care about producing a good product, making a good profit, and taking good care of their employees, while it seems today in 2012 - 2017 and so it seems owners are only capable of caring about making the greatest profit possible?

 

-David (Estie).

Edited May 30, 2017 by estie1948

[Retro-user]

Why is it that those owners back in 1912 - 1917 and so could manage to care about producing a good product, making a good profit, and taking good care of their employees, while it seems today in 2012 - 2017 and so it seems owners are only capable of caring about making the greatest profit possible?

 

-David (Estie).

The answer: Activist investors who demand a quick profit and managers who are paid to deliver it.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/09/how-the-cult-of-shareholder-value-wrecked-american-business/?utm_term=.5acc1d2d52c3

Edited May 30, 2017 by Retrouser

[EBUCKTHORN]

That's certainly a very big part (if not all) of it for sure!

[estie1948]

The answer: Activist investors who demand a quick profit and managers who are paid to deliver it.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/09/how-the-cult-of-shareholder-value-wrecked-american-business/?utm_term=.5acc1d2d52c3

Thank you for the link to the very informative article. I believe you have hit upon what is wrong with the world of new fountain pens today as well as most of the business world. It was confirming of many of my ideas and expanded on most of them beyond what I had dared to think. I believe that you are right.

 

The saddest part of all this is that I truly believe there are only a small minority of us who see the flaw in this form of thinking.

 

I am eighty-six years old. When I look at the world today, I see something much different from what I saw when I looked at the world when I was twenty-five years old. When I was twenty-five-years-old, the world was one on the brink of nuclear war, but one equally filled with hope for a great, beneficent future. What I see today makes me weep.

[davefoe]

Yes, an excellent article. Having toured the Sheaffer plant in 2004 I got to meet some of the very nice people who worked there and made great products. Now, all that's left is the name and a web page that has been out of commission for months!

 

I believe marketing is to blame for some of the decline in American business. Where once a company took pride in making a product and selling it on its merits, somewhere along the line everything became a "brand" to be positioned, exploited, used up and discarded. The Bics and Crosses of this world may refer to the "Sheaffer brand," but there was a time when Sheaffer was a company with flesh-and-blood humans who worked there and contributed to a community.

 

A sad commentary on the world we live in today.

 

Dave

[Sasha Royale]

I see plenty of company owners who care to produce a quality product, and good compensation for the employees. However, definitions change. While once a "fair wage" was based on employee productivity to the company, his worth, today a "fair wage" is whatever he demands. Hence, the term "living wage". Why is it the employer's responsibility to compensate for the employee's desires ? He does because of the power of political pressure. My "living" costs more than that of my coworker. Does that entitle me to higher wages ? For most of the past forty years, I have had two jobs. I had more income because I earned more income, not because I demanded more income.

 

Labor gets more compensation because it has the political and economic leverage to define "fair wage" and other terms. That is as it should be, but let's not be whiny, when the pendulum swings back.

[Retro-user]

As I see the decline of once great brands, like Sears and Sheaffer, I see that in Sears's case, the company is being stripped of value by its hedge-fund owners who are biding their time until its demise. Have any plans to retool Sears and change its merchandise and marketing been announced, at all? No. And it could be salvaged. It's very suspicious and sad, the state of business these days.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Retrouser

[Nicholas Green]

I have just purchased a 1949 Sheaffer Sentinel Tuckaway Fountain Pen and I must admit that I am quite exited about it.

 

It will be the first Sheaffer in my collection.

 

I feel that it was fit to start with a vintage pen, that was made when Sheaffer was indeed Sheaffer.

 

If you consider the snorkel pens from Sheaffer, they were engineering marvels for their time and were more innovative than most pens are today.

 

I understand exactly what you all mean: It's extremely hard to find things that are made properly today. It just seems that we are on the road to nowhere as the human race.

Where's it going to end?

 

Today, companies make items as cheaply as they can so that they can make a maximum profit, only so that the shareholders can buy junk from other companies that are also trying to reap a maximum profit. It doesn't make any sense.

 

Vintage Sheaffer pens look fantastic and I'm definitely going to add more of them to my collection.

[pajaro]

When I was twenty-five I was sitting on ground zero, a Titan II ICBM site, a target for the Russians. Reagan made our service worthwhile. In spite of the corruption of fountain pen production by the priority given to the drive for profit, the world is a better place. If you don't like the newer pens, use vintage. Some vintage Sheaffers are pretty good. Light a candle or curse the darkness.

[AL01]

The FP industry has potential.

 

Just get another Elon Musk and watch the whole world crumble apart.

 

We just need some innovation....

 

Fountain pens are becoming professional tools.

 

Some like to show off, yes...

 

But some of us use fountain pens as a means of EDC.

 

You will be surprised of how many people use FPs.

 

Look at books...

 

They SHOULD be obsolete by now.

 

Casinos shouldn't exist anymore.

 

Can do all that garbage, (gambling, not reading ), on a computer.

 

 

My 2 cents.

[mitto]

Light a candle or curse the darkness.

Quality candles are no more made/produced. Or there vintage ones somewhere?

[ildbig]

And the saddest part is that Sheaffer’s web page (until it recently went dark for repairs) advertised its heritage, showing the factory that it closed, trying to convince you that you are buying in to this long-standing artesian history. But they don’t mention that they closed this factory, the town is pretty dead now, and that they now just buy and re-sell whatever Chinese stuff they can get their hands on.

[pajaro]

Perhaps they will complete the transition by opening a plant in north Korea and putting an image of a big hat on each one.

Edited June 23, 2017 by pajaro

[davefoe]

I don't know how you run a company by having a website go down for six months or more and basically going AWOL from the marketplace!

[pajaro]

The old FUD factor, Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

[mitto]

TLoC (total loss of confidence) in Sheaffer and Shanghai Parker(s) as well.

[Retro-user]

That the world is a better place is debatable. Today, the insane drive for profit has forced manufacturing of many items overseas, where the living wage and benefits are at a more palatable level for stockholders.

[pen lady]

Ah the joys of the "Capitalist System", but there again, we do have antibiotics and (relatively) painless dentistry, so it's not ALL bad.