Stall and Dean Company Records

Started in 1898 in Brockton, Massachusetts by Walter Thomas Stall and Charles Dean, the Stall and Dean Company is one of the oldest sporting goods manufacturers in America. Their first catalog offered baseball and basketball uniforms, and footballs and football helmets. The business rapidly expanded, and within a few years, they were producing athletic shoes for numerous sports: caps, bats, balls, mitts and fielding gloves for baseball; boxing gloves; tennis rackets; nets for tennis and volleyball; and supporters and protective equipment. Eventually, Mr. Stall bought out Mr. Dean's share of the business, but the company name has remained Stall and Dean. Stall and Dean was the first American company to manufacture hockey jerseys and equipment, outfitting the original six member teams of the National Hockey League. Many Hall of Fame athletes from many sports wore Stall and Dean uniforms, including Bobby Orr and Ted Williams, and their catalogs contained endorsements from many famous players, including Ty Cobb. They manufactured uniforms and equipment for high schools and colleges as well as for the pros. With the "Safeslide" flannel baseball uniform being just one of their innovations, they adapted to the changing times and changes in style and materials in sports apparel, and these changes are well documented in the company's catalogs. In a 1975 article in the Brockton Enterprise, Richard Stall, Jr., the third generation owner of the company, extolled the virtues of polyester double knit fabrics, saying "...they look marvelous and they have replaced flannels." While the company adapted to stylistic changes, it has remained in its original factory and still produces uniforms on some of the same turn-of-the-century sewing machines it purchased new. In a 1998 article in Yankee magazine, an employee named Kevin Gosciak referred to Stall and Dean as "a museum of American manufacturing."