WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CALIF. City's name lends a hand to gloves' tough image

The company says its customers will respond positively to the Youngstown name.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
California executives searching for a tough-sounding name for their new company chose to name it after a city known for its determination, grit and steel -- Youngstown.
Youngstown Equipment Co. is based in Westlake Village, Calif., just outside Los Angeles, but the maker of gloves and socks for construction and factory workers didn't want to foster a Hollywood image.
"We want people to know that our products are just as tough as the people who work in Youngstown," said Brian Sheehy, an account executive for the company.
On Web site
The company's Web site greets viewers with this message: "To the folks here, the name Youngstown stands for those men and women of Steeltown, USA, whose vision, innovation, and unwavering work ethic set the standard for our nation."
Sheehy was part of a group of executives who left another glove maker, Ironclad Gloves, last year to form their own company. While brainstorming about a potential name, they thought about naming the company after an industrial city. Someone suggested Youngstown.
They knew Youngstown's history as a steel town and remembered Bruce Springsteen's song "Youngstown," which recalls that history and the former Jenny blast furnace.
"We were all familiar with it as a real tough town," Sheehy said.
Sheehy originally is from Detroit, while the other executives were from Minneapolis and Toronto, Canada.
They were confident that their target customers would respond positively to the Youngstown name.
"Youngstown has a really deep history as a steel town. People know that," he said.
They chose Youngstown Equipment Co. as the full name because it sounds like the company also makes heavy machinery, he said.
Its product
In reality, it sells 12 styles of work gloves that retail for between $15 and $100 and six styles of socks. Tool bags are to be added this fall. The products are sold over the Internet and at hardware stores, lumber yards and industrial supply stores.
The eight-employee company designs its products but has them made by suppliers. The gloves are made in China, and the socks are made in the United States, Sheehy said.
He said one problem did arise with the company's name after they selected it. While at a trade show, people from Youngstown asked if they had heard about the political corruption in the area. That surprised the executives, but Sheehy said it was too late to rethink their decision.
"We're going back to the Youngstown of the 1800s and early 1900s," he said.
shilling@vindy.com