History: Pavashot President Curtis Graber, Vice President Jon Willson and Design & Development Director Joel Fritz founded Pavashot in 2019. Graber is an inventor whose creations have been used by the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. Willson and Fritz previously worked together at Lake Forest, Illinois-based PepperBall, a company that produces and sells non-lethal […]
History: Granger-based Wag’n Tails has been in the pet grooming business since 1971, when it opened its first pet grooming salon in St. Paul, Minnesota. Five years later, the company decided to go mobile and converted two pet grooming vans. By 1980, the company had six pet grooming vehicles serving the Twin Cities area. The […]
How it started: Brittany Whitenack was “disillusioned” with her traditional workplace job in retail management. So she quit and started looking for another job, picking up a few hobbies along the way that included candle making. “Instead of heading back to the traditional workforce, I wondered if I could potentially work back up to the […]
History: Company owner Merlin Knepp founded his business in 2017 and incorporated it as M&K Sales LLC in 2019. Earlier this year, the company began doing business as Classic Custom Carts. Changing course: Knepp was fixing and selling zero-turn lawn mowers when he decided to buy several golf carts to refurbish and resell. Demand for […]
History: Saint Meinrad Archabbey, a Catholic Benedictine monastery, was founded in 1854 in Spencer County by monks from Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland. Per their tradition, monks are buried in wood caskets with streamlined design elements intended to reflect the simplicity of their lives. In 1999, the monks of the Archabbey saw that there was enough […]
Hiker Trailer launched about 10 years ago through a partnership that included an owner who manufactured and sold trailers in Indianapolis and another who manufactured and sold them in Colorado.
Today, customers can buy everything they need—the fabrics, hardware and tools—from Sailrite to complete projects in the videos. And in the process of making the projects, the staff gets insight on how those materials and tools could work better.
History: Jim and Connie Grant started Sailrite in 1969 after they needed sails to participate in a regatta. When a local sailmaker couldn’t make the sails in time, Jim bought the material and made his own set. The husband-and-wife team started Sailrite to teach others how to make sails, and the business expanded to provide […]
Kokomo Opalescent glass can be seen worldwide, including at the Vatican; the Chicago Cultural Center; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dana House in Springfield, Illinois; Disney World and Disneyland; The White House; Yellowstone National Park; Washington, D.C., Metro; and DreamWorks Studios.
Behind the bourbon: Popcorn Bourbon, which pays tribute to lifelong Valparaiso resident Orville Redenbacher—considered one of the most prominent food scientists and businessmen to popularize at-home popcorn products—was created to commemorate the city’s annual Popcorn Festival. What’s in it: Using barrels from Kentucky, the bourbon is made with mostly Indiana-grown popcorn, as indicated by its […]
The company traces its roots to the early 1950s, when driver Bob Newton began his racing career in northern Indiana on small asphalt tracks.
History: Jerome C. Claeys founded Claeys Candy Inc. in a South Bend garage in 1919. The company initially made a product known as Etabar, a caramel nut bar covered with icing. Hard candies eventually became the primary item sold by Claeys, which has been overseen by Claeys’ grandson, Gregg Claeys, since the 1970s. Headquarters: Claeys […]
The operation: LM Sugarbush produces maple syrup on a 140-acre farm in the southern Indiana town of Salem. Its owners are Jen Reisenbichler and Emily Blackman and their husbands, Nic Reisenbichler and Robert Blackman. All four have full-time “day jobs” and operate LM Sugarbush on the side. The farm sells about 2,500 gallons of syrup—$250,000 […]
History: The origins of Sechler’s Pickles dates to 1914 when Ralph Sechler operated a pickle station in St. Joe in northeastern Indiana for the D.M. Sears Co. After he spent time in college and the U.S. Army, Sechler returned to the DeKalb County town in 1919 and two years later established St. Joe Valley Brands. […]
History: The history of Uncle Al’s is somewhat elusive, with the recipes and their ownership changing hands multiple times throughout the decades. As the stories go, a man named Al Beesbrook created a fry mix he sold under the name Fin & Fowl in the Mishawaka and South Bend areas, possibly as far back as […]
History: Jana Bass grew up participating in Johnson County’s 4-H program, showing goats. Her own children would follow suit. Jana and her husband, Brad, started Bass Farms on their family farm because they had “lots of 4-H goats with goat milk.” They began making goat milk lotion and goat milk soap to sell at the […]
History: The company was founded in 1958 by Donald Wentzel, who bought a poultry plant in northern Indiana after deciding to leave the feed trade in Chicago, where he had sold duck feed to farmers on Long Island. He saw how inefficient and costly it was to transport feed cross-country from the Midwest. Wentzel thought […]
History: The history of Tell City Pretzels dates back to 1858, when Casper Gloor settled in the brand-new town of Tell City. He had migrated from Switzerland as a member of the Swiss Colonization Society, which founded Tell City. Gloor, a master baker, became known for pretzels he baked from a secret recipe. When Gloor […]
It’s especially fun to buy products when I know that I’m supporting an Indiana company and Hoosier workers.
History: Greg Sartor had been working at Caldwell/Moser Tannery in New Albany for about two years when, in 2002, the company closed after some 125 years in business. Sartor had been overseeing the leather lace part of the business—making shoelaces for major retailers, including Timberland, Rockport and Sperry. When the company closed, he purchased some […]
