Printwear & Promotion The Total Promotional Package
Next year will be a milestone year for the company as it will be celebrating its 70th anniversary in the headwear industry. In those 70 years the world has seen huge changes, both social and economic, but Sharon Lee has still kept its family business ethos.
This incredible journey started back in 1947, when Woolf Davis, Sharon Lee’s founder opened his first outlet and workshop in Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex, manufacturing and selling functional seaside headwear to the holiday makers post World War II.
Now situated less than 45 minutes from where it all started the company employs 30 people at its HQ in Braintree. Sharon Lee stocks an ever-growing range of stylish, ethically manufactured hats and operates seven eight-head state-of-the-art Tajima embroidery machines – the UK’s largest embroidery production line solely dedicated to the embroidery of headwear.
Incredible relationships
While the UK embroidery facility continues to play a huge part in its operations, Sharon Lee has relationships in the Far East spanning over 30 years. Many of these manufacturing partners have been working with Sharon Lee since Woolf Davies’s first visit to Hong Kong back in 1968.
These incredible relationships in the Far East enable Sharon Lee to create some of the most innovative custom designs around. The company continuously inspires and stimulates the imagination of Europe’s most renowned distributors and its designs can be found in some of the most prestigious retail and marketing campaigns around.
Constant development has kept Sharon Lee at the forefront of the headwear industry. This can be seen in the number of new stocked styles introduced this year, plus the development of its new website with some ground-breaking features available to an incredible customer base.
New styles
One such style is the C6720 – a cap that has to be seen, and felt, to be believed. With its super soft tactile polyester finish this is part of Sharon Lee’s new range of Retail Quality headwear and an area in which the company is heavily investing in over the coming months.
The C6621 is a product that came about with the need to offer a more sports style cap. With its Sneaker Mesh (yes the same mesh you will find on your trainers) this cap offers a quality feel with breathable capabilities – ideal for sports brands.
With winter well and truly set in now Sharon Lee have recently introduced two new beanies into its expanding range. The S0009, which is a soft feel, close knit ribbed beanie and the S0020, a super fine circular knit beanie – both retail quality and another option for the discerning customer.
So what does 2017 have in store for Sharon Lee? Well, the inside information suggests that there is a huge amount of development across a wide range of services, further development of the website, a new look stand for the trade shows and of course an exciting range of new styles for spring/summer.
Surely 70 years in the headwear industry stands for something, and what Sharon Lee doesn’t know about headwear probably isn’t worth knowing in the first place.
You will find Sharon Lee at Printwear & Promotion LIVE! at the NEC in Birmingham from Sunday, February 26 to Tuesday, February 28.
