Thompson at Abercrombie?
- Thread starter mccloud
- Start date
thompsonboatboy
LOVES Wooden Canoes
Interesting question. I have no clue. Never heard of Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. selling canoes to A & F but that is meaningless.
Big giant retailers like Sears and Montgomery Wards and Gambles sold boats. They were sourced from many manufacturers. Thompson never fell victim to one of these giants. That's what often occured. For example Sears would work out a deal with boat builder X for a certain number of boats for a year or two. That builder saw great profits. In the end, Sears would beat them up on price and demand deliveries they were incapable of meeting. The boat builder would abandoned her normal dealer or distribution network. Sears would go elswhere to source boats the next year and boat builder X was left high and dry, no dealer network and end up belly up. It was fairly common.
Cruisers, Inc. (a Thompson spin-off) did make boats one summer for Monkey Wards. About 500 small plywood lapstrake runabouts circa 1956. They were clinch nailed vs the normal brass bolted construction common to Thompson et.al.
Andreas
Big giant retailers like Sears and Montgomery Wards and Gambles sold boats. They were sourced from many manufacturers. Thompson never fell victim to one of these giants. That's what often occured. For example Sears would work out a deal with boat builder X for a certain number of boats for a year or two. That builder saw great profits. In the end, Sears would beat them up on price and demand deliveries they were incapable of meeting. The boat builder would abandoned her normal dealer or distribution network. Sears would go elswhere to source boats the next year and boat builder X was left high and dry, no dealer network and end up belly up. It was fairly common.
Cruisers, Inc. (a Thompson spin-off) did make boats one summer for Monkey Wards. About 500 small plywood lapstrake runabouts circa 1956. They were clinch nailed vs the normal brass bolted construction common to Thompson et.al.
Andreas
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OP
OP
Thanks, Andreas. There is a canoe that the owner says is a Thompson with an A&F tag on it that I will be taking a look at next week. I've seen a few Thompsons, but couldn't recognize every model. If I can get photos or more info, I'll post. Tom McCloud
It is certainly possible that A&F sold Thompson canoes - we know they sold other brands, such as Morris, and I have seen at least one Thompson canoe with an L.L Bean tag, so we know Thompson sold through retailers as well as direct.
