Rock and Roll Ironing Boards

 I've driven by Seymour, Indiana a hundred times without stopping. This past weekend, circumstances required me to get off the Interstate and drive into the hometown of Johnny Cougar and Seymour Home Products (formerly Seymour Tool and Engineering, later Seymour Industries and later still Seymour Housewares and then Home Products International - North America). I figured while I was there, I might as well find the factory which produced the ironing board from an earlier blog post. It was a weekend trip, so finding the factory was about all I could do; no factory tour this time. But, stay tuned. 

The factory made the news last year when HPI decided to shutter the plant. Then, just before the machinery was auctioned off, HDS Trading Corp. in New Jersey bought the HPI assets, reopened the plant as Seymour Home Products, and ironing board production resumed in September of 2022 - 80 years from when Seymour Tool and Engineering first opened for business. 

As I think I mentioned in the original post about my ironing board, Seymour Tool and Engineering sounds more like the sort of place that makes race car or airplane parts. That may well have been the original focus, but it's actually the sole producer of  American-made ironing boards since 1966. Originally Seymore Tool and Engineering, the company changed owners multiple times and was owned for a period of time by Lear Siegler, Inc., one of the original conglomerates which actually did have close ties to the aerospace industry. I find this oddly fascinating. I guess because ironing boards are one of those mundane products that nobody gives much thought to. The plant I found sits just off the main drag in Seymour, dwarfed by the neighboring Caterpillar engine factory. It doesn't even really look like a factory; it looks more like a former K-Mart or possibly a larger grocery store. If I had to guess, I'd say this is where the leg assemblies get painted, but I really have no idea. 

Ironing Boards Made Here! 

You can even see the ironing board legs in the windows if you look closely. 

Look Closely

There are other plants in Seymour, but we didn't take the time to find them all. Hopefully on a future trip. 

The good news is that ironing boards are still being made in the US heartland. There was a brief haitus when Home Products, Int'l shut down the Seymour operation in May of 2022, but the plants were back up and running by September of the same year after HDS Trading Corp. of NJ bought the plants and machinery. A year later, it looks like little Seymour, Indiana can still lay claim to being the only US manufacturer of ironing boards. (Seymour is also the original home of singer John "Cougar" Mellencamp, but he now lives in Bloomington and ironically seems to have forgotten his small town roots, despite the fortune he's made singing about them.)