Happy President's Day!
Posted by Bona Fide Masks on Feb 21, 2023
Happy belated Presidents’ Day! As I reflect on the history of the United States of America, I am honored that our companies have served our military and veterans by providing our ball chains for military dog tags and other items. Over the four generations that my family has managed this business, I am so proud of the strong and meaningful relationships that we have built with our customers, many of whom I consider friends.
Recently, I heard from some of our most loyal customers that they were surprised to learn that Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc. (Ball Chain), was a family of businesses that ranged from ball chain to promotional merchandise, to authentic and trusted masks to architectural design elements (Shimmer Screen®). I wanted to take this opportunity to quickly share our story. I will share a more detailed version of the shortly, following more input from my father, who serves as Chairman of the Board.
Our wonderful little company, Ball Chain, was founded in 1938 in our family garage by our grandfather and our great-grandfather. From humble beginnings, the company has grown to be the World’s #1 Ball Chain Manufacturer producing over 3 million feet of ball chain every week at our factory in Mt. Vernon, New York. Our ball chain products are a part of so many aspects of everyday life including military dog tags, window shades, plumbing devices, necklaces and more. It was even used on a rocket that went to the moon! Keep an eye out for them. You’ll see them in so many different places and applications.
Ball Chain is honored to be the exclusive supplier to the U.S. Armed Forces for the ball chain used in the iconic military ID dog tags worn by American soldiers. Years ago, companies that made promotional dog tags and jewelry shuttered their manufacturing and started importing their tags from China. As expected, these companies began importing their ball chains, too. In response, and in order to keep our Ball Chain factory workers employed, we launched LogoTags (www.logotags.com ) with one little dog tag stamping machine. With the acquisition of many more machines, LogoTags is now one of the leading promotional product companies in the U.S. The product line includes dog tags, challenge coins, bottle openers, key chains, apparel and much more!
To meet ongoing customer demand, we constantly explore innovative uses for our chain. We decided to enter the architecture and design space by launching ShimmerScreen® (www.shimmerscreen.com ). This architectural design element features large-scale ball chain in a variety of finishes and is used in renowned restaurants, five-star hotels, airports, lobbies, and celebrity residences.
In 2020, our country experienced an unprecedented event - the COVID-19 crisis. During the early days of the pandemic, when our country was facing a critical shortage of PPE for frontline workers, a community leader asked us to help. This was not the first time our company lent support during challenging times. As some of our customers might remember, we pivoted our business during WWII to manufacture tooling for our P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane. The pandemic was yet another moment in history where we lent our expertise to support our country.
Given our strong and direct global supply chain, we have become the most trusted source for authentic protective masks in the marketplace. We operate Bona Fide Masks Corp., as we operate all of our businesses – with 100% transparency, authenticity, trustworthiness, and a strong sense of responsibility to our customers to do it right. To reinforce our commitment to our customers, we invested in an in-house respirator tester to supplement our manufacturers’ quality control efforts. We are proud to be the Exclusive Distributor for Powecom® KN95 and Harley® KN95 masks in the United States, as well as a premier authorized distributor for U.S. made DemeTECH® masks.
We will never veer from our commitment to do things the right way, treating customers like family. Our evolution and growth has only been possible because of you, our valued customer!
Our www.logotags.com is also proud to make and supply challenge coins for first responders and the military https://www.logotags.com/challenge-coins/
Thank you, and Happy Presidents’ Day from our family to yours!
Fondly,
Bill Taubner
President