Uniforms offered by Howe Athletic Apparel included various “models” (L-R): Major League, Deluxe Softball, Standard, Economy Softball, and Semi-Professional.
Dear Vance: Back in the 1960s, the coach surprised our Little League team by providing us with brand-new uniforms. He bought them at a store in Memphis, but I can’t remember where. Can you help? — G.H., Memphis.
Dear G.H.: I confess that I put this query on hold for a while, because I didn’t have enough information to answer it. Our city has been home to a number of sporting goods stores that stayed in business for decades. Places like Dowdle, York Arms, and Tommy Bronson come to mind.
But a few weeks ago, I came across a rare item online that I thought would be a nice addition to the Lauderdale Library. I paid $4,527.99 for it, and now that it’s mentioned in a work-related capacity, I can write it off — just as I have done with my Daimler-Benz repair bills, all of my meals, and the salary of my butler/chauffeur, Basil. [Vance, we need to talk. — Ed.]
What I purchased was a catalog for Howe Athletic Apparel, and after a few minutes of perusing their selection of baseball uniforms, I decided this was where your coach bought your uniforms — from a company that not only sold them, but manufactured and distributed them nationwide. In fact, not only did this Memphis-based firm provide most of the baseball and softball uniforms for teams in our area, but those cool letter jackets worn by the football, basketball, track, and other stars in high school? They probably came from Howe as well.
What’s interesting about this establishment — among many things, if you’ll give me time to share them — is that Howe wasn’t the last name of the family who founded the business. Instead, it’s the first name of the company founders. Let’s jump into the history.
Everything began with Howe K. Sipes, born in Selmer, Tennessee, in 1896. He married Jewell Hagy from that town, and they had a son, Howe K. Sipes Jr., and two daughters, Verda and Marie. Sometime in the early 1930s, while Verda moved to Jackson, Tennessee, with her husband, and Marie moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with hers, the rest of the family moved to Memphis. To make this complicated story easier to follow (and write), let me just say that the daughters were never involved with the sporting goods company.
After taking over the company after his father’s death, Howe Sipes Jr. had quietly established a national reputation. In 1987, during the World Sport Expo in Chicago, he was inducted into the National Sporting Goods Association Hall of Fame.
The Sipes first rented an apartment in Central Gardens at 1572 Eastmoreland, where the father started working as a sales agent for a firm with the unusual name of S-WC Co. I struggled for as long as a half-hour to find more about this company, and then decided to move on with my life (and theirs). Within a year or so, Howe Sr. began working for Wurzburg Bros., which manufactured shipping and packaging supplies, and Howe Jr. became a sales clerk at the Black and White Store, a department store downtown.
Meanwhile, the younger Sipes took technical training and became certified as an aircraft mechanic. When World War II started, he joined the Army Air Corps as a flight engineer, training B-29 bomber crews.
A Howe “Pony League” uniform in pearl grey with royal-blue trim. Price: $9.75.
I wish I could tell you what major life event prompted the Sipes to jump into the athletic apparel business, but that’s another gap in their history that I can’t fill. It doesn’t matter, I guess. What counts here is that in 1946, both father and son purchased property at 249 East Mallory and opened Howe Athletic Apparel.
I wouldn’t mind sharing the entire contents of their baseball catalog with you, but we don’t have the space. You’ll have to buy your own. It offers a variety of uniforms — and only uniforms — for baseball and softball teams of all ages and experience levels. If you needed bats, balls, gloves, spikes, batting helmets, and other gear, you had to purchase those from a regular sporting goods store.
The Howe catalog organized their uniforms in this order: Major League Model, Professional League Model, Semi-Professional Model, Varsity Model, Standard Model, Little League (in “Standard” and “Economy” versions), and even something called the Pony League. Their uniforms were “wash and wear, 100% manmade items, drip-dry flannel, with no ironing required.” The standard colors available were “Pearl Gray, Pearl Gray with Navy Pin Stripe, White, White with Navy Pin Stripe, or White with Scarlet Pin Stripe.”
In other words, the grownups basically had their choice of gray or white — none of the flashy colors you’d find on team uniforms today. At least the kids in Little League and Pony League had more choices for the trim colors — “Scarlet, Royal, Navy, Black, and Kelly” — and the ordering instructions reminded customers: “Specify uniform and braid color when ordering,” which seems rather obvious, no?
This catalog dates from the 1950s, and the prices seem reasonable for that time. A Major League outfit (pants and shirt) cost only $27.25. Something called a “Cincinnati-style vest-type shirt” was available for an extra cost, as well as “tapered pants.” Other options included pocket flaps, reinforced knee pads, zippers instead of buttons, and “belt loops in contrasting colors.”
A Howe softball uniform in scarlet, “with contrasting colors and cut over the same model as our professional model baseball pants.” Only $11.95.
Obviously, no baseball player would take the field without a cap, but this catalog listed only one version. “Style 3000B” (did they really have 2,999 other varieties?) was described as a “felt baseball cap, reinforced crown, Brooklyn-style, all sizes, 70% wool, 30% cotton.” A bargain, it seems, at $1.60. In case you don’t know (because I certainly didn’t), but until 1860, players wore all sorts of headgear. That year, the Brooklyn Excelsiors came up with a soft, rounded cap with a wide brim, “widely considered the precursor to the modern-style baseball cap.” (Thanks, UrbanDaddy.com!)
Quite frankly, the softball uniforms looked a lot more interesting (and comfortable). The selections included “Sloppy Joe Knickers,” featuring “patch pockets, vat-dyed Gaber-twill, and ¾-inch braid down the side seams.”
Howe Athletic Apparel didn’t bother advertising in the local newspapers (believe me, I looked), but they still became so successful that they opened regional sales offices in Minneapolis, Dallas, Atlanta, and even Pinckney, Michigan (it’s outside Ann Arbor). The family was apparently doing well. By 1951, the Sipes had moved to a nice Midcentury Modern home at 3722 Mimosa, and the following year Howe Jr. married Wanda Bingham in her hometown of San Angelo, Texas. Afterwards, the bride and groom returned here and bought a nice home at 441 East Erwin, in the Perkins/Walnut Grove area. Based on The Commercial Appeal’s society columns, their residence became quite a social hub, with Wanda hosting garden club parties, church groups like the Harmony Circle, and other events. They certainly stayed busy.
Howe Sipes Sr. passed away in 1955 and was buried in Memorial Park; his wife would join him there in 1971. By this time, Howe Jr. and Wanda had several children, and when he became old enough, a son, Howe Sipes III, joined the firm as a salesman, making three generations in the family business.
A lengthy search through The Commercial Appeal archives turns up very few helpful news items about the company, generally describing it as simply “athletic apparel sales.” Even so, after taking over the company after his father’s death, Howe Jr. had quietly established a national reputation. In 1987, during the World Sport Expo in Chicago, he was inducted into the National Sporting Goods Association Hall of Fame. Over the years, his fellow inductees had included Adi Dassler, founder of the Adidas shoe company; “Ole” Evinrude, founder of the Evinrude outboard motor company; and Col. Samuel Colt, president of Colt Arms. Even the Lauderdales would be humbled by that crowd.
Sipes passed away in 1991 and was laid to rest with his parents in Memorial Park; his wife had died six years earlier and was buried there as well. Perhaps his absence doomed the company; after being in business for 57 years Howe Athletic Apparel shut down in 2003. An old sign painted on their factory on East Mallory suggests it was used by ServiceMaster for a while, but it stands empty now.
You know, I need to find my old letter jacket and see if it came from Howe. Wouldn’t that be something? I received it, along with many trophies, for my impressive performance in the Lauderdale school band, where I was Third Oboe and Second Triangle. Any time I performed, I remember the stunned audiences saying they had never heard anything quite like it, especially the solos.
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