Who made S&W brand holsters?

sprscientist · Mar 4, 2022

Hi All,

Do you know who made the S&W brand holsters as seen in the link below from the 1982 holsters catalogue? Was S&W making them in house, or outsourcing? If outsourced, who were they using to make their branded holsters?

Smith & Wesson Leather Handgun Holsters | Bangor Punta Archives

s&wchad · Mar 4, 2022

I believe S&W sold their holster division in the early 1980’s to Gould & Goodrich.

WCCPHD · Mar 4, 2022

s&wchad said:
I believe S&W sold their holster division in the early 1980’s to Gould & Goodrich.

This is correct. Mr. Gould and Mr. Goodrich bought the leather and non-lethal divisions from S&W. They later split and Bob Gould kept the leather business (Gould & Goodrich) and Mr. Goodrich took Def Tec.

The factory is in Lillington, NC and is in the same location as when S&W owned it. Mr. Gould sold the business several years ago, but it is still called Gould and Goodrich and still makes leather gear.

Never met Mr. Goodrich, but Bob Gould is a fine gentleman. The agency I retired from bought quite a bit of holsters and gun belts from them.

Aircrewman · Mar 4, 2022

I think that Wally Wolfram was initially involved in the development of the Smith and Wesson line of holsters. He owned Wally Wolfram Company and made a rather good quality line of holsters under the "Blazer" brand. There should be a few articles here in the forum that was done by Phil Criswell who is known as crazyphil here on the forum. The articles he wrote as well as his book "Renowned Gun Leather" are excellent and his knowledge is encyclopedic (along with Red Nichols and turnerriver, who is active on the forum).

SG-688 · Mar 5, 2022

Red,

What about the S&W holsters that are line for line and stitch for stitch identical to Bucheimer?

You've mentioned the Al Kippen connection for some, like the copy of the Bucheimer-Clark "Dirty Harry" shoulder holster.

The pictured virtually identical 'semi-shoulder' holsters were a recent topic.

SG-688 · Mar 6, 2022

Your catalog is better than mine that is merely the leather section of the general -- and in beautiful color -- 1970 S&W catalog.

As a public service, I'll try to squeeze in a reduced size PDF here.

Who made S&W brand holsters?

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