TRENTON, Maine — Peggy Collins’ fingers expertly guide the white leather through the sewing machine. In a few minutes, 13 pieces are stitched together, to form the outer shell of a Mainers Caribou mitten. A few minutes later, that leather is joined with a thick layer of insulation and wool.
It is precise, detailed work that Collins said took some time to master. But she admitted to liking the final result.
“They are nice gloves, I really like ‘em,” she said.
The marketplace is starting to like them too, according to Paul LaRochelle, Chief Operating Officer for TempShield of Trenton, which branched out four years ago to begin making Mainers Gloves.
“Our owner, Tim Oldenberg from the Chicago area, really liked the idea of taking this technology and how we could wrap it into a consumer product,” LaRochelle explained.
For more than 40 years, Tempshield has produced cryogenic gloves, aprons, and other protective gear for those who work with ultra-cold materials, such as liquid nitrogen, at temperatures below -100 degrees Fahrenheit. That cold-fighting technology, which LaRochelle described as the world leader, is being adapted to make more elegant gloves and mittens for outdoor sports, particularly skiing and snowmobiling.
Joanne Romer, who has been stitching in the plant for 20 years, said she loves the new product.
“Oh I thought it was great,” she said during a break from stitching Tempshield aprons, “because I own a camp up north in Aroostook County and I snowmobile, and it's great to have a nice, warm pair of gloves.”
LaRochelle, who is also a snowmobiler, said they have steadily increased sales for those who love cold-weather sports.
“You can actually get too warm,” he said of his experience using the products.
“We keep hearing from skiers [who] have one product for morning and one for afternoon. I even have some snowmobile friends who are wearing gloves during the day, but switch to mitts when the sun goes down," he said.
The product line began with just four models. As of this season, They now make 19 different gloves and mittens, to meet the desires of the marketplace.
“At a ski shop there is usually a display on pegs of all the gloves you can get,” explained the company’s new commercial director, Ponch Membreno, as he gestured at a wall display of Mainers. “Last year, they would have had one peg or three pegs. Now they can have all these pegs”.
Membreno and LaRochelle both agreed the name Mainers, is a selling point in the market, reminding buyers of a place where people understand cold.
“The quality made in Maine and the name Mainers have been well received,” LaRochelle said.
For the time being, Tempshield cryogenic products are still the dominant part of the company’s business, and LaRochells said those products are sold to countries all over the world.
They anticipate business for the new Mainers product line will keep growing. To accommodate that, the company recently bought an industrial building across the road from the production plant, where they now store the rolls of insulation, leather, and other materials to make gloves. The new, larger space is also where they cut all the pieces to be stitched into finished products, both for winter use and cryogenic protection.
For this company and its workers, cold is good.