Draper was established in 1856, 170 years ago by my great, great, great grandfather, James Lucas Draper. James and his brother Thomas came to this country from England in the late 1840’s and started businesses here in Canton. James, his 5 sons and his son-in-law, incorporated Draper Brothers Company in 1856.

For anyone who does not know, we are still in the same location in Canton, MA where we have been for the last 170 years under family ownership and management.    

Through the years, we have worked with so many amazing customers including the likes of Trelleborg, LL Bean, Patagonia, Wooster Brush, Sherwin Williams, MSA (Globe), and so many more incredible small companies run by amazing folks that we have become friends with and are featured in our Holiday Gift Guide; we encourage you to check them out.

When I started here at Draper, we were making fabrics for the toy trade and a tremendous amount of footwear. As these traditional programs went overseas, Draper chose to focus on quality and design development. We like to say, “we solve problems using textiles” and encourage our potential customers to come to us to let us design something just for their end-use.

Draper prides itself on using as many domestic suppliers as possible and finds that for a slightly higher cost, you will be able to hold your suppliers accountable for excellent quality, and our customers appreciate our excellent consistency.

So, thank you, thank you to our faithful customers, our faithful employees and, of course, our faithful suppliers. Here’s to another 170 years!