Stanbee began in 1948, when Manny Berkson and his son, Stan, founded the company. When Manny's second son, Howard, joined to head up sales and marketing, the family business was complete. Back then, Manny had been a salesman for Davis Box Toe and was convinced he could make a better product, but even more importantly, he knew the key to success wasn't just a good boxtoe, but great customer service.

Now in its third generation, Stanbee president, Michael Berkson, has over 20 years with the company and still follows the same formula for success—that a company's growth is only as good as the service it provides its customers. And now, over 60 years later, Stanbee is still growing.

Though Stanbee began by producing Buckram, the company soon switched to thermoplastic counter and boxtoe materials with better quality solvent activating products such as polystyrenes. In 1962, Stanbee entered into a license agreement with Rhenoflex of Germany and for 40 years the two companies enjoyed a relationship of shared technology that helped Stanbee become a leading producer of high tech thermoplastic counter and boxtoe materials.

Our genuine concern for the environment helped create our "Take Back" program that recycles cutting and skiving waste and has pushed us to develop a completely waste free product that will be available later this year.

Throughout its long history, Stanbee has been a significant supplier to the North American footwear industry and today enjoys a reputation as a worldwide supplier of thermoplastics with a Bangkok-based sales office that covers all of Asia, Stanbee Asia Ltd. Additionally, numerous sales agents and technicians handle all of its key markets and three warehousing locations in Asia: Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia.