History of the McClure Shuffleboard Tables Brand and Why We Are Made in USA
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Time to read 5 min
McClure Tables was founded in 2003, and at that time, the brand was used on Pool Tables sold in retail stores in Texas. My name is Todd McClure, owner, and I first got my start in the billiard business back in the late 70's in Phoenix, Arizona, as a billiard mechanic. I ran a retail billiards store in Phoenix in the early 80's and was so proud that all the products we sold were American-made. We purchased pool tables from companies like Gandy, Peter Vitalie, and Playmaster, all of which were made 100% in the USA. In retail stores, it soon became clear that American manufacturers were not building anything. They were simply importing the majority of their product line from China and putting on their brand name. So we decided that if the products were all coming from China, and the manufacturer was no longer a manufacturer but rather a distributor. Then why not go directly to China and cut out the middleman? After spending a lot of time traveling to China and developing a line of pool tables for sale in the retail store Gameroom Designs. A marketing company was hired to help us develop a brand name. So many pool table companies always used the owner's last name. At first, I was resistant, but eventually they convinced me to use McClure Tables as the brand. So in 2003, the McClure Tables copyright was first formed, and the official trademark was filed in 2007 for use on Shuffleboard Tables. The McClure Tables brand was used on pool tables sold in Texas for several years. Eventually, we closed the retail stores to focus exclusively on Shuffleboard Tables. For over four years, we exported maple and polymer to China, invested over $50,000 in specialized equipment to make shuffleboard tables, and had an exclusive contract manufacturing relationship with some Chinese partners to make McClure Shuffleboard tables. In China, they have a saying, "Today we have wine, Today we are drunk." It is a real hand-to-mouth mentality. On frequent trips to the factories and understanding Chinese culture. It eventually became self-evident that, no matter how hard you tried, no matter how much work and time you put in, it was not possible to achieve the consistent quality standards required to put the McClure brand name on the product. With contract manufacturing, especially offshore contract manufacturing, it is, at the very least, difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a high-quality standard. If the product is manufactured in China, you are fighting a transient workforce. The relationship between employees and employers in China is not the same as in America. It is not that the factory owner or the employee takes less pride in their work. It is the fact that they are only here today, and tomorrow they have their own goal that does not involve this job or this factory. In the USA, if an employer treats their workers right and pays them well, they will be loyal, dedicated, and work in the same job for several years. In China, the employment period is 6 to 9 months, until the next Chinese New Year, when workers go home; 30-40 percent of the factory workforce does not return. After four years working with my partners in a factory with 140 workers, I asked them how many of those workers had been with them since we started. It was only a small handful, fewer than 10 workers, who had been with the factory for three years.
It became evident that we would never meet the required quality standards, leading us to sever our business relationship with China. The exclusive contract manufacturing arrangement ended, and several other US shuffleboard distributors began entering the market. I had traded with China for over a decade, spent nearly 4 years in the country, and can even speak and read some of the language. I still have good friends in China, but we concluded four years ago to bring all our manufacturing back to the USA. We made significant investments in the equipment necessary to produce shuffleboard playfields and cabinets in our own shop. Even today, we remain a small shop, with only five craftsmen producing every McClure shuffleboard that we build.
Many distributors and so-called shuffleboard factories that simply put a brand name on a line of shuffleboard tables do not actually manufacture anything. They lack a factory and do not create the most crucial part of the table—the playfield, which McClure Tables refers to as the "heart" of the shuffleboard table. These distributors or pool table factories may create cabinets, but typically buy boards from other contract manufacturers. In fact, only one other major manufacturer in the world presses its own boards, and it is located in Texas.
While some larger USA pool table manufacturers now offer shuffleboard tables, the technology and specialized equipment needed to glue together butcher block aren't investments even a large pool table manufacturer would want to make. As a result, they outsource this part of the manufacturing to other butcher block factories.McClure Tables does contract manufacturing for a couple of smaller manufacturers, and we like to say, "We will sell you the heart of the shuffleboard table, but if you want our soul, you have to buy the whole thing from McClure Tables." You can even purchase just the shuffleboard playfield from McClure Tables if you want to build your own cabinet.
There is a particular distributor of shuffleboard tables that claims to be a manufacturer but imports nearly all its cabinets from China, having very few produced in the USA. This company might pour some polymer and do a little final assembly in the USA, but that does not justify their false advertising of the product as "made in the USA." For this reason, we have produced a video to help warn consumers who might be misled. We also want to alert other web retailers or individuals who carry this line on their websites. Just because you repeat a lie often enough does not make it true. If the distributor from whom you obtain your shuffleboard tables falsely claims they are made in the USA, and you also advertise them as such, you too could be guilty of false advertising. Please read the law and guidelines from the FTC—they are very clear about the standards required to claim that a product is made in the USA. For more information, please see our video.
We made significant investments in the equipment necessary to produce shuffleboard playfields and cabinets in our own shop. Even today, we remain a small shop, with only five craftsmen producing every McClure shuffleboard that we build. Many distributors and so-called shuffleboard factories that simply put a brand name on a line of shuffleboard tables do not actually manufacture anything. They lack a factory and do not create the most crucial part of the table—the playfield, which McClure Tables refers to as the "heart" of the shuffleboard table. These distributors or pool table factories may create cabinets, but typically buy boards from other contract manufacturers.
