Capel Rugs + Sewing Machines Los Angeles

Only in America: From GeeHaw Plow Lines to Capel Rug Lines

In 1917, Henry Ford, who had been raised on a farm, made a momentous decision and, against the wishes of the Ford Motor Company’s board of directors, decided to form the Ford Tractor Company, thinking that his tractors could mechanize farm work the same way his Model T had mechanized transportation for the average American family.

In 1917, A. Leon Capel, the owner of GeeHaw Plow lines, producer of rope plow lines with which farmers guided the horses and mules pulling their plows, read of Henry Ford’s decision. Reading, simultaneously, the handwriting on the wall, he began looking for a new way to use the stock materials he had intended to twist into ropes for those plow lines.

He bought some braiding machines; his rope materials were fashioned into braids; and his braids were stitched by sewing machine into concentric circles. The result was a machine-produced version of that most American of floor coverings, the braided rug.

Henry Ford’s tractors did indeed mechanize the world of farming, and A. Leon Capel, who named his new rug-braiding enterprise New Departure Rugs, found his process so successful that, within nine years, he purchased his own looms to manufacture yarn, and in 1927 the first “Old Homestead” line of Capel rugs–the original braided chenille rug–appeared.

Within a decade, and in the middle of the Depression, Capel’s rugs were so much in demand that he re-opened a textile mill which had formerly belonged to his father, and that mill became the foundation for Capelsie Mills, Inc.

Every Capel rug produced in America today is born of the same hands-on production method that A. Leon Capel practiced. And, in addition to continuing its own line of braided, knotted, and woven Capel rugs, Capel began, in 1963,a rug-importing business.

Beginning with Spanish needlepoint Capel rugs, Capel gradually expanded its imports to include Dutch and Belgian wool Capel rugs, and today, about 65% of Capel rugs are imported. Capel is also one of the largest importers of rugs from India.

With the real estate boom of the past few years, American rug manufacturers found that many homeowners who had previously opted for wall-to-wall carpeting preferred area rugs as a way to showcase the hardwood and tile floors of their new homes. Capel rugs, both domestic and imported, were more in demand than ever, and Capel, Inc. was constantly looking for innovative ways to set its rugs apart.

When, in the late 1990’s, aromatherapy and scented candles reached new heights of popularity, Capel introduced prototype Capel rugs which contained either pine or floral-scented filaments within their cores. While these were not commercially marketed, Capel expanded its braided rug lines to include both square and rectangular shapes, and runners, in non-traditional colors ranging from spring pastels to midnight blues and black. Aand synthetic Olefin Capel rugs are now produced domestically.

Capel has also transitioned from being the wholesale supplier to ten thousand retailers of Capel rugs, to opening, in 2005, a Capel rugs “superstore” in Schaumburg, Illinois; there are plans for the eventual opening of ten such retail stores.

A. Leon Capel, by the way, was seventeen years old when he saw the wisdom of getting out of the plow line business, and into the rug line business. Only in America!