This year we celebrate 20 years in Wilmington NC, after moving from New York in February of 1995. While this beautiful riverfront city itself has grown in leaps and bounds, Queensboro has followed that same trajectory and we’re proud to celebrate!
A few fun facts about our time in Wilmington include the best statistic of all: over 10 million shirts sold! We want to put that up on a big changeable letterboard out front!
20 years ago you could order from our catalog and get an awesome embroidered denim jacket or a Jac Sac. Who’s for bringing those back?
When we moved here in 1995 we opened with 25 employees, 3 embroidery machines, an office full of file cabinets and floppy disks (that we fed into the embroidery machines) and boxes and boxes of mailed in paper logos. Now, over 20 years later we’ve had the pleasure of employing over 900 Wilmingtonians. With a current staff of over 125 employees, each with access to a state of the art fully integrated database, our production system follows orders from the moment a customer places it to their front door at delivery. There was a time when it might take 6 to 8 weeks just to digitize a logo, now it’s possible for us to have a full order out the door in just one week. Amazing how far we’ve come!
20 years ago you could also order a fleece from our new website. Amazingly enough the price hasn’t changed much and the quality has only gotten better!
Below are some interesting insights and memories from current employees. Our CEO Fred himself said “the best thing about Queensboro – all the great people.” We agree.
“Mr. Buddy is the man. ” – Buddy and Omar, Production
My favorite quote is from Mr. Buddy: “I came with the building.” – Matt, Screen Printing
I think it’s fitting to share this thought. I will have my 13 year anniversary at Queensboro in May. In my time here, we have moved locations, we took down walls, we tossed the files and created a much more open work space. We’ve lost two great employees for whom the simple mention of their name will make many of you smile. Many of us have fallen in love, fallen out of love, gotten married, gotten divorced, lost loved ones and found great joy in life, raised children, pursued further education or other dreams or made a difference in someone’s life since they began working here. That’s what I think about for my 13 years here! – Steph, HR
20 years, what a journey. I have seen so many people leave Queensboro, so many great changes. One person who has stayed and is loved by all, and also came with the building, is Buddie. What a wonderful man and employee. He taught all of us about patience, love, and caring. Told us stories about the ghosts of Queensboro, which I have personally witnessed. I haven’t heard or seen anything lately. He has taught me a whole lot about fixing machines, which I thought I would never do. We have all laughed and cried together. That’s what has made us closer as a Queensboro family. No matter where I go or what I do in the future, I will always remember Queensboro with fond memories. – Ann, Embroidery
Two weeks ago was my anniversary as well – eight years. I can recall the IT changes: we unified two different Queensboro websites into one, and since then 6 or 7 different revisions of it. We created the Storefronts 10Mb then 100Mb then 1Gb network, wired everything then wifi’d everything. When I started I believe that we were about 60 people at Queensboro, lots of paper, floppy disks, an AS400. Orders and logos via FAX were very normal and commonly used. We had no bar code readers and I believe about 7 machines in production that were down at least once a week.There were a total of 60 or 70 devices accessing the network, including phones. If you think my English is bad now* you should have met me 8 years ago. I still have the email comversations from back then and sometimes I just can’t figure out what I was trying to say. – Fabry, IT (*he’s Italian, and his English is great, actually.)
I remember the first time Jeuce took me on a tour of the building 3 1/2 years ago and we weren’t using but half of the building. It was dark and scary when you opened the doors to what is now the back hallway. Always wondered what was back there. Jeuce said that people have always heard strange noises and wondered… – Melissa, Customer Service
Some of my favorite Queensboro memories include my very first day in Production where Dalinda and Peaches took me under their wing. It was my first non-office, non-retail job and I was bewildered by the steamers for removing hoop marks and the solvy. I think I wrecked a few golf towels before I acquired the knack of not ruining the nap of the material while successfully removing the solvy. My first few months in Customer Service it seemed like every woman around me was pregnant and I was told to be careful drinking the water. One of the best things has been the continued friendship of those who found other opportunities in Wilmington and elsewhere, but remain close. The Queensboro family is large and a whole lot of fun! – Jenn, Customer Service
Fred at our company-wide celebration. Thanks for an amazing 20 year run here in Wilmington! Here’s to 20 more.
