Fusion Specialties is an American company that manufactures

mannequins A mannequin (sometimes spelled as manikin and also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off ...

. The company has been a subsidiary of Spanish company ''Noa Brands'' since 2013 and _refmanufactures mannequins

Westminster, Colorado The City of Westminster is a home rule municipality located in Adams and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. The city population was 116,317 at the 2020 United States census with 71,240 residing in Adams County and 45,077 residing i ...

United States, China, Mexico and Spain. , the company makes a variety of custom-designed mannequins to fit the particular

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

product line In marketing jargon, product lining refers to the offering of several related product (business), products for individual sale. Unlike product bundling, where several products are combined into one group, which is then offered for sale as a uni ...

s of designers and stores, a practice that has substantially reduced costs for large

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s, as well as played a role in the industry changes that no longer require the specialty mannequin dresser job. It employs several fine-art trained artists as sculptors to make the many custom models they produce for various clothing product retailers.

History

Founded in

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, United States. The city was originally called Pacific City, but it was changed in 1903 to be named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 as of ...

in 1986 by Jim Talaric and Jim Barber, the company pioneered new methods of manufacture using

polymer A polymer () is a chemical substance, substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeat unit, repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their br ...

s (an urethane

elastomer An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus (E) and high failure strain compared with other materials. The term, a portmanteau of ''ela ...

) rather than fiberglass, as well as the 2010s trend to begin having lines of fuller-figured and more natural body sizes. Talaric is considered a "trendsetter in manufacturing and durability" of mannequins, who followed in the footsteps of Adel Rootstein, an earlier pioneer in mannequin manufacturing. Judy Townsend, a collector and broker of antique mannequins, has called Talaric "the Henry Ford" of mannequin manufacturing; while "Rootstein is the Rolls-Royce". The company won their first big retail client,

The Limited The Limited is an American clothing brand sold exclusively through Belk. The Limited began with operating retail stores between the early 1960s and the late 2010s. In 2017, it became a brand owned by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Hi ...

, in 1990. The company moved from California to

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

in 1991, at a time that it employed 35 people. By 2006, the company was producing more than 50,000 mannequins per year, with 110 employees, and their clients included

Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing and beauty products, beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy Raymond, Roy and Gaye Raymond, the company's five lingerie stores were sold to Les Wexner i ...

Banana Republic In political science, the term ''banana republic'' describes a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resource.A banana republic is a country with an economy of state capitalism, where th ...

REI Recreational Equipment, Inc., doing business as REI, is an American retail and outdoor recreation services corporation. It was formerly governed, and continues to brand itself, as a consumers' co-operative. REI sells camping gear, hiking, clim ...

, Chico's, The Gap, and

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay, San Francisco, Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of t ...

. Retail industry DDI Magazine said that, "If they're not the largest n the industry they're certainly one of the largest." In 2007, the company was acquired by

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firm Blue Sage Capital of Austin, Texas. The company was acquired in 2013 by ''Noa Brands Global'', a holding company headquartered in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain, after it acquired Visual Merchandising Inc which then owned the company.

References

Clothing companies of the United States Companies based in Boulder County, Colorado 1986 establishments in California Clothing companies established in 1986 American companies established in 1986 {{US-company-stub