Inventiveness runs in the Stahl family blood. Since the company’s founding in 1932, it was the driving force of A.C. Stahl finding a business model in leftover felt scraps to the international expansion Stahls’ (asi/88984) is experiencing in the current era, and everything in between.

“If you keep one ear to the customers and the other ear to the technologies that are happening in the world, you can create products before people even know they need them, solving problems they didn’t even know they had,” says Ted Stahl, executive chairman of the board and grandson of the firm’s founder. “We’ve created a whole raft of new categories that never existed before.”

Dan, Ted and Brett Stahl

As an example, when baseball teams started putting felt numbers on uniforms in the 1930s, the Stahl family was quick to seize on an opportunity by developing a die-punch system to cut numbers more efficiently than traditional handcutting.

A.C. and his wife Ethel had three children who worked in the business: Helen, Ernie and Gertrude. Ernie Stahl and his wife Ricki headed the Stahl Felt Stamping Co. – while their kids, including Ted, closely watched: “We learned how to repair things and fill orders; we fixed toilets. As any entrepreneur knows, you wear many hats,” Stahl says.

Ted and his brother Brian purchased the business when Ernie retired. Ted focused on marketing and business development, while Brian oversaw production and quality control. Another brother, Craig, who’s since passed away, developed water-jet cutting technology, software and equipment. Ted’s wife Mary was a big part of the business too, working trade shows to keep revenue coming in. “We’d take a lot of product, but if we wanted to eat that night, we’d have to sell something,” Stahl says.

Today, the next generation is moving forward with Ted and Mary’s sons Brett and Dan developing new products and guiding the company’s international endeavors, respectively. Their daughter Erin manages the family foundation, which houses a collection of iconic products of the past. Stahls’ also recognizes the role employees play. “Our staff has really made this success happen – the people who run the machines, look after our customers,” Stahl says. “We consider them family.”