Steelcase: Looking Back at a Company always Looking Ahead

When purchasing used office furniture, you may recognize several name brands as high quality. And, if you find a good deal with one of these brands on it, you will go for it knowing that your item will last a very long time. That is why we focus on replacement keys from these great names : Steelcase, Haworth, HON, Herman Miller, Chicago and Cole. 

But why are these leading brands? What makes these desks and cabinets stand the test of time to pass down when so many other things need to be replaced? The answer is simple. A history of quality. 

I was a history major in college (Michelle) and I love to learn primarily about people and people groups. This includes how people started companies and how they have evolved over time. When I moved to the Grand Rapids Michigan area in the late 1990’s I quickly learned about the history of the city and found out it had the nickname, “Furniture City,” for many years. It only makes sense to start with the oldest company making office furniture that is still around today that was founded right here in Grand Rapids Michigan. 

Steelcase started in 1912 under the name, “Metal Office Furniture Company,” in Grand Rapids. The city was already known for making wood furniture and was second only to New York City in the manufacture of wood furniture. But 1912 was a great time. Industrialization was booming and the world was starting to change. A man named Peter M. Wege had a great deal of experience in metal working, fireproofing, working with sheet metal and had 25 patents in his name before he met with leaders of other furniture companies in the area to create the managing group of the new Metal Office Furniture Company, which would later become Steelcase. 

The first products the company made were metal fireproof safes and four drawer filing cabinets. They became very popular and were sold first in Grand Rapids by a local company. A patent was given to the company in 1914 for the invention of a lightweight fireproof steel trash basket, the first of it’s kind. This was a highly used invention because smoking was still common in the workplace and a fireproof waste bin in offices and factories became immensely popular. 

By 1915 the company produced 200 metal desks for Boston’s first skyscraper and by the mid 1930’s the company was collaborating with Frank Lloyd Wright to engineer and manufacture the beautifully modern designs in office furniture imagined by the man who the American Institute of Architects calls, “the greatest architect of all time.” 

So where did the name, “Steelcase,” enter into all of this? Well, in 1921 at the height of industrialization in America The Metal Office Furniture Company launched an ad campaign designed to promote metal office furniture over wood and used the name, “steelcase,” in the advertising. Turner Advertising agency came up with the name to reflect the durability of metal office products. The Metal Office Furniture Company trademarked the name, “Steelcase,” in 1921 but the company did not officially change the name until 1954. By the 1960’s Steelcase led the nation in office furniture sales and started expanding across the world through the 1970’s.

Today the name Steelcase continues to mean innovative, high quality, strong, lasting furniture. That is why you will find Steelcase file cabinets looking great and working perfectly 20, even 40 years later. When looking into used office equipment it is always better to invest in a name that means quality over a cabinet that you cannot locate a manufacturer name on. Buying Steelcase means that you may spend more, but it will be easier to get keys and the components of that cabinet will work for years to come. 

https://history.steelcase.com/index.php/Front/Index/filter_id/681#timeline

Photos used by permission from Steelcase.