A Family Tradition for Over 100 Years
The year was 1919. World War I had just ended, Prohibition had just begun, Woodrow Wilson was President, and the cost of mailing a letter went down from 3 cents to 2 cents.
That was the year that John T. Sharpe, a grocer in Big Rapids, Michigan, answered an ad, moved to Detroit and began selling “Advertising Novelties.” He served businesses until he retired in the 1940’s.
Little did he know that his legacy would last for over100 years.
Russell A. Sharpe was determined not to go into his father’s footsteps. After a stint in the Army during World War II and several jobs, he realized that he needed to start his own Advertising Specialty business in Dearborn, Michigan, the Russell A. Sharpe Company..
The year was 1948, the Baby Boom was in full swing, and the cost of mailing a letter had gone back up to 3 cents.
Russell A. Sharpe Co. became Sharpe Ad Gifts in the 1970’s.
Russ Sharpe continued in the business until his retirement in the early 1980’s.
Paul Sharpe began selling Advertising Specialties for his dad as a student at Dearborn High School in the 1970’s.
He did not plan to make it a career until he was in college. One of the biggest lessons he learned in higher education was that he wanted to be in the Promotional Products business.
He became the third generation of Sharpes who “fell into” the Promotional Products industry.
In 2015, Sharpe Ad Gifts became Sharpe Impressions.