Carrying on the Family Tradition
Joseph Shamie, President, Delta's Children's Products
Jane Kitchen -- Kids Today, 7/1/2011 5:30:59 AM
BACKGROUND: Joe Shamie's father, Louis Shamie, got his start in the juvenile products industry as a retailer selling Edison cribs. But with Louis's revolutionary ideas, the company soon got into manufacturing children's products, and his sons, Joe and Sam, joined the company. They hit a homerun in the early 80s with the Luv Buggy stroller, the first quick-folding stroller.
"My father said, ‘Let's put it on TV,'" remembers Joe Shamie. "And I said, ‘Are you out of your mind? How are we going to afford that?'"
But Louis Shamie was determined, so they produced a low-budget commercial starring family members. The ad featured two women trying to get on a bus - one who did it easily with a quick-folding Luv Buggy stroller, the other who struggled with a traditional stroller.
"The next thing you knew, the phones are ringing off the hook, with customers asking ‘How do I get the stroller to get on the bus?'" said Joe Shamie.
Toys ‘R' Us soon became a customer, and Delta's business grew astronomically.
Not one to sit still long, Louis Shamie was soon at work on a revolutionary new crib design featuring notools assembly.
"He has a gifted mechanical mind," said Joe Shamie. "He's got 50 patents to his name. He built his two homes himself - he knows electrical, plumbing, carpentry. He can rebuild a car. He looks at something mechanical, and he can figure it out."
The no-tools assembly crib was an instant hit.
"He reinvented the way a crib went together and overnight we got placement everywhere," said Joe Shamie. "We became the number one crib manufacturer in the world."
Growth: About 10 years ago, Joe Shamie had the idea to expand the business into licensed child-size table and chair sets and toy boxes. He took the idea to Nickelodeon executives, but they were hesitant at first.
But Shamie's idea was to bring the price point down from $99 to $39 - $49 - something that hadn't been done before. "
It was a more popular price point and more mass market," said Shamie. "We created a room environment."
Today, Delta has licenses with Nickelodeon, Disney and Sesame Street, and Shamie said he only looks for evergreen, long-term licenses.
"I'm not interested in one-time, in-and-out fads," he said. "These are the best properties that parents have grown up with, and they all have a teaching element and the ability to help children grow."
...AND MORE GROWTH: In 2006, Delta bought Simmons Juvenile Furniture and renamed it Simmons Kids Furniture as a division of Delta Children's Products.
This is all the more poignant, as Simmons had purchased Edison Cribs back in the 60s - the very same company that Louis Shamie began his career in juvenile products with.
This year, Delta has also taken over the Simmons crib mattress division, which means the company as a whole now manufacturers cribs, toddler beds, accent furniture, gear, crib mattresses and changing pads.
Delta began operating from Simmons' Nennah, Wis., facility last month, and the entire Shamie family, including Louis, now 83, flew out for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. 
The Venetian collection from Delta Children’s Products is just one of many styles of nursery furniture the company makes today.
"(My father) has really achieved the American dream," said Joe Shamie. "We were nobody and Simmons was the giant, and here we are today and we own the brand - it's incredible."
But, said Joe Shamie, Delta still stays true to its roots and remains a family business.
"It's all about the employees," he said. "...We may be big, but we're still first and foremost a family. We're in this for the long term; we're building a business...Delta is really the Shamie family."
I need the instructions for an old Edison crib to put together for display only and don't know where to find these instructions, can you help?
cathleen G Keller - 2011-08-04 18:44:57 EDTI need the instructions for an old Edison crib to put together for display only and don't know where to find these instructions, can you help?
cathleen G Keller - 2011-08-04 18:44:36 EDTI need the instructions for an old Edison crib to put together for display only and don't know where to find these instructions, can you help?
cathleen G Keller - 2011-08-04 18:44:15 EDTI need the instructions for an old Edison crib to put together for display only and don't know where to find these instructions, can you help?
cathleen G Keller - 2011-08-04 18:43:29 EDT-
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