Local company supplies NASCAR, military, just about everyone else.

A few months ago, Andy Iacuzzo asked his dad, Joe, for a pair of good Mechanix Wear gloves to replace his old gloves, which had worn out and soaked through with oil and jet fuel. Andy maintains F-18 fighter jets as one of 4,000 sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan providing air support to US troops in combat zones.

Joe knew that Andy wouldn’t need only one pair, but several to share with the sailors working around him, so he called Mechanix Wear to ask if some could be donated. Nick Hale, the company’s President, sent Andy and his crewmates 25 pairs of vented gloves designed to be breathable in the sweltering conditions in the bowels of the aircraft carrier. The shipment brought both a boost to morale and relief to work-worn hands.

Hale says he knew that the conditions Andy works in are extreme. “The planes come in and they’re extremely hot and the maintenance is crucial on those things. As you can imagine, you can’t make any mistakes on those jets.”

Why are we highlighting this good deed? Well, aside from showing support and appreciation for our troops overseas, it turns out that when Joe picked up the phone in Las Vegas, Hale answered at his company’s headquarters right here in the Santa Clarita Valley.

In fact, Mechanix Wear is a major supplier of work gloves to NASCAR and many nationwide retail chains, including Lowe’s, Sears, and Napa Auto Parts.

It all started when Hale’s brother, after several years’ experience in the world of motocross, opened a new company called Axo. He hired Nick and the two began making apparel for motocross racers.

One day, a friend of theirs who worked on motocross bikes and NASCAR cars asked for some protective and durable gloves without too much padding. They designed just such a glove and, starting in 1992, Mechanix Wear gloves quickly began to replace the batting gloves previously used by NASCAR pit crews. Soon, the gloves would grow to eclipse all other Axo products, and eventually redefine the company as Mechanix Wear. The gloves are made primarily from a highly durable kind of synthetic leather which is produced in a manner similar to paper or felt and feels similar to suede.

Hale says a major concern from the beginning was to “be true to the mechanics.” Because so much attention is focused on NASCAR drivers, the company decided to avoid driving gloves altogether and attend to the various and special needs of mechanics and pit crews. According to Hale, this special attention has gone a long way toward earning credibility among the company’s customer base. They now produce reinforced gloves for handling wheels and lug-nuts and flame-retardant gloves for handling fuel, and other specialty applications.

The gloves are shipped to the company’s spacious Santa Clarita headquarters from seven different overseas factories. The company has always called Santa Clarita home, which Hale attributes not only to the availability of land and labor, but also modern communication and shipping infrastructure connecting the community to the wider world.

“With technology, and the fact that the big companies we deal with have distribution centers … it enables us to be based anywhere in the world. And we want to keep it in Santa Clarita Valley,” says Hale.

Mechanix Wear designers, including that inquisitive mechanic who started it all, often spend months fine-tuning a design, creating computer models of the dozens of pieces that go into a single pair of gloves, and bouncing ideas back and forth with the customer. The company now produces more than 30 types of gloves for wide-ranging applications, from construction to law enforcement and military use. The company has even launched a line called Ethel, specifically designed for gardening. They are always developing new products for more specialized jobs, including a slip-resistant model for workers on offshore oil rigs.

A big reason for the wide variety in their product line is the simple fact that their customers are always using the gloves for different jobs. An ‘idea board’ even holds a picture of a be-gloved SCUBA diver sporting Mechanix Wear. So next time you’re at the store, look for the local flavor in the hardware aisle, and know those gloves were designed and shipped from your hometown.