Our History

Utilizing the “value added & interest” sales model made famous by the “Fuller Brush Man”, Better Brush salesmen pounded the pavement, selling cleaning supplies both door to door and through a new marketing model…“Housewife parties”. Better Brushes’ ability to innovate new and interesting cleaning products, develop relationships and provide superior value at competitive costs proved to be extremely popular and set them on a trajectory for exponential growth.

In 1956, two Better Brush employees (Ken Sanderson and Bruce MacLeod) recognized that a growing number of applications needed a more specialized approach to brush design than could be found in the traditional catalogs. With six employees and an empty storefront on Main Street, the two entrepreneurs founded Specialty Brush and began providing customized brush solutions.

From The Archives: A History Of Quality

With the momentum from their success in the cosmetic industry, Specialty Brush Products, Inc. was able to purchase Better Brushes in 1960. With this acquisition, Sanderson MacLeod, Inc. was born. The product line has since expanded into many other areas such as the Medical, Firearm, Industrial and OEM industries.

By the mid 2000’s Sanderson MacLeod’s medical industry customers needed a better protective brush tip. The company searched beyond the brush industry and found the answer in material joining science. The result was a brand-new manufacturing process using high energy fusion welding technologies to melt a pre-constructed core wire section of a twisted wire brush into a consistent, smooth, and inseparable protective tip – the ZTip – in a fully automated inline process.

Further advancements such as the ZTip+, ION Inventory Management Integration, the invention of Auto-Trimmer technology, and investments in high-capacity automation continued to expand opportunities for the company. Sanderson MacLeod’s Brush Innovation Center (BIC) provides clients with concept to production development capabilities and rapid production of working prototypes.