Garland Manufacturing, founded in 1866 by James G. Garland, began as the Loom Picker Company, producing textile pickers from tough water buffalo hide and later becoming the world’s premier manufacturer of rawhide mallets. The company pioneered the use of UHMW (ultra-high-molecular-weight) polyethylene in the 1950s, being the first to extrude this material globally and marketing it as "Gar-Dur." Today, under sixth-generation family management, Garland Manufacturing produces UHMW profiles, custom parts, and mallets, serving numerous global industries from a modern 84,000-square-foot facility in Saco, Maine.