The Shapleigh Superstore

Shapleigh was a huge fishing tackle giant in the hardware industry in the 1930’s an 1940’s. In fact, they were Creek Chub’s largest customer in that time period. Shapleigh had enormous buying power, and used it to their advantage by acting as a middle man and selling to smaller hardware and tackle stores. 



One of the ways they marketed products was through Branding. They came up with brands for specific products like sporting goods and used “Diamond Edge” for many products. By branding their products, their customers would have to come back to them to buy products instead of buying from any hardware store. 



Creek chub sold their Shur-Strike branded lures to Shapleigh. Shapleigh took it a step further by utilizing a # code system that was different than the standard Shur-Strike codes. For instance, Creek Chub used the code BO-0 for a Shur-Strike Bass Oreno style in Pikie color. Shapleigh had Creek Chub use the code S-7500.  These S codes threw Shur-Strike collectors for a loop, including myself, until catalogs for Shapleigh were discovered with the S Codes.  By using different number codes, buyers would have to come back to them to order specific lures if they didn’t know the names. It is also interesting to note, that all the Blue Boxes that Creek Chub used for the  Shur-Strike line, in the later years, have the S codes. 



Shapleigh also carried a wide line of Shur-Strike lures and added colors that were special for them. An example would be the color Minnow Scale with Red Head which was offered on the River Wobbler lures. They even brought back an old discontinued Shur-Strike Anteater Lure and gave it a new name called the “Mity Midget”. No other Resaler carried the number of Shur-Strike styles or colors that Shapleigh did. Shapleigh carried other manufacturer brands like Best O Luck by South Bend, Heddon, and others. 



So keep in mind Home Depot was not the first Hardware giant, it was actually Shapleigh!