Tandy

Tandy may refer to:

Companies

Other uses

Tandy (name)

Tandy is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Tandy Corporation

Tandy Leather, which later grew in to the Tandy Corporation, was a family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store, and acquired a number of craft retail companies, including RadioShack in 1963. In 2000, the Tandy Corporation name was dropped and entity became the RadioShack Corporation, selling The Tandy Leather name and operating assets to The Leather Factory.

History

Tandy began in 1919 when two friends, Norton Hinckley and Dave L. Tandy, decided to start the Hinckley-Tandy Leather Company and concentrated their efforts on selling sole leather and other supplies to shoe repair dealers in Texas. Hinckley and Tandy opened their first branch store in 1927 in Beaumont, Texas and in 1932, Dave Tandy moved the store from Beaumont to Houston, Texas. Tandy's business survived the economic storms of the Depression, gathered strength and developed a firm presence in the shoe findings business.

Dave Tandy had a son, Charles Tandy, who was drafted into the business during his early twenties. Charles obtained a B.A degree at Texas Christian University then began attending the Harvard Business School to further expand his education. As World War II escalated Charles was called to serve his country in the military and relocated to Hawaii. He wrote his father from overseas suggesting that leathercraft might offer new possibilities for growing the shoe finding business since the same supplies were used widely in Navy and Army hospitals and recreation centers. Leathercraft gave the men something useful to do and their handiwork, in addition to being therapeutic, had genuine value.