File photo courtesy / Flowfold
Flowfold CEO Devin McNeill
April 4, 2025
Flowfold acquired by Trenton-based maker of winter gloves and mitts
File photo Courtesy / of Flowfold
Gorham-based Flowfold, which makes durable wallets, bags and backpacks from recycled sailcloth, has been acquired by Tempshield LLC, of Trenton.
Fifteen years after founding Flowfold, Devin McNeill and Charley Friedman have sold the Gorham-based maker of high-performance wallets, bags and backpacks to Tempshield LLC, a Trenton-based manufacturer.
Terms of the deal, touted by Flowfold as a “new era of Maine-crafted innovation,” were not disclosed. The transaction closed Wednesday.
The acquirer makes cryogenic gloves and other personal protective equipment used by scientists and astronauts as well as the Mainers consumer brand winter gloves and mitts.
“Tempshield is a fellow Maine-based manufacturer that has been making high-quality products for over 40 years,” McNeill, Flowfold's CEO, told Mainebiz. “It is one of the reasons they will be the perfect partner to carry on Flowfold’s mission.”
All of Flowfold’s 13 employees, including the founders, will stay with the company under the new ownership, bringing Tempshield’s total to 36.
“We are retaining all current Flowfold employees in Gorham and looking to expand the Gorham- based workforce,” Ponch Membreño, Tempshield’s commercial director, told Mainebiz.
“We’re inviting all Flowfold employees to tour the Tempshield/Mainers facility and see potential that some will be interested in supporting the glove and mitt manufacturing effort,” he explained. “We also imagine that some of the Tempshield/Mainers team will be interested in supporting the Flowfold manufacturing process. We are not intending to 'combine' the teams and plan to support each brand in its current physical place.”
For Tempshield, this marks the first acquisition since Jim Woldenburg purchased that company seven years ago. He started the Mainers brand five years ago.
McNeill and Friedman, childhood friends and University of Maine classmates, founded Flowfold in 2010 to make wallets and other products out of recycled sailcloth. Together with former colleague James Morin, they were honored on the Mainebiz Next list in 2019.
Strategic rationale
McNeill, who will stay on as a consultant to help with the transition, said that while Flowfold had been approached by other potential suitors over the years, "the fit never made much sense, so discussions didn’t go very far."
Talks with Tempshield started in January, and "because we share so many of the same values the deal came together pretty quickly," he said.
Membreño, a 30-year industry veteran who worked with Flowfold’s founders as a business advisor in Flowfold’s early days, said, "When Devin presented the opportunity to me, I immediately thought about the opportunity to bring two businesses together that are in the outdoor industry and both manufacturing in Maine."
In particular, Membreño sees a good fit between the Flowfold and Mainers brands.
"I know both brands really well and can see the opportunity for each brand to learn from the other and gain from a collaborative marketing and sales effort,” he said.
Investment plans
Membreño said that Tempshield will "definitely" continue the Flowfold product line and brand name.
"Our biggest initial efforts will be investing in current inventory so there is more on hand more often," he explained. "Next, we’ll invest into some machinery/equipment that will allow for some of the line expansion that Charley and Devin have been already planning to bring."
Tempshield will also look into sharing some of the same fabric it's sourced for the Mainers brand "and see if any of the current Flowfold designs can work in some new materials combinations," Membreño noted.
"We’re going to support everything that Flowfold currently has in the line, and continue all the great relationships that Flowfold has with collaborators like L.L.Bean and Sea Bags," he added.
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