About
Union Special manufactures industrial sewing machines and parts at its plant in Huntley, Illinois. Founded in 1881, the company began production in Huntley on May 3, 1948, after buying the former Fencil plant, and the facility grew through several expansions to 418,000 square feet by the 1980s. The Huntley plant produced the company’s one-millionth machine, a Class 39500 sewing machine, in 1968. Union Special performs its own heat treatment, frame manufacturing, investment casting, CNC machining, stamping, and machine assembly in Huntley, and it describes itself as the last industrial sewing machine company producing its machines from casting to finished product in the United States.
Its current products are machines for bag making, bag closing, carpet overedging, and geotextile and turf production, along with replacement parts sold worldwide. The machines are built for commercial and industrial users and are not intended for household sewing. Japanese sewing machine maker Juki owned Union Special from 1989 to 2008, when three longtime executives bought the company and returned it to private American ownership.
