About Us
The Red Cross Rubber Company was established at 55 Newton Street, Norwalk, Ohio by Claud V. Martin, Sr., and his brother-in-law, Charles Switzer. Our Customer Service TEAM office and employee break room is currently housed in this part of the building, which was originally built as a rooming house. The…Read More
The Tuf-Tex line of balloons, manufactured by The Maple City Rubber Company, was incorporated and was thriving after World War II’s end. Tuf-Tex balloons were being supplied to distributors all around the world.
Maple City transitioned from producing balloons for parties to manufacturing them for advertising as a way to distance the brand from lower-quality imports. Tuf-Tex quickly established itself as the leader in the outdoor balloon advertising market, which then highlighted the strength and durability of our 17” balloons as the best…Read More
Mike & Allison Will purchased the factory from the original owner’s descendants, making them the second family to own the business in its’ 100+ years of existence. The new company is named Goodlevel Enterprises, an acronym using the first letter of the names of their five sons. Neither had any…Read More
Changes are made regarding the focus of the company after operating through several helium shortages, which greatly affected the outdoor/promotional balloon market. TEAM TUFTEX begins strategies to appeal to the professional balloon artist and streamlines the distribution network. Allison also created a new look using the TUFTEX Balloons logo.
The first collection of trendy and unique TUFTEX colors to wow the balloon industry are created by Dominic and Allison: the Naturals Collection, which included Fog, Willow, Canyon Rose and Blue Slate. The collection was launched just prior to COVID at FLOAT and featured very opaque, deep and moody balloon…Read More
A new line of foil balloons, etc. by TUFTEX, is launched after our TEAM decided the market didn’t have enough on-trend foil choices available. The first etc. by TUFTEX foils included The Catty Series: Neva, Kitty, Simba and Wild, and has grown to include more than 35 designs (and counting)!…Read More
The first TUFTEX EXPERIENCE was held in Cleveland, Ohio, with 375 balloon professionals from all over the world in attendance. The successful event combined both learning opportunities with twelve of the most colorful balloon artist groups in the industry as well as social events that included a dueling piano party,…Read More
TUFTEX continued to invest in the future with the construction of two new manufacturing lines and a major building expansion in 2024. The expansion created additional warehouse space and a new home for our Packing Department, while a bump-out in our latex handling area gave us the capacity to receive…Read More
TUFTEX celebrated 2025 with an even greater commitment to the people who make our industry so colorful. We shined a brighter spotlight on our incredible Distributors, the talented Balloon Pros who choose and love our products, and our ongoing investment in education designed to help balloon businesses grow and thrive.…Read More
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