Knot Your Ordinary Start Up
This year, J E Sherry Company celebrates 25 years in business. The Company started out in 1993 as a small home-based publishing company, and has grown into a best-selling knot reference publisher in the country.
It all started with an idea to print fishing knot instructions on waterproof plastic cards, which no one had done before. Not being a formal artist but also not wanting to have to pay a lot of money to have illustrations done, the company founder John Sherry bought a computer illustrating program and drew and designed the original Pro-Knot Fishing Knot Cards. A test printing of 1,000 sets was ordered and as they say, “The rest is history.”
The original format of plastic cards strung on a loop of nylon cordage was changed to a fan pack of cards riveted in a corner with a brass grommet in about 1996. This change in format brought about the company’s best seller, The Fisherman’s Ultimate Knot Guide, which is constructed such that three cards fold out into a twelve inch ruler.
To date over 1.2 million cards have been sold and the company’s current eight titles can be found in small and large stores across the U.S. including REI, Bass Pro Shop, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Cabela’s. Amazon.com is the company’s single largest customer selling four titles which all rank as Amazon best sellers in their categories.
The J E Sherry Company was early to the digital space with smart phone apps (nine apps at present) and to the internet with its NetKnots.com website with over 120 animated and illustrated knots which over the years has become one of the internet’s most popular and heavily trafficked websites for fishing and rope knot information.
“A printed book is in the works for 2018, and with the cards, apps and the internet, it is probably safe to say the J E Sherry Company has the knot business pretty well tied up (sorry, pun intended)! We look forward to the next 25 years!” said Sherry.
