Sheaffer Pencils and the WASP

In JONATHAN A. VELEY'S INDIE Book Award-winning A Field Guide to Sheaffer's Pencils, the author dedicates a chapter to lesser-known Sheaffer subbrand and rebadge mechanical pencils. Contained here is an excerpt from that chapter on Sheaffer subbrands Univer, Vacuum-Fil, and WASP.

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When a manufacturer markets a line of products on its own account (whether directly or through a subsidiary) but under a different name, collectors refer to this as a “subbrand.”

Many subbrands were created by the more slippery and colorful characters in writing instrument history, who would adopt different names under which to offer their products in order to evade Federal Trade Commission rules. One of the best examples of this was explored in The Leadhead’s Pencil Blog Volume 7, which untangled the web woven by James Kelley, as he adopted such names as Keystone, Waterson, Banker, and Packard to market products that violated Waterman’s trade name (in violation of FTC cease and desist orders) as well as Sheaffer’s design patents for the Balance.

Sheaffer created several subbrands, but for more respectable reasons. In most cases, subbrands were created and offered to expand product lines into the lower-priced market without diminishing the company’s reputation or extending Sheaffer’s “lifetime” warranty to obligate the company to repair them. Subbrands were also occasionally used by Sheaffer to try out new technical innovations— again, without fear of damaging the company’s reputation or incurring another expensive recall campaign. Unlike the slippery characters, Sheaffer proudly promoted its subbrands as being made by Sheaffer, enhancing the reputation of its lower-priced lines while maintaining sufficient distance from them should they prove unsatisfactory over time.