Nat Sherman is the

brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

for a line of handmade

cigars A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder le ...

and "

luxury Luxury may refer to: * Luxury goods, an economic good or service for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises *Luxury tax, tax on products not considered essential, such as expensive cars **Luxury tax (sports), surcharge pu ...

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...

s". The company, which began as a retail

tobacconist A tobacconist, also called a tobacco shop, a tobacconist's shop or a smoke shop, is a retailer of tobacco products in various forms and the related accoutrements, such as pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, and pipe tampers. More specia ...

, continued to operate a flagship retail shop, known as the "Nat Sherman Townhouse", located on 42nd Street, off Fifth Avenue, in New York City from 1930 to 2020. Corporate offices are now located at the foot of the

George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Manhattan in New York City. The bridge is named after George Washington, the first president of the United St ...

in Fort Lee,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Company history

Origin

Before he was involved in the

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

industry, Nat Sherman made his fortune running a prominent

speakeasy A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages, or a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States d ...

in New York City during the 1920s, when

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

made such a business extremely lucrative, albeit risky.Margulis, Ronald. "Nat Sherman's Long March to Success," ''Cigar Magazine,'' vol. 3, no. 4 (Winter 2006), pp. 70–85. Perhaps as the result of settlement of a gambling debt, his son later speculated, Sherman wound up as half owner of Traub Brothers and Bear, makers of the Epoca cigar brand, which introduced the

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

proprietor into the world of tobacco manufacturing. Sherman subsequently bought out his partner to become sole owner of the Epoca brand, which was made in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

and

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Later a New York

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

named Abe Gubertz had cash-flow difficulties during the construction of a 38 story building located at 1400 Broadway, on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Sherman provided the struggling developer with a loan, taking retail space located in the lobby as partial payment. The shop sold cigarettes and cigars in substantial quantities to those who worked in the building and proved a means of distributing its own cigars, including Epoca and Nat Sherman-branded product. The company also was the exclusive importer and distributor of the Cuban-made Bolivar brand in the United States.

1950s

In the 1950s, an adjoining retail space was obtained on the street, which initially was used as a candy store. The wall between the two establishments was later broken down, paving the way for an expansion of the tobacco shop, which catered to an elite customer base, which included leaders in the fashion industry, theatre, and politicians. Prominent members of

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

"families" also frequented the shop, which was regarded as "neutral ground". Nat Sherman's son Joel, company president and CEO into the 21st century, later recalled of the shop's most dangerous customers:

1960s

In 1950, Sherman introduced the plastic-tipped cigar to the industry, called Sherman's #25. The cigar was produced in Tampa for Sherman by Carl Cuesta, an American manufacturer of cigars for brands including Partagas. The company applied for a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

for its cigar tip, which was never granted. Nevertheless, for 32 years the company scared off rivals by marking its packaging with the words "patent pending" and by threatening legal action. Sherman was also a pioneer in the manufacture of cigarettes which made use of cigar tobacco, launching a product called Havana Ovals #149 early in the 1950s. According to company lore, the move to specialty small cigars and cigarettes was made at the request of an irate customer who had been unable to smoke a cigar on an airplane and who had specifically requested a cigarette which tasted like a cigar. During the 1960s, the Sherman shop expanded its wares to include

pipes Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circula ...

. Over 1,000 pipes were offered for sale in a long case hung along the wall of the store. The company also began to sell pipe tobacco under the "Nat Sherman" brand name. At the time of its expansion, the company's pipe department was perhaps the largest in New York City and the United States.Sherman, Joel
"An Interview with Joel Sherman of Nat Sherman"
''PipesMagazine.com'', November 25, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2011. In the 1960s, a move was made to expand both the wholesale operations of the company and its cigarette manufacturing arm. The company's previous manufacturing facility in

Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the secon ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, was shuttered and a move made to a new and larger facility in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...

1970s and '80s

In the autumn of 1976, Nat Sherman opened a shop on New York's

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

to bolster his tobacco brand's status. A new location was opened at 711 Fifth Avenue, near the

Plaza Hotel The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, a ...

, across from

Tiffany & Company Tiffany & Co. (colloquially known as Tiffany's) is a high-end luxury jewelry and specialty retailer, headquartered on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It sells jewelry, sterling silver, porcelain, crystal, stationery, fragrances, water bottles, watc ...

. After a period of differences with his father, Joel Sherman left the business for about a decade.

1990s

Joel Sherman returned to the company in 1990, the year after his father's death, He became the company's president and CEO and terminated many of the existing management staff. The company lost its lease at 711 Fifth Avenue and moved to a new location on 42nd Street, around the corner from the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

. A total of $1.5 million was spent on the development of the new store, which has an inventory of about 500,000 cigars and a second floor walk-in

humidor A humidor is a humidity-controlled box or room used primarily for storing cigars, cigarettes, cannabis, or pipe tobacco. Either too much or too little humidity can be harmful to tobacco products; a humidor's primary function is to maintain a ste ...

and smoking room with leather-backed chairs. Sherman's cigar line Metropolitan has been manufactured since the 1990s by

MATASA Quesada Cigars, formally known as MATASA, is a family-owned factory based in the Dominican Republic that specializes in the manufacture of premium cigars. It is best known brand is the Quesada, Casa Magna, Heisenberg & Fonseca (cigar brand), Fonse ...

in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. Its Gotham 1400 and Omerta products are manufactured and distributed by Santa Clara, Inc. The company's cigarette manufacturing is conducted in its own facility in

Greensboro Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

2010s

On January 17, 2017, Altria Group, Inc. announced that it acquired the privately-held Sherman Group Holdings, LLC and its subsidiaries (Nat Sherman).

2020s

In July 2020 Altria delisted all the legacy Nat Sherman cigarettes leaving only the 4 Nats brand SKUs to carry the name. On August 3, 2020, Altria announced that Nat Sherman International Inc. will cease operations by the end of September, shutting down not only its midtown Manhattan cigar store but also its entire wholesale business. On January 6, 2021, it was announced that Ferio Tego, LLC, a new company formed by former Nat Sherman Employees, Michael Herklots and Brendon Scott, acquired the premium cigar brands formerly owned and sold by Nat Sherman International including Timeless, Metropolitan, Epoca and Ancora among others.

References

{{reflist Retail companies established in 1930 Companies based in New York City Tobacco companies of the United States Cigar brands Cigarette brands Tobacco brands Design companies established in 1930 1930 establishments in New York City