Why We Love Everything Baker...

An interview with Curvon President, Blake Banta

Some things never change, but in the case of Baker Blankets, why would they?

They endure, and in more ways than one. Between their reputation for durability and their instant recognition, even from a distance, Bakers are longstanding classics that never leave the boundaries of strength or style. Who among equestrians doesn’t know the Baker plaid when they see it?

“I get calls from people who’ve had their blankets for 50 years,” said Blake Banta, President of Curvon Horse Clothing, which makes the timeless Bakers. “In the long run, they stand for something, and they stand the test of time.”

Not that there haven’t been changes at Curvon Horse Clothing itself in the past 113 years. In 1977, for instance, when Blake first started working for his father at the company, Blake insisted they needed to replace the big, black rotary phones on everyone’s desks with touch-tone phones from AT&T.

“My father gave in, and we got new phones,” Blake said in a telephone interview with Saddlers Row, “but when they arrived, he asked what the ‘snowflake and tic-tac-toe’ symbols were for, and I told him, ‘I don’t know, Dad, but they represent the future.’”

Now that the future is here, though, it’s a bit like taking a peek into the past. The Baker Blankets of today are, for purposes of durability and form, the same Baker Blankets made in 1891.

Originally, when Blake’s grandfather worked for Curvon, the company operated out of New York City and sold Baker Blankets made of cotton with leather front straps. After World War II, when Blake’s father came on board, the cotton blankets slowly evolved into acrylic ones with synthetic straps, but the fit, the strength and the distinct black-and-tan plaid pattern all remained the same. Blake came into the company in 1977 -- the year of the new phones – and has moved Curvon to New Jersey and introduced the Tartan Plaid design, the first alternative to the traditional in more than 100 years.

Other than that, it’s the same blanket.  The same style, same fit, same quality, same design. And they’re still made in.

So our only question now is, when will Bakers be made for people?