Manual Woodworkers and Weavers

A North Carolina-based, third-generation family business that has manufactured textile-based gift and home décor in the Carolinas since 1932 and now operates as MWW Inc., one of the largest American textile-product manufacturers serving the wholesale gift industry.

Founded

1932

Headquarters

Hendersonville, North Carolina

Founders

Tom & Queenie Oates

Ownership

Family-owned, third generation

Current co-owners

Travis Oates, Molly Oates Sherrill

Employees

500+ across 5 locations

Manufacturing

1,000,000+ sq ft total

Sub-brands

Manual Inspirational, Climaweave, Izzy's Kids, Photo To, MWW On Demand

The story

Tom Oates founded Manual Woodworkers and Weavers in 1932 in Bat Cave, North Carolina, hand-carving wooden souvenirs from mountain laurel that bore the names of national parks. Generation two — Lemuel and Sandra Oates, who took over in 1974 — transitioned the business from wood products to woven textiles, riding the country-decor wave of the late 1970s and 1980s with braided rugs and tapestries. Generation three, brother and sister Travis Oates and Molly Oates Sherrill, became co-owners in 2008 and rebranded the company as MWW Inc.

Travis Oates built a state-of-the-art warehouse and distribution center after college — a million square feet of manufacturing and distribution space, two miles of automated conveyor systems, a three-story central pick-and-pack unit. The infrastructure took shipment turnaround from four weeks to three days. The company celebrated its 90th anniversary in October 2022.

What they make

The catalog is built around woven and printed textile-based gift and home décor — tapestry throws, blankets, decorative pillows, kitchen textiles, banners, garden flags, table linens, custom-printed throws, photo-printed textiles, and outdoor textiles via the Climaweave line. The Manual Gift and Home Décor brand handles the core line; Manual Inspirational covers the sentiment-driven category; Izzy's Kids handles children's textiles.

MWW On Demand, launched as a separate division, applies on-demand printing and weaving technology to small-batch and custom textile production for businesses. The capability lets small specialty retailers and corporate clients produce branded textile product without the typical minimum-order constraints.

How they sell

Distribution is wholesale through specialty gift retailers, regional and national chains, and international accounts. The company operates manufacturing facilities in Hendersonville (HQ), Spindale, Marion (NC), Greenville (SC), and a facility in Germany serving European markets. The Spindale facility alone employs more than 250 people.

MWW participates in showrooms across all major U.S. trade shows. The company publishes four major catalogs annually and maintains a strong “Made in USA” positioning for its domestic textile products — a meaningful differentiator in a category where most competitors have shifted production overseas.

Why they're worth knowing

For specialty gift retailers, MWW is essentially the heritage American textile-gift wholesaler — a family business with a 90-year track record, a massive product catalog, and a manufacturing capability nobody in the gift industry can match for textile-based product. The combination of scale and family ownership is unusual; most competitors at that scale have been absorbed into holding companies or shifted production offshore.

The on-demand and custom-print capability through MWW On Demand also opens up creative options for retailers that the typical wholesale catalog model can't support — private-label tapestries, store-specific seasonal product, regional designs, and corporate-account custom work. For a retailer thinking creatively about differentiation, that's worth knowing about.

Where to find them

• Parent site: mwwinc.com
• Wholesale (Manual Gift): manualww.com
• On-demand division: mwwondemand.com
• Headquarters: Hendersonville, North Carolina
• Trade show presence: Atlanta Market, Las Vegas Market, Dallas Total Home & Gift, NY NOW

Profile based on public information from MWW Inc.'s official sites, the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development industry profile, and Rutherford County Economic Development's published feature on the company. Updated February 2025. Return to all profiles →