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Your browser does not support the audio element. For more than 100 years, Alliance Rubber Co. has made rubber bands in Hot Springs -- and now it's the last U.S. company that does. The company was founded in 1923 by William H. Spencer in Alliance, Ohio. At the time, Spencer used Goodyear tires to create rubber bands, according to the company website. At the time, Spencer noticed how newspapers were being thrown in the general direction of subscribers' porches. After seeing newsprint blowing across lawns, he persuaded papers to use his rubber bands to wrap them. The company moved a factory to Hot Springs in 1944 when Spencer found out about the healing thermal baths. In 1991, the company officially moved its headquarters to the city, consolidating its operations. In 2014, the company expanded its headquarters and invested more than $600,000 in the facility. Alliance Rubber became the last standing rubber band manufacturer in the United States after the closing of Keener Rubber in Alliance, Ohio in 2022. The company produces more than 2,400 different products and has customers in more than 60 countries. It still creates rubber products for office supply, stationery, commercial, produce and other customers. The company makes a variety of rubber bands. From the bands that grocers use to keep broccoli stalks together, to resistance bands which are used for fitness and physical therapy, colorful rubber bands for crafting, oversized bands for industrial use and specialty bands which can be used for do-it-yourself projects such as tie-dye. The business is still family owned, and it is now a women-owned business. The company has more than 155 employees with more than 60% of them with the company for five years or longer. "We're a family that just plans on keep going," said Morgan Hitt, the marketing coordinator for Alliance Rubber and the fourth generation of the family to work at the company. "And we have customers that have been with us for over decades." The company attributes its success to innovation. Hitt said the company is leaning towards silicone production as the future of the industry. It also is producing RFID (radio frequency identification) labeling for its clients. The company is also the only rubber manufacturer that can do full color digital printing on rubber, Hitt said. Rubber bands can be used in a variety of different ways and have been used for adaptive horseback riding, which is recreational horseback riding or lessons that are adapted to meet the unique needs of a child or adult with special needs. Rubber bands can be used to adjust the tack and equipment to best fit the riders. Alliance Rubber was given the Governor's Award for Excellence in Global Trade During a Pandemic in 2021 and the Best Large Company to Work For in Garland County in The Sentinel-Record's Reader's Choice Awards in 2022. The company is also leaning into the production of more renewable products. "There's going to be new ways to stay green, which rubber is one of those ways," Hitt said. The company uses natural rubber bands and it also uses packaging that is made from recycled materials. Hitt also said that tariffs have not significantly affected the business. The company manufactures 85% of its products in Hot Springs. "Of course there are challenges, but every day is a new day here," Hitt said.
