Purdy
Paintbrushes handcrafted in the USA, one brushmaker’s initials at a time, since 1925.
🏭 American Manufacturing
Our assessment
Company details
Where Purdy products are made
Purdy states on its brush product pages that the brushes are handcrafted in the USA with global materials — a first-party claim about where the work is done, published where it matters, on the product rather than buried in an About page.
Every brush carries the initials of the brushmaker who built it. That is only possible in a shop where individual people are accountable for individual tools, and it is the clearest evidence Purdy offers that the handcrafting claim is literal.
The company began in a small garage in Portland in 1925 with five employees, and Portland has been the centre of its brushmaking story ever since. Purdy’s current site does not restate a plant city, so this profile does not assert one.
The 1925 founding and Portland origin are published by Purdy on purdy.com/en/the-purdy-difference/history. The “Handcrafted in the USA with global materials” claim is taken from Purdy’s own brush product pages. Purdy does not publish a current manufacturing city, and its roller cover pages carry no origin claim — both limits are stated above rather than papered over.
The story
S. Desmond Purdy made his first paintbrush by hand in a garage in Portland, Oregon in 1925. The operation was five people and a conviction that a brush is a precision tool rather than a bundle of bristles. By 1965 the range was selling across the United States, and by now Purdy is the brush most professional painters reach for first.
The craft has stayed hands-on in a way that is unusual at this scale. Purdy puts new brushmakers through a two-year training programme before they are trusted with production, and every finished brush is signed with the initials of the person who made it. Hundreds of brushmakers work this way.
The company remained family-owned for seventy-nine years. Sherwin-Williams acquired it in 2004 — which, under our ownership rule, is metadata rather than a disqualification. Purdy operates as its own brand with its own product development, and in 2025 it marked a hundred years.
Why they matter
Painting tools split cleanly between what a homeowner buys once and what a tradesperson buys constantly, and it is the second buyer who has kept American brushmaking alive. A professional going through brushes weekly notices bristle retention, cut-in accuracy and how a brush cleans up, and will pay several times the price of a commodity brush to get it.
Purdy’s handcrafting is the substance behind that price rather than a marketing flourish. Machine-made brushes are cheaper and uniform; hand-set brushes hold their shape and their edge in a way painters can describe in detail and argue about at length. The two-year apprenticeship and the maker’s initials on the ferrule are the operational proof.
It is also worth being precise about what Purdy publishes. The brushes carry a US handcrafting claim; the roller covers do not. A buyer who wants the American-made item should buy the brushes, and this profile says so rather than letting one product line’s claim quietly cover the whole catalogue.
Shop Purdy products
Browse Purdy brushes, roller frames and painting tools stocked on the Buy American Campaign store.
Frequently asked questions
Are Purdy brushes made in the USA?
Purdy states on its own brush product pages that its brushes are “Handcrafted in the USA with global materials.” Because the materials are globally sourced and the roller cover lines carry no origin claim, we label Purdy American Manufacturing rather than Made in USA.
Where is Purdy located?
Purdy was founded in a Portland, Oregon garage in 1925 and Portland has been the centre of its brushmaking ever since. The company does not currently publish a plant city on its own website, so we do not assert one.
Who owns Purdy?
The Sherwin-Williams Company, which acquired Purdy in 2004. Purdy had been family-owned for the previous 79 years and still operates as its own brand.
Why is every Purdy brush signed?
Each brush carries the initials of the brushmaker who built it. New brushmakers complete a two-year training programme before they are trusted with production.