Company History

A century of service

T.W. Carrol & Company was founded in 1900 by George Carrol. The original store, located at 519 1st Ave in Seattle, offered luggage, leather goods, chamols clothing and travel gear. In 1915, George decided to expand and leaving his partner to run the Seattle store, he moved his family to Anchorage, Alaska. That was the year the city was founded and Alaska was caught in the grips of gold rush fever. George had the foresight to bring a shoemaker along with him which gave him an edge over his competition. Shoes were not yet the commodity they have become today and getting a new pair was a big deal. Then World War 1 came along and ended the boom in Anchorage, so George decided to move back to Seattle.

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istory doesn't say what happened to his partner, but the Seattle business had flourished and George continued to be active until sometime after World War 2. At this time Ted Carrol began running the business. It was Ted that developed our  wholesale accounts and reestablished our ties to Anchorage. Around 1949, Ted began making sales trips to Alaska carrying, not only luggage and leather goods, but also some gift lines and other small items like nail clippers and Zippo lighters. In the early 1950's Ted moved our operations to 1921 2nd Ave.

By the mid 1950's, the wholesale side of the business had grown and Ted decided to close the retail store and focus his efforts exclusively on the wholesale trade. It was about this time that the airlines asked if Ted would be interested in repairing luggage that was damaged in flight. In those days, air travel was not as common as it is now and the amount of luggage damaged in flight was relatively low. Out first accounts were with Pan Am and Northwest airlines and as air travel grew, so did the repair business. T. W. Carrol and co. pioneered many  of the techniques processes and materials used in the luggage repair industry today.

After spending Saturdays and summers working for Ted, his son Joe Carrol joined the company full time in 1972. Two years later he took over, by Ted stayed on helping in the office and the repair shop until the late 1980's. It was with his sage advice and guidance that T.W. Carrol & Co. continued to develop and now has come full circle.

Today we are under contract for all repair work with Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air and the northwest stations for many other national airline companies. We continue our thriving wholesale division and retail showroom. With a century of experience selling and servicing all the major luggage brands, you can say we know luggage inside and out. We specialize in commercial cases, business cases, individual luggage, golf bags and gold embossing. We can custom fit cases for any particular usage.

Over the years, we have worked with many different manufacturers. One of the first manufacturers George Carrol did business with was Schwayer Brothers, Today they are still one of our major suppliers, but now we all know them as Samsonite.

Here we are in 2010 and a new Generation of the family has joined the business. In 2000, Andrew joined the family business on June 15, 2000. Like his father and grandfather Andrew has spent many of his summers working at T.W. Carrol & Co, the fourth generation, Andrew, joined the company insuring the company’s continuation well into its second century

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