Our History

Sam’s Safety Equipment had modest beginnings in 1956 when Sam Wolfe, one of our founder’s and our namesake, began working out of an office at Southwestern Plating. There Sam would take phone calls, do office work, make deliveries and run his shoe truck to job sites around Houston in the Oil & Gas industry. To save money, Sam’s original warehouse was actually owned by his brother James Wolfe, our other founder and Navy veteran of both World War II and the Korean War, on the top floor of an apartment building in downtown Houston off La Branch.

In 1965 Sam was approved as the third Red Wing Shoe dealer in Houston, and became the first Red Wing Shoe Truck in the city’s history. Red Wing Shoe orders were made once a month at a hotel room with the Red Wing Shoe regional sales manager. They would use the room’s bed as a desk to organize and finalize orders to save the money on renting an office space.

In 1972 Ernie Ferguson, owner and president of Southwestern Plating, gave Sam the overdo push he needed to move out on his own. At the same time Sam’s brother James Wolfe, who was working in the scrap iron business, was strongly encouraged not to renew his lease from Paul Beosch, the promoter who made Houston Wrestling famous. Paul Beosch not being a man to argue with, James began looking for land to buy on the outskirts of Houston, at the time this meant anywhere outside the 610 Loop. It was at this time that the two brothers decided to form a new company in Sam’s name on land that James now owned. This was the birth of Sam’s Safety Equipment as we know it today. In the beginning Sam’s Safety Equipment only stocked 10 items in its showroom. They had only 8 company accounts, but they were large drilling companies like Brown & Root and National Oilwell.

In 1975 Sam’s Safety Equipment incorporated, and four years later had grown to almost $2 million in annual sales and a staff of 12 people that they hired Larry Doffing, Sam’s friend and a Vietnam service disabled veteran, as an office manager. Larry became a share holder in the company two short years later in 1981, prior to the recession. In 1983, Sam retired as business everywhere in the oil & gas industry withered, and Larry took on a much larger managerial role within the company. In 1991 James stepped down as President of the company and gave the oversight of all operation to Larry. James remains a fixture at Sam’s Safety Equipment on a semi-retired basis during the week, but can be found every Saturday talking with walk in customers in our showroom. In 2009 Larry’s son Kevin Doffing, an Iraq War veteran, joined the company as Vice President. In 2010 Kevin bought an ownership of Sam’s Safety Equipment, making it a family, as well as, a service-disabled veteran owned and operated small business.

In 2009 Sam’s Safety launched its ecommerce website, www.Sams-Safety.com. The next year saw Sam’s Safety gain its Fire Extinguisher Certificate of Registration, allowing us to service and inspect fire extinguishers on site, as well as install fire extinguishers to state code in all buildings. We also began to offer custom embroidery, patches, and reflective tape on our in fully stocked line of fire resistant clothing.

Stop by or call and let us know what we can do to best serve you and your employees.