How a Small, Family-owned Brush Company Took on China

Over the last 40 years, China has increasingly wreaked havoc on U.S. manufacturers, undercutting their business with high-volume, low-cost products. So when Lance Cheney, the fourth-generation owner of Braun Brush Company on Long Island, took the reins from his father, he sensed that he had to make a risky strategic shift—or the company might never make it to the fifth generation. Lance decided that Braun would no longer compete in the inexpensive “commodity brush” market. Instead, they would produce highly specialized brushes that accomplished unique tasks for companies that needed them done exactly right. Since that decision, Lance, who as a young man had gone to school to be a sculptor, has blended his artistic talents with his business acumen to take Braun Brush on an extraordinary creative journey. In this thought-provoking conversation with Host Ron Roel, Lance talks about the company’s many forays into innovative brush-making—from producing brushes dedicated to putting a sheen on chocolate; to others that keep the pigeons off the top of New York City’s Freedom Tower; to tiny brushes that have helped the Mars rovers dust debris away from drilling sites. And along the way, Lance has continued to find new avenues for his artistic sensibility, creating fiber-based projects for major companies and fabricating dozens of sculptures for a renowned American artist, the late Richard Artschwager.