Avanti Linens' Home Run: Embellished Towels

When Arthur and Sandy Tauber founded Avanti in 1969, they created a new product category—embellished towels. The company has since expanded its product offerings.

Fifty years ago, it was not an outlandish prediction to suggest that the Bronx-born Arthur Tauber, ’59, would one day suit up in a New York Yankees uniform and play alongside Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. Tauber, who co-founded Avanti Linens with his wife Sandy in 1969, played baseball at LIU well enough to earn tryout invitations from several major league ballclubs. As it turned out, Tauber did in fact share a dugout with these Yankee legends, but only after a quarter century as an entrepreneur in the textile industry. In 1985, Sandy gifted her husband with a week of workouts on the diamond at a Mickey Mantle/Whitey Ford Fantasy Baseball Camp in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for his birthday. The iconic Bronx Bombers may be better known in households across the country, but the Taubers may be more visibly represented. If there are any embellished towels hanging up, Avanti Linens deserves a tip of the cap for inventing the product line. After graduating from LIU, Arthur took a job working for his uncle’s monogramming business. He worked there for nine years, ascending to second-in-command below his uncle. It all came crashing down one day following an intense argument that ended with Tauber’s firing.

The Taubers had just purchased their first home together and now had to find a new way to earn a living. Fortunately, necessity proved to be the mother of invention once again and the young couple put their heads together. “I had an idea,” said Arthur, identifying oriental designs as a nascent trend. “I thought if I could figure out how to put it on towels, maybe I could sell it.” So, Sandy sketched out a bamboo design on paper and Arthur took it to Henry Laskin, the buyer at Lord & Taylor, to deliver a sales pitch. Despite having no business plan nor any independent track record to fortify his leverage, Tauber named his price and lied about his supposed supplier. Laskin admired the design so much that he lent Tauber $10,000 worth of towels from the Lord & Taylor stock. Tauber’s bluff would end up paying off well for both men and Avanti Linens was born in 1969.

“My philosophy was to come up with different designs and sell the designs on an exclusive basis to the stores,” Arthur said. “Bamboo was a design that no one else had.”

The Taubers proved to be a dynamic duo at Avanti, with Sandy creating all the designs and Arthur handling the logistical “grunt work.” Avanti held showrooms and factory space in numerous locations in Manhattan, eventually becoming the first commercial tenant in the Port Authority building in the Meatpacking District in 1974—the current home of Google’s New York offices. Today, Avanti operates out of a 175,000 square-foot facility in Moonachie, New Jersey with more than 150 employees who embroider, sew, pick, pack and ship all of its products. All the company’s design, marketing, sales and administrative functions are also housed there.

Now enjoying retirement, the Taubers oversee Avanti’s operations and stay intimately involved with the company’s senior leadership. While they may not be playing the field anymore, Arthur still keeps tabs on the game, and understands the impact he and Sandy made on it. “There really wasn’t a company dedicated to decorative towels when I started,” he said. “We created an industry that is doing really well out there in the world.”