Our Journey

Allyson Brooke, Inc. was founded in 2001 in the garage of Ernie and Janice Ruddock. Ernie, a graduate of University of Georgia, had spent his most of his career in top level positions of textile manufacturing facilities throughout the south. Discouraged by seeing so many textile plants shut their doors to move operations overseas, Ernie decided to harness his entrepreneurial spirit and put his lifelong contacts to work in a new venture. Early on, he would buy textile goods, mostly towels, modify them, repackage them and then sell them in large bundles. He then tried selling smaller sets on eBay. About the same time, Ernie and Janice started sewing some items – mainly Long Twin bed sheets and their brand name: AB Lifestyles (AB for Allyson Brooke) was created. Ernie’s youngest daughter, Leigh, came to him with a request for a sheet set for her toddler’s bed and from that request, our toddler sheet line and our famous “No Tuck Top Sheet” was born. Soon, the garage was too small, so a slightly larger (but still small) space was rented in the tiny town of Donalds, SC. Ernie and Janice were sewing like crazy, and hired one new employee to help. Ernie shifted into “management” mode – seeking new opportunities for growth and expansion. Soon an opportunity to purchase a large inventory from another business presented itself and Allyson Brooke, Inc. took the dive and did just that.

About that same time, Ernie’s other daughter, Alicia, also a University of Georgia graduate, was talking to her dad one day and the conversation centered on the growing business of Allyson Brooke, Inc. It was 2004 and internet commerce was gathering a lot of steam. Alicia proposed to her dad that she could help with listing items for sale on eBay. Alicia and her family (including the “real” Allyson Brooke) had moved to NC, and listing items on eBay was a way Alicia could help from afar. This was the beginning of our transformation into a direct to the consumer internet sales based business. Loving the toddler sheets Ernie and Janice had made, daughter Leigh, an avid RVer came to Ernie with another request – sheets to fit her travel trailer beds. Utilizing the “No Tuck Top Sheet” design, and making sheets in the odd sizes of mattresses found in RVs, and new stream of business was born. With this new product, an inventory of close-outs, and the ability to manufacture products, Alicia dove headfirst into the world of internet selling. Auctions on eBay were performing well, and soon an eBay storefront was added. Next, in 2005, AB Lifestyles launched their own website at www.ablifestyles.net. Selling on Amazon would soon follow.

With product demand increasing and the small manufacturing space seeming smaller every day, the quest for a new manufacturing space began. Ernie and Janice found a sewing plant sitting unoccupied in the picturesque little town of Antreville. Low and behold, as fate would have it, when Ernie did a little digging, he learned that it was owned by a colleague he had worked with some 30 years prior at Kellwood, where he launched his career in textiles. Small world, huh?