Rex-Hide Incorporated began by manufacturing shoe products and various molded goods in a small town in western Pennsylvania. During World War II, Rex-Hide was asked by a tire manufacturer to produce a "truck tire flap", which is not the same as a mud flap. The tire flap is an integral part of a tube type truck tire and protects the tube from chafing, heat, and protrusion from the valve hole. Rex-Hide became the only independent producer of truck tire flaps in the United States and marketed its product strictly to tire manufacturers. From 1945 until 1960, many tire companies not only purchased tire flaps from Rex-Hide but produced their own. Therefore, Rex-Hide was a secondary supplier to the tire company and, in some cases, a competitor with their customers since tire companies sold their excess flaps to other manufacturers. Most tire producers have discontinued manufacturing these items and are relying on Rex-Hide. In the 1970's Rex-Hide was asked by the major tire companies to consider a second plant operation because we were the sole suppliers of truck tire flaps to these companies. It was felt that any natural disaster, (fire, flood, tornado, etc.) could impair delivery of tire flaps to the tire companies. In 1974, Rex-Hide purchased the plant in Tyler, Texas, which was formerly owned by the Richardson Company, a manufacturer of hard rubber case battery boxes. Production at the Tyler facility soon out stripped production at the original Pennsylvania plant, with fewer people and less overhead. Because the Pennsylvania plant had become antiquated, and lacked the labor support, Rex-Hide purchased another plant in West Virginia in 1976 and subsequently closed the Pennsylvania operation, In 1977, corporate offices were moved to the Tyler, Texas location. With the new plant facilities it was possible to produce many more truck tire flaps than were needed for the marketplace in the late 1970's and early 1980's many options for diversification were investigated.

The facilities in Tyler, Texas were ideally suited for the production of other rubber goods and since the truck tire flap is an extruded product, it was decided to develop the custom extruded market from the Texas plant. All of the flap production was transferred to the Grafton plant. The Tyler facility is equipped with the latest technological advances in extrusion, utilizing a pin barrel extruder in conjunction with a laser beam size control and microwave curing as well as continuous cutters and packagers. Secondary operations, such as butt splicing, corner molding, punching and form curing is also available. These capabilities, along with conventional autoclave curing equipment makes us competitive in all phases of the extrusion market except those of extremely small cross-section and those requiring wire carriers or adhesive backing.