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Sun Sentinel
Fort Lauderdale
 STICK-TO-ITIVENESS
Couple keep busy in
'retirement years' by
making canes.
By MARCIA H. POUNDS
Business Writer
The Harrises reside in a golf course community, but you won't see them out putting much.
"When you ask somebody what he does here, the average person says, 'I play golf or I play cards,'" said Penny Harris. "My goal is that someone walks into a store and says 'Could you show me the Harris canes?'"
Not the retiring types, Bob and Penny Harris began creating decorative walking sticks four years ago and began selling them to boutiques. Married 48 years, the Delray Beach couple say they enjoy the pleasure people get from using their elaborate canes.
"We took a negative attitude and turned it into a positive one," Penny Harris said. "Nobody says, 'What's wrong with you?' when they see one of our canes."
Bob Harris' artistic flair began as a woman's shoe designer years ago in their hometown of Boston. After a career manufacturing shoes, playing as a professional musician and managing for a music company, Harris and his wife decided they wanted to stay busy in retirement.
"They say, 'a busy life is a happy life,'" Penny Harris said. "I hear so many people say, 'my husband's so bored.'"
Bob Harris first made decorative crutches for Penny Harris when she hurt herself a few years ago. Someone asked if they made decorative canes and they were inspired.
Now Bob designs and decorates the walking sticks and Penny handles marketing and sales. They give out cards to neighbors that say "Penny, Talker" and "Bob, Walker."
"As you can tell, I never shut up," Penny Harris said. Bob Harris walks for exercise as well as swims 72 laps every day.
Harris Company supplies walking sticks to Disney World, the Ritz Carlton in Boston, some Marriott Hotels, and South Florida shops including Brown's on Worth Avenue, Straw and Substance in Manalapan, The Regency Collection in Boca Raton, Delray Drug in Delray Beach and Mole Hole shops in West Palm Beach and Tequesta (as well as Naples).
"They do rather well because they're different," said Hal Johnstone, owner of Straw and Substance.
The walking sticks are decorated in themes from Western (with leather and fringe and horses' heads) to elegant (in tapestry, lace or silk) to ritzy (in suede, sequins) to manly (natural wood, eagle heads). As a former shoe designer, Bob Harris knew exactly where to go for materials.
"They've not only become a fashion item, but a collectible item," said Bob Harris, adding that some women don't want to give out his name because they want to have the only decorated canes.
Bob Harris rises at 5 a.m. and spends most mornings making the canes. He recently worked steadily for four weeks to fill an order for 270 canes. But he prefers a more leisurely pace. The Harrises said they would rather not discuss their revenues or profits from the canes. But Bob says "I'm not getting fat and rich off of it."
He's not even sure how many canes he's made or sold. The Harrises don't advertise their canes, though Bob Harris plans to attend some gift shows and is negotiating for their inclusion in a catalog.
Not every design has worked out. Bob Harris spent two years designing a walking stick that would light up as you walked, but abandoned it when he concluded it would be too expensive to produce.
Most of their customers are 60 or older, though Penny Harris says she hopes to sell the walking sticks to a store such as Bloomingdales, where younger people who need canes because of illness or injury might shop.
How do the Harrises get along now that they're working together in their "retirement?" Penny Harris said they get along fine—they have at least one argument every day.
"Aw, the best thing that ever happened to you was me," Bob Harris tells her.
Robert Harris passed away in 2011. Doug Harris, Robert’s son, is now running the cane business. Robert’s wife, Penny, is still alive, but is no longer participating in the cane business.
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