Founded in 1956 by Doris and Bernie Blanck in Miami, Florida, AA Uniform began as a small outpost inside a menswear shop owned by the Blancks in the southern part of the city. This outpost allowed the school that the three eldest Blanck children attended to stock uniforms year-round. Instead of relying on a pop-up shop from the out-of-state uniform company that supplied the school, the Blanck’s school uniform shop brought families in for the garments they needed throughout the year, increasing business and adding convenience to the community.
Throughout the 1960s Miami became home to a large number of Cuban immigrants who had fled Castro’s regime. This quickly growing Cuban population in the city led to an increase in new private and religious schools, most of which required uniforms. AA Uniform grew to match this rising demand over the next decade, supplying and growing alongside the many new institutions and their populations of students. In 1972 the Blancks sold the original menswear business and focused solely on school uniforms, expanding their connections extensively within the South Florida market until DENNIS acquired AA Uniform in 2018.
After growing up in the business, three of the Blanck children joined the company in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Debbie took charge of human resources and finances, Cindie handled purchasing and operations and Barbara managed client and school relations as well as retail stores in her role as president of the company. When DENNIS acquired AA, the three sisters had more than 100 years’ combined school uniform experience! Additionally, AA’s local management team brought with them another 85 years total experience – all extremely valuable resources which DENNIS was thrilled to be able to learn from and develop into a greater company and team knowledge base.
Debbie and Cindie retired from the business within the first two years of transition, but Barbara remains a key executive team member for DENNIS as our current Vice President of Sales, extending the legacy of AA Uniform into the present by managing the evolution of the DENNIS retail experience. Other AA Uniform team members that remain at DENNIS today include our Regional Vice President of Customer Success and our Miami Customer Success Manager (who is also Doris and Bernie Blanck’s granddaughter). We are happy to say that our partnership with AA remains strong, with multiple generations of the Blanck family still a part of the team.
Acquiring AA allowed DENNIS to venture into the South Florida school uniform market, which had been almost completely dominated by AA for more than sixty years. Our shared outlooks on business and an understanding of the importance of connection to community brought us into a successful agreement, and AA Uniform’s strong management team, experienced staff and loyal school partners have helped shape what our company is today. With more than 100 years in business, we know the importance of partnership and understand that DENNIS has benefited greatly from the experience and expertise of our colleagues. We’ve always been in the business of long-term relationships, and that’s an outlook we’ve adopted into our internal operations. We could not be happier for our partners’ accomplishments and are proud that we’ve been able to continue to engage with the rich communities they’ve created. Our enthusiasm for working alongside and learning from our business partnerships has allowed us to become what we are today – true uniform experts™!