About Us
For over forty years, National Tailors has served not only local residents with personal tailoring needs, but also many of the world’s largest oil, petroleum, and chemical companies, as well as fire departments and uniform supply companies. Many of our corporate customers are located in the Houston region, Southeast Texas, Louisiana and Mexico. From small local businesses and suppliers in Houston, to corporations who offer products and services around the world, National Tailors can improve your company workwear and bunker gear and help you ensure that your company is in compliance with all safety standards.
For our industrial customers, National Tailors provides modification and alteration of industrial flame-resistant clothing (FRC) and uniforms as well as repair, modification and cleaning of bunker gear.
National Tailors aims to provide high quality work while delivering on large orders in little time. Pickup and delivery services are available locally, while large customers located outside of our delivery area often ship items to our facilities in Pasadena, Texas.
Some local customers, such as local chemical plants, choose to set up accounts so that their individual employees can personally visit National Tailors to have custom alterations and repairs performed on workwear, with the goal of increasing safety and productivity on job sites.
Current services include: modification of uniforms to add reflective striping; alterations of FRC using flame resistant materials, including thread; addition of logo and name patches; addition of FR leg zippers; customized modification of uniforms to suit employee preferences, such as the addition of desired pockets and straps; washing, cleaning and repair of bunker gear.
For your daily tailoring needs, stop by today at our Pasadena, Texas location to have a fitting and place a work order.
For those interested in industrial orders, contact us here today, and our Customer Relations Manager will reach out to discuss your needs and provide a quote for either ongoing services or large bulk orders.
Customers We Serve
National Tailors can provide a quote for any organization with FRC, Uniform or Bunker gear tailoring needs.
Current customers include:
- Petroleum and Chemical Companies and Refineries
- Uniform Suppliers
- Fire departments
- School Districts, such as ROTC programs
- Police Departments
- Security Companies
- Various municipalities
National Tailors also serves our local community with all of their tailoring needs.
Founder Ralph A. Sparks
Following military service as a financial officer in the U.S. army, and then a career in the dry cleaning industry in Southern Louisiana, Ralph moved to the Houston region in the 1970s and opened his first business in Texas – Sparky’s Dry Cleaners. Ralph quickly built a highly successful business by tending to customer needs with care and by offering delivery service to residents in and around Deer Park, Texas. At Sparky’s, Ralph always employed tailors and offered clothing alterations to his loyal customers. In 1981, having sold his successful cleaners, Ralph founded National Tailors to focus exclusively on expert custom tailoring.
Later in the 1980s, Ralph also put his accounting degree to use and managed all financial affairs for Sparks Construction, his brother’s pipeline construction company. When he returned full-time to National Tailors a few years later, he refocused the business on industrial tailoring and began catering to the needs of the chemical, construction, and oil and gas industries. Over time, fire departments, police departments, and local school ROTC groups became key customers as well. In offering these new services at National Tailors, Ralph created something that didn’t exist – Industrial Tailoring.
For more than forty years, Ralph led his dedicated team of tailors in serving customers, both big and small. In the 1990s, Ralph’s wife, Marlene, became an integral part of National Tailors. They managed the business together until their retirement in 2024. At that time, Julie Sparks and her husband, Jose, purchased National Tailors, keeping it a family business. Julie and Jose bring customer greetings and well wishes to Ralph and Marlene each week.