(April 10, 2025) – When you walk into the unassuming lobby of the Waterbury Button Company, there isn’t anything that immediately catches your eye. However, after standing in the entrance for a few moments and as your eyes begin to wander you notice a display of military buttons.
It is in that moment that visitors to the unassuming factory tucked along a side road in Cheshire begin to realize that the Waterbury Button Company is the home to the rarely noticed details. Buttons.
Founded in 1812, the Waterbury Button Company produces buttons for what seems like anyone and everyone. They produce all of the U.S. military buttons. In fact, they produced buttons for both the North and South sides during the Civil War, shipping the buttons for the Confederate Army to England before they could be shipped to the South.
They produce buttons for Taco Bell, Merion Golf Club, the University of Connecticut, and recently a button was made for Ridgewood Country Club in Danbury. The list is seemingly endless. Each month, the Waterbury Button Company produces roughly 1.2 million buttons, in some cases, using machinery that predates the First World War.
The Waterbury Button Company boasts a client list that includes over 600 companies. This week, however, one client that only submits an order once every 7-10 years will be on display for the golfing world to see. That client is the one and only Augusta National Golf Club, and the button that will be on display? Well, it is the button that is found on the green jacket.
Longtime Director of Sales and Marketing Chris Keenan explains what it is like to work with Augusta National GC.
“Every 7-10 years or so, based on order history, they will order a large amount of buttons. They actually order three buttons from us. One of them we know goes on the green jacket but the other two we don’t know what they are used for. When the purchase order comes in, it is on a very generic piece of paper with no names. Then we make the buttons and mail them down there. From there, the buttons are shipped to the company that makes the green jackets, Hamilton Tailoring Co. in Ohio. Once they have the buttons they add them to the green jackets. Then they pay pretty promptly.”
For the Waterbury Button Company, it is as simple as that. Receive the order. Fill the order. What isn’t taken into account, as Keenan explains the process, is the pride in which the company takes in producing the most famous button in golf.
“Every time we watch the Masters at my home club and the green jacket gets put on, I know those buttons went right through my hands,” Keenan, an avid golfer, said. “As a company there is a sense of pride, not just for the Masters but to see all the buttons we have made.”
Keenan can definitively say that the buttons on the green jacket have been produced by the Waterbury Button Company since 1960. That much is clear thanks to the labeling on the small metal box that holds the imprint tools. Setting an exact date on when the partnership truly began gets a little murky.
The first green jacket was awarded to Sam Snead in 1949, but the question is when did the Waterbury Button Company buttons make their first appearance? Well, Keenan can only speculate.
“I can only guess, but we probably made the buttons. In the 40s and 50s, there were a number of companies making buttons but my best guess is that we made them before 1960, but it was probably physically a different tool. The old ones could have been smashed, or maybe the tools were so old that they didn’t fit into, at the time, modern stamping equipment.”
As is the case with much of Augusta National GC lore, there is a sense of mystery. The Waterbury Button Company firmly falls into that category. Whether it was Snead in 1949, Arnold Palmer in 1960, or some time in between, one thing is for certain. Every Masters champion over the last 64 years has fastened their green jacket with a button from the Waterbury Button Company.
In 2025 and beyond that tradition will continue thanks to a Connecticut button company that has been providing the often unnoticed details for decades.
About the Connecticut State Golf Association
The Connecticut State Golf Association functions as an extension of the USGA and provides stewardship for amateur golf in Connecticut. Founded in 1899, it is the country’s oldest state golf association and conducts over 60 Championships, Qualifiers, and One Day Tournaments throughout the year.
