ElectroShield staffers struck a pose in front of the company’s headquarters at 708 South High Street. The homegrown business turns 50 this year — marking half a century of light assembly and distribution. ElectroSheild specializes in electrical connectors that powers myriad robotic, agricultural, marine, telecommunication and other kinds of technologies around the world. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Fifty years of making connections at ElectroShield
- Published: May 20, 2026
Yellow Springs, like much of the Midwest, suffered the losses of deindustrialization around the turn of the last century. Once a hub for middle class manufacturing jobs — several of which have left town or closed altogether — the village’s economy now hinges on tourism dollars.
But one old school Yellow Springs manufacturer — “a light assembly distributor,” as they prefer — has persisted against formidable odds. Yellow Springs’ homegrown ElectroShield turns 50 this year, and already, staffers are looking forward to the next half-century.
“I see a few retirements in those years,” co-owner and operations manager Matt Adamson said with a chuckle. “But I want us to continue down the paths of growth and stability. No matter what changes, quality stays here.”
In its 50 years of doing business on South High Street — in arguably one of Yellow Springs’ sleepiest residential neighborhoods — ElectroShield has grown into a company that more than 400 commercial clients around the world depend on for very specific kinds of electrical connectors.
The second of three co-owners, and also sales manager, Margi Gay said that ElectroShield’s hand-assembled connectors help power myriad kinds of robotics, agricultural, marine, welding, telecommunications and other technologies.
She said ElectroShield’s connectors are embedded in the devices made for every climate: sun-beaten weather stations measuring wind speed to high-pressure underwater motors. Their electrical connectors have also been used in light shows by the Jim Henson Creature Shop and in Disneyland amusement park rides.
Despite this globetrotting applicability, these connectors are unassuming in appearance and size. From ElectroShield’s 220,000 unique components that pack the labyrinthine shelves in the 10,000-square-foot High Street warehouse, the majority of its connectors are made from just a few pieces of circular plastic, metal fittings, rubber gaskets and copper inlays for electrical conduction.
To assemble a single connector takes a warehouse crew member only a few seconds; to assemble a few hundred, a little more time — and perhaps a couple blisters and some eventual calluses.
“I really like it here,” village native Zoë Hayes said. “I don’t think I’d have been here as long — 10 years, now — if I didn’t. It’s a good time here in the warehouse.”
“We take care of our employees,” the third co-owner and company president, Jenny Kerns, said. “Obviously we have to take care of our customers, but we really prioritize the employee experience. That’s what this company is built on.”
Villagers Roy Eastman and Jim Leuba founded ElectroShield in 1976 in Eastman’s parents’ basement. At the time, the pair focused on home security systems — building, selling and installing them in the immediate area.
Four years later, Eastman purchased the South High Street building, where the company resides to this day. The main structure on the property was built in 1900 and, before becoming ElectroShield headquarters, was once a Catholic church, a wheat threshing facility and even an equipment storage building for the Village.
Another four years passed and villager Steve McColaugh joined the company, and initiated the era of brokering electronic components and parts, eventually adopting the distributor business model — what it is today. Around the time of that switch in how they did business, the company dropped the security system line.
Over the subsequent years, ElectoShield would become a stocking distributor for a number of world-known connector manufactures, including Amerline, Conta-Clip, Amphnol CONEC, Conxall, Fujikura (formerly DDK), Sealcon, SPI Connects and Switchcraft.
Connector assembly at work. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
In 2017, Nick Eastman took the reins of the company from his father, and then, two years later, sold it to three longtime employees: Adamson, Gay and Kerns — the present heads of the company. They are among the 22 workers keeping the light assembly business going. According to Kerns, the business pays $2.3 million in annual payroll among them all.
“So that’s how I see what the future holds for this company — knowing when to be flexible and not digging in your heels,” Adamson said. “It started off as an alarm company, then McColaugh started selling components on the side. Everyone realized there was more money in that than the whole assembly. So the next 50 years will need the same kind of flexibility.”
That future isn’t entirely secured, though. All three co-owners admitted that ElectroShield, like many small businesses, is competing against large corporations that tend to offer a greater breadth of products for sometimes cheaper prices.
“That’s a big challenge for us,” Kerns said. “For some customers, it’s appealing to do one-stop shopping. But I’ll say that our focus on process and consistency set us apart — especially our customer service. There will always be a human voice helping our customers.
Gay added: “And that’s becoming rare. I think people miss the person-to-person interaction.”
The current presidential administration, and particularly its ever-changing policies on global trade, tariffs and the general cost of running a small business have all amounted to a tough couple of years for ElectroShield — especially in the wake of the COVID years, when supply chains were disrupted at every conceivable level.
“For some of our products, these recent rounds of tariffs were at 25%, then they were 50%, now it’s 10% — it’s tough to manage these relationships, but we’ve been able to keep costs down and not pass them off on the consumer,” Adamson said. “Still, directly or indirectly, we’re all impacted by these decisions.”
All those macroeconomic forces notwithstanding, ElectroShield holds strong and maintains its quiet, small-town operation — one uniquely suited to the quirks of a place like Yellow Springs.
Staffers are required to fulfill so many local community service hours each year. The building’s front facade is transformed into a punk rock and avant garde music stage each Porchfest, and a month later, it’s a prime spot for “the good candy” during Beggar’s Night. A bowl of dog treats is always at the ready in the warehouse for any canine neighbor that walks by.
“To our neighbors: Thanks for letting us stay in the neighborhood,” Gay laughed. “We’re glad we haven’t ticked you off too much even though we have a semitruck showing up once a week.”
“Our goal is to stay true to it all — the community that created this company and the customers that keep us busy and allow us to stay here,” Adamson added.
For more information on ElectroShield, go to http://www.electroshield.com
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