Articles by Sykes Wilford | Smokingpipes Daily Reader

Smokingpipes 20th Anniversary Savinelli Pipes

March 20, 2020 by Sykes Wilford

4 Comments

Beginning in early 2000, while attending college and working for a cigar and pipe shop, I started considering the prospect of establishing a business to sell pipes on the internet. I incorporated Laudisi Enterprises that May, registered Smokingpipes.com that June, and we sold our first pipe that November. ... Read More

Smokingpipes 20th Anniversary Peterson Pipes

January 3, 2020 by Sykes Wilford

15 Comments

Beginning in early 2000, while working for a cigar and pipe shop near campus while attending college, I started considering the prospect of establishing a business to sell pipes on the internet. I incorporated Laudisi Enterprises that May, registered Smokingpipes.com ... Read More

In Loving Memory: Chip Kushner

December 17, 2018 by Sykes Wilford

55 Comments

Chip Kushner, Customer Service Manager for Smokingpipes, died this morning in his home in Conway, SC. He was 53. His passing was a surprise. He was discovered this morning sitting in his chair in his bedroom by his roommate, colleague and friend, Nick Shane. While we don't yet have cause of death from the coroner's office ... Read More

Hurricane Florence & Laudisi Enterprises

September 21, 2018 by Sykes Wilford

16 Comments

We have continued to update you in other blog posts as to the specific situation as it pertains to basic services such as shipping and customer service. Many of you have asked what the wider situation looks like, or knowing that Cornell & Diehl is in a different building, how it has fared. We very much appreciate your concern ... Read More

Hurricane Florence Update Revisited

September 19, 2018 by Sykes Wilford

34 Comments

Update for 11:00am, Friday September 21st: We were once again able to reach the building this morning and are working at a mostly normal capacity. We are expecting both the Post Office and UPS to pick up this afternoon. ... Read More

Hurricane Florence Update

September 17, 2018 by Sykes Wilford

78 Comments

Hurricane Florence has come and gone, leaving quite the swathe of destruction in her extremely wet path. Given the severity and duration of the storm, Smokingpipes—and its sister companies LDG and Cornell & Diehl—in the northeastern corner of South Carolina have fared remarkably well ... Read More

Peterson Joins The Laudisi Family

July 20, 2018 by Sykes Wilford

46 Comments

Smokingpipes.com is pleased to share that its parent company, Laudisi Enterprises, will acquire Kapp & Peterson, Ltd., specifically the Peterson pipe factory in Sallynoggin and the Peterson of Dublin shop on Nassau Street. Sykes Wilford, President and CEO of Laudisi Enterprises, reflects upon the acquisition and what it means for the two brands. ... Read More

Passing of a Giant

February 12, 2018 by Sykes Wilford

1 Comment

A dozen years ago, late summer in 2006, I visited Lars Ivarsson for the first time. We'd met and spoken on a few occasions, but that day we spent hours together, in his workshop, over a fantastic lunch that he and his wife Annette cooked, just talking quietly, smoking our pipes as we looked out from his garden over the fjord that made his home one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Jess Chonowitsch: At The Heart Of Functionalism

November 10, 2017 by Sykes Wilford

2 Comments

Mies van der Rohe, the famous modernist German-American architect and designer, coined the aphorisms "God is in the details" and "less is more." He was referring primarily to architecture, specifically his famous "skin and bones" approach to building design, but there's no question that he was also referring ... Read More

2016: Year In Review

December 29, 2016 by Sykes Wilford

2 Comments

2016 has been a very strange year. And while that is true of the world outside of pipes as well, it is particularly true of our little hobby. ... Read More