Forrest Gump’s ping-pong table, ‘The Detroiter,’ was made by this recently shuttered Ypsilanti company

YPSILANTI – One of the state’s oldest manufacturers is closing its doors for good.

Michigan Ladder in Ypsilanti has produced wooden, fiberglass and aluminum ladders for 12 decades, but is now shutting up shop.

While the company, located since 1901 at 12 E. Forest Ave. in Depot Town, has always produced ladders, it also delved into furniture, ironing boards, boats and even an iconic ping-pong table used in national and international competitions.

According to Team USA Table Tennis the table, called “The Detroiter,” was first used for a national-level championship in 1935 and has since been used at several U.S. Open events. The table itself was inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame. The Detroiter may be best known, however, for its starring role in the 1994 Best Picture “Forrest Gump.”

In the film, the titular character takes up table tennis during his tour in Vietnam, quickly mastering the sport and eventually traveling to China to play in a parody of the 1971 “ping-pong diplomacy” game between American Glenn Cowan and Chinese player Zhuang Zedong. Gump’s ping-pong skills propel him to fame and land him on the Dick Cavett show, where he inspires fellow guest John Lennon to write “Imagine.”

Michigan Ladder’s president Tom Harrison is particularly proud of the company’s starring role in the film, citing the table as their most popular non-ladder product.

“If you saw the movie ‘Forrest Gump,’ we manufactured all of those ping-pong tables here,” Harrison said with pride during a recent interview.

Harrison cites the business’ shutdown during the pandemic and supply chain difficulties as the reason for the company’s closure. While spring is typically their busiest season, the company is simply unable to source the materials to meet the volume of customer orders they’re receiving.

“The supply chain now with the supply chain were sort of the final nail in our coffin,” Harrison said. “This time of year is our busy time of year where we need to have product available for our customers and it just got to the point where we realized that just wasn’t going to happen.”

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