Glenn Cronkhite has been a well-known San Francisco Bay Area and touring musician for many years. In 1971, he founded a company to make lightweight protective cases for musical instruments. At that time, no such thing existed. In the mid-1970's, he sold the business part of the company to Michael Snead, who renamed it Reunion Blues. However, Glenn retained ownership of his designs. For the next 25 years, Glenn collaborated with Reunion Blues under a licensing/royalty contract, and his cases comprised very nearly the entirety of the Reunion Blues line. This included products manufactured for other companies such as Selmer, LeBlanc, Zildjian, Gretsch, and others.

In June 2001, Reunion Blues closed their factory in San Francisco and moved production to China. Glenn said no, collected the best of their veteran craftsmen, and set up a new shop across the bay in Berkeley, California. He was just fed up with watching everybody go to China. Glenn has no claim to the trade name "Reunion Blues", nor any financial interest. Conversely, Reunion Blues has no claim to Glenn's designs, and has agreed not to copy them in any way.

When Glenn began manufacturing his own cases again, I started selling them immediately. In January 2002, I saw the first Chinese made Reunion Blues cases at the NAMM trade show. Gone were the wooden reinforcements, gold plated hardware, saddle type leather, firm foam, and new designs. These new cases are not of the quality that we were used to seeing on the older cases.

Reunion Blues is still represented as the San Francisco case company by some large mail order retailers. However, musicians who need top quality equipment for their expensive instruments know the truth: the only thing in San Francisco is the office. By continuing to make only the best products, Glenn Cronkhite Custom Cases is growing and thriving.

Glenn said it well: "The first repair to your instrument because of buying a cheap case will cost more than the expensive case did." Cronkhite cases are not cheap, but they will last forever and will protect your instruments. You can know with certainty that they were locally designed and made by a group of artists and craftsmen with the best materials available. No one makes them like this anymore, except Glenn Cronkhite.