Sydney Lewis (October 24, 1919 – March 12, 1999) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and art collector who founded the Best Products Company.
[2] He practiced law for a brief period before taking over his father's encyclopedia business where he developed a catalog to promote sales.
He expanded the business into appliances and, using his encyclopedia warehouse as a showroom, was able to circumvent Fair Trade laws that allowed manufacturers to set minimum retail prices.
[3] Lewis was known for his anti-union stance and successfully fought efforts by the United Food and Commercial Workers to unionize Best Products' showrooms.
He developed a barter system with young artists in New York where they could trade art for items in the Best Products catalog.