I was today years old when I found out that our humble popping favourite, the bubble wrap was originally created to be a wallpaper!
The original idea was executed by sealing together two shower curtains, in a manner that air bubbles would be trapped between them. The creators of this product thought that this 3-D wallpaper would sell really well, but alas (or thankfully) it didn’t. They even tried to market the product as a greenhouse insulating agent, but that didn’t work out either. The founders, Fielding and Chavannes founded ‘Sealed Air Corp’ in 1960 to continue developing their product and find a successful market for it.
It was not until a 5-year old infant named Howard Fielding burst the bubble of the bubble wrap and gave the idea to his father (and co-creator of bubble wrap) that their wallpaper could have an alternate use. A marketer named Frederick Bowers finally came up with the perfect use of the product- as a protective and insulating material!
The first commercial use for this product, which probably led to it becoming the success that it is today was its contract with IBM. IBM has announced a new 1401 variable word length computer and were looking for improved ways to ship it without any damage. Bowers pitched their bubble wrap to IBM and successfully got the contract for 1401 and eventually IBM started using it for a variety of fragile products that they sold.
It was from such turbulent and humble beginnings that Sealed Air Corp has generated over 4.8 billion USD in sales in 2019 and has operations in over 120 countries. ‘Bubble wrap’ which we use as a noun is actually a trademark brand of the Sealed Air Corp and has featured as a Fortune 500 company multiple times.
And even though there has been a lot of turbulence given the use of plastic in bubble wrap, and the amount of space that it takes up in packaging and companies always looking to increase packaging efficiency, we will never forget it and the simple joy we derive from bursting the bubbles of the bubble wrap. And imagine if the bubble wrap was actually a wallpaper, would we still be popping them?
And there are multiple stories for deriving inspiration when we set out on an entrepreneurial journey, and this one is sure to provide the same! 🙂
Image credits: Daily Mail
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