We’ve all used a pool noodle a time or two. Whether it’s to take a lazy float or to play pool games, it’s an essential summer item. And wouldn’t you know, the idea was thought up in Brampton.

It started back in 1980 when Scott Hartman and his father founded the company Industrial Thermo Polymers (ITP) in Brampton. The company started making backer rods, a squishy gray foam used in anything with expansion joints — condos, highway ramps, runways, among other things.

Hartman’s family started throwing the grey backer roads into the family swimming pool and that was when the idea popped into his head.

Hartman mixed up a batch of the squishy foam with colour and thus began what we now know as the pool noodle.

The idea didn’t take quickly though. Hartman spent a year trying to sell the pool noodle to various retailers and suppliers unsuccessfully.

Eventually, the pool noodle’s big break came when Canadian Tire bought a batch. They priced them reasonably to draw people in and soon enough everyone wanted to get their hands on a few. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a pool in Canada now without one.

Today the company, which is now named Armacell (and still located in Brampton) sells about 6 to 8 million pool noodles a year — owning nearly half of the North American market.

Armacell’s innovation hasn’t stopped there, their latest project is producing wind turbines from recycled water bottles.

Comments

comments