Scotch™ Brand

Nearly 100 years ago, a brilliant idea changed work in the automotive world and beyond. Upon visiting car manufacturers, Richard Gurley Drew, a designer and researcher at 3M, noticed how two-tone paint jobs were imprecise at the border between the two colors. In fact, smears and mistakes often forced the laborers to redo the paint jobs all over again. 

Drew had his intuition in 1925 when he created a tape that was sticky on one side, with a mix of glue and glycerol. The prototype was less-than-perfect but was the beginning of a revolutionary invention. 

On January 31, 1930, Scotch® tape made its market debut. The innovative product allowed coachbuilders to outline an area to be painted with unprecedented accuracy, drastically reducing error and improving finish quality. 

In 1937, Scotch® tape entered the European market, rapidly conquering this continent, too, thanks to its utility and versatility. 

The name “Scotch” has a curious origin. In the early testing phase, it wasn’t suitably sticky. In a moment of desperation, a young laborer exclaimed: “Bring back this tape to your Scotch bosses and tell them to add more glue!”. Back then, “Scotch” was used to define an inexpensive item or greedy person. This anecdote gave the name to what is, to this day, a synonym of reliability and innovation.

Today, Scotch® tape is found in millions of homes and offices worldwide, proving its fame as an epochal invention that keeps making everyday life and work simpler.