Recently, Coleman brought back its original steel cooler. It’s sold as an exclusive for the 50th anniversary of the sporting goods supply company Cabela’s. It’s part of a trend of retro products, reintroduced as specialty products for particular retailers, similar to Fisher-Price toys sold at Cracker Barrel and vintage TideMORE HERE
In the 1970s PBS television series Crockett’s Victory Garden, James Underwood Crockett detailed popular bug-killing brands he uses. Today, some are gone and some still around. Poison brands are interesting. We still remember some of them like chlordane and DDT, even though they are no longer used. We have listedMORE HERE
NEW YORK – Sapolin was once a great decorative paint brand; like Rustoleum they specialized in unique colors for metals and uses other than walls. Here, a can that’s about 20 years old. Its main ingredients are listed as xylene and toluene. Toxic and flammable but certainly able to makeMORE HERE
This vintage flour sifter was made by the cooking utensil brand Androck. Androck products were made by the Washburn Company, which was founded in the 19th century in Massachusetts. Androck was a brand for all sorts of colorful and cool kitchen items. Well-made and amusingly designed, their products are stillMORE HERE
Broadwater Boat Company was a yacht manufacturer in Mayo, Maryland from 1956 to 1980. The brand made cabin cruisers out of plywood. They still have a following today. At right is a cabin cruiser, which was situated in the old Andy Wiley junkyard/marina and seaplane base in Irvington, Virginia. BelowMORE HERE
So this is one brand that we don’t want to see back on the shelves. Back then, pet food was sold both for dogs and cats. While we’re not sure Horse Meat would sell (and its apparently not legal in the U.S.) the dual use pet food might be interesting.MORE HERE
Remember Interwoven Socks? They were one of the nation’s top sock brands, and were part of Kayser-Roth. This ad is from a 1968 Esquire, but by the mid 1970s, Interwoven was known for much more, including the John Newcombe tennis brand. Interwoven was part of Kayser-Roth, which still exists inMORE HERE
CINCINNATI – This May, Procter & Gamble is offering limited edition, retro-packaged versions of Tide, Bounce and Downy, only available at Target. It’s an amusing promotion that helps to educate younger consumers about Tide’s legacy, while giving older consumers a bit of nostalgia. “Technology has changed how we wash andMORE HERE
A few years ago, on a Delta flight, I recall an attendant handing out Lance peanut crackers, along with Cokes. How delightfully Southern and declassé, but in a good, circumspect way. I was curious how such a staple of the Southern diet, namely a Coke and Nabs, could be servedMORE HERE
It’s an old idea, and it is often forgotten in the rampant cost cutting in retail. It’s the clothing retailer name tag. Only a generation ago, it was a common practice, as it served as a permanent advertisement for the retailer after the piece of clothing was sold. Every sortMORE HERE