We've been keeping things cold since 1947.
That's not a tagline. It's literally how this started. A small metalworking shop in Texas began making steel water jugs for oil field workers — people who spent their days in the heat and needed cold water to get through it. Simple product, simple purpose. Keep workers hydrated. Keep things cool.
Then in 1971, everything changed. We invented the Playmate — that little tent-shaped cooler with the push-button lid and the swing-up handle. It became the world's most recognizable cooler. You've probably seen one at a tailgate, a construction site, a family picnic, a fishing trip. It's in the Smithsonian, which still feels a little surreal to say out loud. But the Playmate wasn't just a product — it became part of how people hang out. It made bringing cold drinks to a gathering easy, casual, and kind of fun.
Over the decades, we kept pushing. First plastic cooler in the '60s. First wheeled cooler in 1994. First hardside cooler made from recycled plastic in 2021. And that's just the short list. Today we make hard coolers, soft coolers, cooler bags, backpacks, lunch bags, drinkware, water jugs, and all the accessories that go with them. Whether you're packing for a beach day, a road trip, a camping weekend, or just bringing lunch to work, there's something in the lineup built for it.
One thing that hasn't changed: we still design and test everything ourselves. Ice retention, leakproofing, durability — we run it through the lab and then take it into the real world to see how it actually holds up. Features like MaxCold insulation, THERMECOOL foam, and Cool Riser Technology aren't marketing words. They're the reason your ice is still ice after a long day outside.
We also care about doing right by the planet. THERMECOOL insulation is a cleaner, more eco-friendly foam. Our ECOCOOL line uses recycled plastic. We're not perfect, but we're making real progress, and we're honest about it.
More than anything, we build coolers for people who work hard and play harder. The ones who load up the truck on a Saturday morning, the ones who drag a cooler to the beach at sunrise, the ones who just want their drinks cold when they get to the park. You don't need to be an outdoors person to use one of our coolers. You just need to have somewhere to go and someone to go with.
That's been the point all along.