April 6, 1980
3M starts selling Post-it papers in the US market, with great success.
The company currently generates 50 billion Post-it a year and generates a turnover of one billion from the yellow papers in each office. To be precise, Post-it is now available in 57 different colors, 27 sizes and 20 fragrances.
And all this was done by mistake. This story begins in 1967, when one day Spencer Silver was working in 3M’s lab, trying to make a glue that was stronger than the ones already in circulation. Instead, he ended up inventing microspheres, small round particles that stick together without dissolving or melting. Initially, 3M did not know how to use this invention.
It was, as Silver put it, “a solution to a problem.” But in 1974, Art Fry’s colleague suggested that he use this glue to stick the bookmarks in his hymnbook so that they would not fall off when he went to church.
Somehow, the product that was originally called “Press ‘n’ Peel” was created. 3M launched it in 1977, but only took off after 1980, when it was renamed Post-it.
What few people know is that the characteristic yellow color of Post-it (called Canary Yellow) was not the result of some market research or careful selection, as is usually the case with consumer products that target the top. In fact, it was chosen by chance, simply because the people working on the project went to the next workshop to ask for paper and there they found only… yellow.
In 1997, 3M’s patent expired, paving the way for the company’s competitors to make their own papers. However, the name Post-it and the characteristic yellow color are still a trademark belonging to 3M. And of course, Post-it is one of the first in sales among the consumer products of this industrial giant that makes more than 55,000 different items.
As for Silver himself, who in his 3M years secured 37 patents and won several awards, he retired from the company in 1996. He died in 2021.
Money Review
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