How a Texas Metal Shop Became Igloo

Nearly three out of four American households own an Igloo cooler. The brand is so closely tied to summer that it is easy to forget someone had to invent it.

That invention began in Texas for a very practical reason.

According to Igloo’s company history and Texas Highways magazine, the company started in 1947 as a small metalworking shop in Houston. Its first product was not a cooler, but a galvanized metal water jug designed for oil-field workers enduring the brutal Texas heat.

At the time, many workers shared drinking water from open wooden barrels. Igloo’s insulated water container gave workers a cleaner, colder option, and the product quickly gained popularity.

The company made its biggest leap in 1962 when it introduced its first all-plastic ice chest, a 48-quart cooler. Plastic made the cooler lighter, rust-resistant, and better at holding ice than traditional metal models.

According to company records, the cooler was originally marketed to breweries. Instead, it quickly became popular with hunters, fishermen, campers, and families.

Then came the product that made the brand famous.

In 1971, Igloo introduced the Playmate cooler, featuring its recognizable tent-shaped body and push-button lid. The compact cooler became so common at job sites, ballfields, and picnics that it earned the nickname “America’s Lunchbox.”

The company continued evolving over the years, introducing the wheeled cooler in 1994 and expanding into one of the country’s best-known outdoor brands.

Igloo has also changed ownership several times throughout its history. Coca-Cola Bottling of New York, Quaker Oats, and MetLife all owned the company at different points.

In 2021, according to the Katy Times and Dometic Group, Swedish outdoor company Dometic purchased Igloo for $677 million.

Despite the ownership changes, Igloo’s headquarters and primary manufacturing facility remain in Katy, Texas, west of Houston.

Today, roughly 1,200 employees produce an estimated 16 million coolers each year. According to ABC News, that works out to about 55,000 coolers every day.

Most are still made in America, nearly 80 years after a Texas metal shop simply tried to help oil-field workers stay cool.