September 7, 2023 – Post-it Notes

Happy Throwback Thursday! Today we’re featuring the year 1980, the year Post-it Notes were rolled out nation wide! The story of Post-it Notes goes back to 1968, when Spencer Silver, a scientist at 3M, was working on developing a super-strong adhesive. He ended up creating the opposite – a low tack, reusable, pressure-sensitive adhesive. He wasn’t sure what applications his invention could be used for, but he spent 5 years promoting it within the company, both informally and through seminars.
In 1974, a chemical engineer in 3M’s tape division, Arthur Fry, attended one of Silver’s seminars. Legend has it that Fry was at church when he realized the perfect application for Silver’s product. He sang in the church choir and used slips of paper to mark the pages of his hymnal. The problem was that these papers moved around or fell right out of the book. Fry realized that Silver’s adhesive would be perfect for a better bookmark, one that would stay in place without ruining the page.
He requested a sample the next day and began experimenting, coating one edge of a paper bookmark with Silver’s adhesive. They found themselves using it to write notes around the office, and realized the full potential of the product. The original pale yellow color of Post-its was chosen completely by chance – it happened to be the color of scrap paper used by the lab next door to the Post-it team.
It took some time for the idea to fully come to fruition. In 1977,  3M first test marketed the product as a “Press ‘n Peel” sticky bookmark, but sales weren’t great. A year later, they gave out free samples of sticky notes in Boise, Idaho, with 95% of those who tried them indicating they would buy the product. The product was rolled out across the country in April 1980 and was an overnight success.
Today, there are more than 1,000 Post-it products sold in more than 150 countries. Learn more here.