OH 4 Industries, where did that name come from? Well before we go into any of that, let’s look at how we chose to reinvent the cup holder. It all started with my wife (who’s a hockey fan like any other true blooded Canadian) dragging me to a Vancouver Canucks hockey game. If you’ve ever been to a game there, you know that there are limits to the amount of alcoholic beverages you can get, and at the time is was two per trip.
After a few inconvenient times of standing and sitting, standing and sitting, and watching those around us having to pick up both beverages, and growing more and more impatient with each person passing by, I asked why there was no armrest cup holder. My wife remarked that she believed that most stadiums in Canada didn’t have any built into the seats, other than in the club section. (Those only get in the way anyway, as they are generally attached to the seat in front of you, and easily tripped over.)
Let me pause here, because I’m an Ohio State fan. I graduated in autumn of 2002 with a double major in logistics and marketing, only having skipped summer quarter for 7 home games fall quarter. (Which coincidentally happened to be the year Ohio State beat Miami in the Fiesta Bowl to become National Champions, and is arguably the smartest move I ever made, other than meeting and marrying my wife, of course.) This is a very important piece of information, as it’s influenced our company just a tad. I’ll come back to this later, but at this point in the story, I told her that OSU’s hockey and basketball arena had a convenient cup holder built into every seat armrest. I guess, like going to a movie theater, I just took it for granted.
She kinda shrugged it off (and being the inventive little thing that she is) merely said, “Why don’t we invent a cup holder that is removable and attaches to existing armrests?” My jaw dropped, as it was such a simple suggestion, but one that had never really crossed either of our minds until that moment. Seriously, if you could follow her around for a day, with a pad and paper asking her to solve day to day problems, you’d have enough ideas for life, unfortunately for me (as with most wives) when they say “we” it generally means “me.” Needless to say I’ll be busy with this little project for a while.
Anyway, VIOLA! The idea for OH 4 Industries was born. After a few months of researching the idea, finding a patent lawyer, getting a design together, and a HEFTY loan later, the actual corporation was formed.
Okay, so WHY OH 4 Industries? At first, we liked the name O4 industries, because we have four lovely pets whose names all start with the letter “o”. (Their names are also all characters in Shakespearian plays, but that’s another tangent entirely.) Our business lawyer told us we needed to have a name that describes what we do, so in trying to keep the theme of “O” (and not wanting to limit our holder to just a cup) we went with object holder 4 industries which became abbreviated to, you guessed it, OH 4 Industries.
This worked out MUCH better, as we still have the “o” sound for our pets’ names, but OH is also the abbreviation for my beloved native state. The name can be read O-H 4 Industries, Oh 4 industries, or whatever other concoction you can think of. As a wise band from Ohio State once said, “You can pronounce our name one way or the other, the important thing is that youĂre talking about us.” I’ll leave you with this last bit of information, and the TRUE REASON I love the name. All you Buckeye fans out there will appreciate this, not only is the color scheme the best in the land, there’s also a variation of a catchy cheer that can be answered almost anywhere. When walking amongst a group of people, in Columbus, Ohio, or any other region of the country for that matter, simply yell out, “O! H!” while making the letters with your arms above your head, and I guarantee if the crowd is big enough and wise enough, someone will answer you back with an, “I! O!”
THAT’S the spirit that embodies OH 4 Industries and thank you for visiting our site.
