a small, family run business in the heart of it all.
At the core of every product lies a unique story, driven by a passion for quality and innovation.
Origins
small but mighty
It all started in 2006 at a hockey game in Canada.
My wife and I lived in Canada for the first few years of our marriage and so of course we had to attend hockey games. But at every game we were frustrated, the arena which served great food and drinks, had NO cup holders! If you needed to put your drink down to take a bite of food the drink had to go on the ground. Gross.
One night she simply said, “Why don’t we invent a cup holder that is removable and attaches to these armrests?”
Now when she said "we", she really meant me. But the idea really did sound interesting. The entrepreneur in me was excited to see if this was something that "we" could actually do.
I graduated from OSU with a double major in logistics and marketing in autumn of 2002. Which is the year Ohio State beat Miami in the Fiesta Bowl and was the entire reason that I stayed for an extra quarter, no regrets! This is an important piece of information, as it’s influenced our company just a tad.
Manufacturing
O-H-I-O
The name OH-4 Industries comes from my love of my home state, my alma mater, and at the time my wife and I had 4 pets with names that started with the letter O. We were creating a product that held things - an Object Holder, if you will... Thus, OH-4 Industries.
We moved back to the Heart of it All after our first two kids were born and that's really when we got started manufacturing our newly patented "Nearly" Universal Cup holder. We knew we wanted to give back to our community so we found an amazing manufacturer right here in Ohio. Our scarlet and grey boxes are printed in Cincinnati. The foam pads are custom tooled in Ohio as well. However, the straps are manufactured in New Jersey (we really did try our best to find an Ohio distributor).
While we never did get our cup holder into that stadium we certainly found other uses for it. Most notably as a functional accessory for wheelchairs and power scooters. We loved having our cup holders on our kids car seats when they were little and then on the arm rests of our van as they got older. They're great for holding phones, toys, or a cup full of markers! As a family of 5 we traveled all over the country in our van. Having an extra cup holder or two in the van has felt luxurious!
commitment
every cup holder needs a cup
The only logical step from a best selling cup holder is to a cup. What you put in our cup holder is entirely up to you of course but we knew we wanted another great product that was made in the USA.
Enter, Whirley Drink Works. Whirley is a family owned business located in Warren, PA. If you've ever been to a theme park or a stadium and bought their SOUVENIER cup well then you've probably purchased a Whirley cup. These cups are classic! Great lids, colorful wraps, with double lined plastic they simply seem to last forever. That's what we're bringing you with our 16oz and 24oz "Cuperators".
The Cuperator is what our 3 kids used to call our cup holders before they could really pronounce their H's. An homage to the little ones they used to be and the real reason we do what we do.
To instill in our kids that you CAN make your way in the world with just an idea and the passion to make it happen.