The times, they are a’changing ..

We at Rubber and Plastics have been at our current location for the whole of our lives.  Seriously!  When the business first started around 70 years ago, it was at this very location.  We sold all manner of things rubber and plastic, even originally including car tyres!!!

Now, we feel that we have matured, grown, expanded and entered a new era.  One that can only allow us to go forward if we start afresh.

So, we’re moving!  We have found an exciting new premises to operate from, and it’s just around the corner, so you don’t have to travel too far!

We have been busy organising the interior of our new store to allow us to have separate departments for our lines, and we have been having some fun choosing colours of our new signage!!

So, in the next couple of weeks Mt. Gambier Rubber & Plastics will be closing the doors on Commercial Street forever ………… and then reopening at 1a Compton Street!!!  How exciting!  We will post pics as soon as we can of our new shop so you will know what to look for!  Having said that, with the colour scheme we have chosen, you won’t have to look too hard!!

Looking forward to providing our good old fashioned personal service to you all, whilst offering new and exciting up to date merchandise 🙂  We will still be carrying our trademark foam, mattresses, overlays, fancy dress items, BATA rubber boots, genuine Australian sheepskin UGG boots and moccasins, hoses, flooring solutions rubber strips etc., but we are always on the lookout for other quirky, fun, useful items that ensure we remain Mt. Gambier’s “most unusual store”.

Oh, and we will also be on the NBN and have a cordless EFTPOS machine!  It’s the little things that put a smile on our faces 🙂

If you have any questions, give us a call.  Or better still – come and see us!

Shiny and new!

Thankyou, George de Mestral

Velcro, the “zipperless zipper,” exists on a variety of products from children’s shoes to laptop bags to blood pressure gauges to airplane flotation devices. While the term is used synonymously to describe the hook-and-loop style of binding, it’s actually the name of the company that produced the technology from which now many thousands of imitators trace their products’ origins.

Inspired by nature

In 1948, Swiss engineer and amateur mountaineer George de Mestral went hiking in the woods with his dog. Upon arriving back at his home, he took note of the burrs that clung to his clothes and he wondered if such an idea could be useful in commercial application. He studied a burr under a microscope only to discover that they were covered in tiny hooks, which allowed them to grab onto clothes and fur that brushed in passing. After more than eight years of research and work, he created what is known now today as Velcro, a combination of the words “velvet” and “crochet.” Made up of two strips of fabric, one covered in thousands of tiny hooks and the other with thousands of tiny loops, the materials gripped together firmly while still allowing easy release.

While de Mestral’s invention became the source of much ridicule early in its inception, his perseverance allowed him to perfect the hook-and-loop technology for commercial use. By patenting Velcro in 1955, he helped give his company a competitive edge over other would-be imitators, as evidenced by his company reaching the point selling more than 60 million yards of Velcro per year during de Mestral’s lifetime.

NASA and Velcro

Many sources attribute the creation of Velcro to NASA, thought this claim proves quite false. While NASA wasn’t responsible for the material’s inception, the space agency’s use of the product did lead to Velcro’s popularity in all circles of life. In the 1960s, Apollo astronauts used Velcro to secure all manner of devices in space for easy retrieval.

Velcro’s popularity

Despite the image boost created through NASA’s use of Velcro, the material came in few colours and often looked quite ugly. Due to the simple lack of aesthetic appeal, Velcro was used only with athletic equipment. Starting in 1968 and on into the 1980s, shoe companies like Puma, Adidas and Reebok integrated Velcro straps onto children’s shoes.

By this point, the patent on the hook-and-loop technology had expired and many imitators began to crop up throughout the world. Many of these were cheap and low-quality versions, which forced Velcro to begin a lifelong battle of maintaining the integrity of its product’s name to prevent it from becoming a generic term, much like aspirin, which was originally a brand name.

Velcro gained popularity in many new styles of use when, a 1984 interview between David Letterman and Velcro’s USA director of industrial sales  ended in Letterman jumping off a trampoline onto a wall while in a Velcro suit. This prompted many companies to find innovative and versatile methods of using Velcro, from attaching electronic devices to car seats to toys with Velcro materials for catching balls.

Velcro in the Army

In 2004, Velcro made significant headway in the industry by gaining the U.S. Army as a client. The hook-and-loop material became used on the Army Combat Uniform, a lighter version of their original battle attire. However, soldiers disliked the material and caused much uproar through complaints over the noise it created and how the fabrics collected dust. After an internal inspection of these claims, the Army moved away from the use of Velcro to instead rely on buttons.

Velcro today is a registered trademark of Velcro Industry. So while many products come equipped with Velcro, they don’t advertise as being a Velcro product, just like imitator manufacturers don’t advertise their hook-and-loop materials as Velcro.

Article courtesy http://www.livescience.com/

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to our new blog!  It is hoped that you will find a host of useful information here.  There will be snippets of information about our products, about our store, about happenings in our local area.  We look forward to making this a fun place for you to visit, and hope to see you here often!

For starters, we have just had our local Christmas Pageant.  It was a glorious sunny day, and Commercial Street was full of happy children, parents and grandparents alike, enjoying the colourful sights and sounds of a fantastic, much anticipated event!

Who wouldn’t want this hanging from the chimney?

The bands were wonderful, the floats were great and of course, Santa has now arrived in town!

He’s HERE!!!!

Get your Christmas party on by having a look at our fancy dress items – we have the old familiar Santa hats, elf hats, reindeer antlers, plus a whole range of other varieties of costume accessories.  Pop in and see what we have to offer!