Monday, February 17, 2014

Trapper Keeper

Let's face it. In high school back in the '80s, a Trapper Keeper was MANDATORY. No kid would be caught dead without one. 

In 1980, Mead invented the Trapper Keeper. The folders were three sided, preventing papers from falling out. The metal rings in typical binders were replaced by easy slide-open plastic rings in the Trapper Keeper, eliminating painful binder pinches. The original Trapper Keepers had brass metal snap-close buttons. These were later replaced by velcro.

Until the Trapper Keeper, you carried Pee-Chees. While iconic, Pee-Chees had one major flaw; papers often fell out of them, leaving a nightmarish mess on the hallway floor in front of your locker (often with just seconds to your next class.)  


And woe to the kid who got picked on - the bullies would just walk all over his/her papers.

They originally came in three plain colours, blue, red and green.  


In 1984, new designs were added, making Trapper Keepers even more cooler than ever. But most kids liked to cut through the clear plastic outer covering and slip in their own illustrations.


And even today, I STILL use a Trapper Keeper. I find they're PERFECT for keeping important papers. The look has changed with the times and velcro close has been replaced by strong magnets, but fundamentally, they're as trusty as ever.








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