Let me tell you about how we ended up creating our safety marker line, because honestly, it wasn't something we planned from the beginning. After 20 years in the marker business, I've learned that some of your best products come from watching how people actually use what you make, not from what you think they should use it for.

The Writing was On the Concrete

Our Safety Marker story actually begins with our regular Chalk Ink marker, which is a design tool we make for artists and designers. It's higher end, not something we really market to kids, and it's been doing its thing in the creative world for years. But then we started noticing something interesting. Contractors and construction folks were buying these markers like crazy because they could write on concrete. And concrete, as it turns out, is a massive industry that I honestly hadn't fully appreciated until I started seeing the orders roll in.

Having a non-permanent marker that works on concrete floors and roadways, on cars in showrooms and traffic incidents, on all these surfaces that traditional markers can't handle turned out to be huge. We even had Cirque du Soleil buy some to mark the stage for their performers, which still amazes me.

So anyway, that got us thinking about creating something specifically for this utilitarian market, and that's how the Safety Marker by Chalk Ink was born.

Storytelling in Color

We ended up with three colors, and each one has its own purpose. There's Caution Orange, which is pretty self-explanatory if you've ever been on a construction site. Then we have what we're calling Fluorescent Blue, which looks like that medical blue color you see everywhere in hospitals. And then there's White. All fluorescent, all designed to stand out when you need them to.

The idea was simple: create a utilitarian tool for all trades. Tile contractors can mark on tile and slate and granite – I actually make my grocery list on my granite countertop with these things, which probably says something about how my brain works. But really, we figured having a few of these in your toolbox is just a great thing for anyone working with their hands.

Then the First Responders Found Us

Now the Safety Marker has expanded beyond construction into the world of first responders – fire, ambulance, police. We have about 15 states that buy the large 15 millimeter marker for their patrol officers. They keep them in their patrol cars and use them to mark abandoned cars. If there's an accident, they can write the incident number right on the vehicle, or write on tires, or whatever they need to document.

This whole conversation reminded me of something we did way back in the day. We had this line called Auto Chalk, and we went to the big NASCAR race in Florida, the Daytona 500. One year we rented a Hummer and had everybody sign it for the troops. I still have photos of this Hummer just completely covered in our Chalk Ink® markers, and it was this amazing moment of realizing how many different ways people could use what we were making.

City Emergency Management Teams and Government Contracts

Now we're really targeting this whole line for first responders, police, fire, ambulance, construction trades, anybody in the auto industry, because it can write on the car itself, not just the windows. Same as the original Chalk Ink marker, it comes off with Windex or glass cleaner, and it's become popular with city emergency management teams. I'd love to see us working with every city in the country. These are the folks making decisions for places like Austin and Dallas, and if we can really target these teams, there's huge potential there.

I know it's an inexpensive item, but because we're women owned, it opens doors into safety vests and hard hats and safety belts and all kinds of safety equipment. We've got this whole line of safety labels and reflective strips and things that complement the markers, creating this entire safety ecosystem we never originally planned for.

Still Learning After All These Years

After two decades in this business, you'd think I'd have all the answers, but I'm always learning something new about what people need and how they use the ideas you put into the world. I think that’s what inspires me most to keep creating new products and connecting with people, by telling more stories like the humble beginnings of the Safety Marker. I just think there's so much possibility to make a difference in the work that’s being done. And we love giving out samples! 

So anyway, there you have it – the Safety Marker story. From artists and designers to construction workers to first responders to emergency management teams, sometimes you create something thinking it's for one purpose and it ends up serving people in ways you never imagined.