So I got an order the other day that made me really excited about where our safety markers are headed this year. Washington State Highway Patrol placed their quarterly order for a couple hundred of our 15 millimeter Caution Orange markers, and it got me thinking about how many people don't know these markers exist or what they're actually used for out in the field.

Let me back up and explain what makes these safety markers different from everything else we sell, and why I think 2026 is going to be the year they really take off.

The Call I Want to Make to Every Highway Patrol in the Country

Here's the thing about Washington State Highway Patrol. They order from us once a quarter. It's usually a couple hundred markers in that bright Caution Orange color. They've been doing this for a while now, and every time an order comes through, I think about how many other highway patrol departments across the country have no idea we even make these markers.

So this is my official call to highway patrol departments everywhere. If you're reading this and you work for a state patrol or highway department, I want to send you free samples. Just call us. Test them out. See how they work in the field. Because I genuinely believe these markers solve real problems that you're probably dealing with every single day.

What Makes Safety Markers Different

We make a lot of different marker formulas at Chalk Ink®, but our safety markers occupy this really specific space that most people don't think about until they need it.

They're semi-permanent. That's the key. They stay on when you need them to stay on, but they come off when you actually want to remove them. If it rains, they'll slowly start to deteriorate, but they don't just wash away immediately. And when you're ready to take the marking off completely, it comes right off with water.

That middle ground between temporary and permanent is exactly what highway patrol needs. When you're marking an abandoned car on the side of the highway, you need that mark to stay visible for days or even weeks while the situation gets resolved. But you don't want it to be permanent graffiti that's stuck there forever after the car gets towed.

Our 15 millimeter Caution Orange markers are perfect for that. They're big enough to write clearly on metal, glass, concrete, basically any surface. The color is bright and unmistakable. And the formula holds up to weather without being impossible to remove later.

Where Else Safety Markers Belong

The more I think about these markers, the more I realize how many places they should be and currently aren't. Highway patrol is one application, but there are so many others.

City emergency management crews need these. When you're responding to a disaster or emergency situation and you need to mark buildings, vehicles, equipment, whatever, you need something that's going to be visible and durable but not permanent. Our safety markers do exactly that.

School systems should have these in their emergency kits. If there's ever a lockdown or evacuation or any kind of emergency where you need to mark rooms, exits, hazards, safe zones, you need a tool that works on any surface and stays put long enough to matter.

Hospital emergency teams absolutely need these. Hospitals have emergency protocols for everything, and part of that is marking areas during triage or disasters. Our markers work on walls, windows, floors, and equipment. They're bright. They're clear. They do the job.

And honestly, any business with an emergency supply kit should have a safety marker in there. Retail stores, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, carpentry shops, anywhere that has a back of house emergency kit. These markers are just one more tool that you hope you never need but are really glad to have when the situation calls for it.

The Legal Graffiti Concept, Industrial Edition

I keep coming back to this idea of legal graffiti that I talk about a lot with our other products. With our regular Chalk Ink® markers, it's about writing love notes on your bathroom mirror or creating chalkboard art in your coffee shop. With safety markers, it's the same concept but applied to industrial and emergency use.

You can write on concrete. You can write on metal. You can write on glass, walls, dumpsters, vehicles, basically anything. And it's legal because it's your property or you're authorized to mark it for safety or operational reasons. It's not vandalism. It's communication. It's problem solving.

That's what makes these markers so useful for the trades and for safety applications. Whether you're in manufacturing and you need to mark defective materials, or you're in carpentry and you need to label cuts and measurements on job sites, or you're in emergency management and you need to communicate quickly and clearly in a crisis, these markers give you a tool that just works.

Why This Year Feels Different

I said at the beginning that I think 2026 is going to be the year our safety markers really take off, and I mean that. We've had these markers in our lineup for a while, but they've never gotten the attention they deserve. Part of that is because safety and industrial products don't have the same fun, visual appeal as our Valentine's Day markers or our brew pub chalkboard markers. They're utilitarian. They're practical. They're not sexy.

But they solve real problems. And I think there's a huge market out there that just doesn't know we exist yet.

Washington State Highway Patrol found us somehow. They tested our markers. They liked them. And now they order a couple hundred every quarter. That tells me there are probably dozens or even hundreds of other highway patrol departments, city emergency teams, school systems, hospitals, and industrial operations that would be doing the same thing if they just knew about us.

The Abandoned Car Story

Here's a use case that really drives home why these markers matter. When highway patrol finds an abandoned car on the side of the road, they need to mark it so that other officers know it's been logged, so that tow companies know it's been flagged for removal, and so that the public knows it's not just some random parked car.

Traditionally, that's done with stickers or tags or temporary spray paint. Stickers can fall off. Tags can blow away. Spray paint is either too permanent or washes off too easily, depending on the formula.

Our Caution Orange safety marker solves that problem. You can write directly on the car window or the body. The mark stays visible for days or weeks. It doesn't wash off in the first rainstorm. But when the car gets towed and cleaned up, the mark comes off easily with water and a little scrubbing. No permanent damage. No residue. Just clear, temporary communication that does its job and then goes away.

That's the kind of practical, unglamorous problem solving that I love. It's not flashy. It's not going to go viral on Instagram. But it makes someone's job easier and it works better than the alternatives.

What We're Asking For

If you work for a highway patrol department, a city emergency management team, a school district facilities team, a hospital safety department, or any kind of industrial or trade operation, I want you to try these markers.

We'll send you free samples. No commitment. No sales pitch. Just test them out in the field and see if they solve problems for you the way they've been solving problems for Washington State Highway Patrol.

Our 15 millimeter Caution Orange marker is the workhorse. It's bright, it's bold, it writes on anything, and it stays put until you want it gone. We also have other colors and sizes depending on what you need. But Caution Orange is the one that emergency and safety teams keep coming back to because it's unmistakable and it just works.

You can find all our safety markers on our website at chalkink.com or on Amazon. But if you want samples first, just give us a call or send us an email. We're a small company and we actually answer our phones. We'll get samples out to you and you can see for yourself whether these markers belong in your emergency kit or your work truck or wherever you need a reliable marking tool.

The Bigger Picture

I started this blog talking about one order from Washington State Highway Patrol, and I'm ending it with a challenge to every safety, emergency, and industrial team out there to give our markers a shot.

That's how small businesses grow, right? One customer at a time. One good product solving one real problem. And then you tell people about it and hope that the right folks find you and realize you've been making exactly what they needed all along.

So here's to Washington State Highway Patrol for trusting our markers quarter after quarter. And here's to all the other highway patrols, emergency teams, schools, hospitals, and trades out there who are about to discover that there's a better tool for marking, communicating, and solving problems in the field.

We make good markers. You need reliable tools. Let's make this work.

Give us a call. Get some samples. See what you think. We're here to help.