History is littered with inventors who saw opportunity even in the face of ridicule . Few believedThomas Edison’slight bulb would have anyenduringappeal ; theWright Brotherswere freeze off for their passionateness for aura travelling , with critic believing it was a playful following at best or that they had n’t evenflownat all;Alexander Graham Bellwassaidto be emaciate his clip with the telephone , with channelize voice too unaccented and indistinct to be useful .
Ed Lowe get this out in 1947 . The reception to his capital breakthrough was tepid at advantageously . To most people , Lowe wasselling dirtin a bag . While technically reliable , it was the function of this clay dirt that was the gunpoint : Lowe had inventedkitty bedding , and the kinship between humankind and their petcatswould never be the same .
A Catty Strategy
To describeLowe ’s bloodline as humble does n’t quite do them justness . He was bear on July 10 , 1920 , in St. Paul , Minnesota , to Henry and Lulu Lowe . The family eventually settle in Marcellus , Michigan . As a teen , Lowewas a worker , sellingSaturday eventide Postmagazine subscription , scrap metal , and corn whisky cobs . For 10 cent , he would eventrap ratsfor client .
In 1946 , after serving in the Navy , 27 - year - old Lowe beganworkingfor his father , whosoldsawdust and other industrial absorbent as well as block of ice to people in and around Cassopolis , Michigan . The business became known asLowe & Lowe . One day , he wasapproachedby a neighbor named Kay Draper who wanted to know if Lowe had any ashes she could use for her guy box .
This was common for the time . Cat ownerswho allowed their pets to defecate indoors typically meet up boxes with ashes , sawdust , or anything that could make the act slightly less indecorous . Even then , a intestine movement in an open box still lead to an super unpleasant odor , and their concentrated urine was even worse . For the most part , cat enthusiasts strain to keep their deary out of doors at Nox rather than have them as lasting indoor roommates . In addition to weaken the emotional connexion between pets and mass , it also lead to some pets getting into fights or being strike by gondola .
Lowe did n’t have any ashes , but he was n’t really disposed to give the woman any . ash or sawdust meant the big cat would simply chase the particles all over the house . Instead , Lowe indicate the woman take ground mud , which was take in in popularity as a fire - insubordinate choice instead of the inflammable sawdust used in industrial spill . Lowe jazz the cadaver was very absorbent . In fact , he had tried commercialize it as chicken litter in the hopespeople who keep chickensmight consider it a more sanitary choice . Made of fuller ’s earth , the claycontainedpositive ion that attract water , absorbing waste and odor .
Lowehandedher the bag he had in his luggage compartment . ( “ More to get free of her than anything else , ” he afterwards recalled . ) When she returned expect for more , Lowe decide to broaden his horizons . He took 10 bags of the clay , dubbed them Kitty Litter , and took them to a nearby store . The proprietor was n’t interested . The 5 - pound grip of litter cost 65 cents , a fortune compared to the cheap sawdust that cost 1 centime per pound . To combat their skepticism , Lowe told them to give the bags away . When mass see how well it sour , he have sex they ’d come back , happy to pay for more .
He was right . The customers returned , eager to replenish their supply of Kitty Litter . But getting that substance across on a large scale was difficult for Lowe , who was essentially bagging and commercializing grease . It take him eight years before his Kitty Litter weaken the $ 1 million mark in sales . After that , there was no turn back .
On the Prowl
During those early years , Lowe became a bedding evangelist , canvassing the country to assist favorite show and shed in on pet distinctiveness stores . At the show , he scooped out spare Kitty Litter topurebred catsin exchange for being given a sale cubicle to make his pitch . In shop , he cart out bags of the bedding and assert computer storage owners were escape out on a huge untapped market — cat owners who loved their cats but hat the smell .
He also left his depression in local markets . Before go on to the next territory , Lowerecruitedlocal wholesaler who could continue supplying stores with the Kitty Litter .
Though Lowe was successful — Kitty Litter was even feature in a 1952Lifemagazine clause — this was a glacial approach to marketing . Then Lowe become a faulting . In the mid-1950s , Kitty Litter begin appear in supermarkets under the brand name Tidy Cat , where people doing their veritable grocery shopping were connive by the idea of making their home cat - well-disposed . ( Not everyone wholly grok the construct . One cleaning lady write to Lowe to complain , say that , despite various way of preparing it , her kat absolutely turn away to eat the bedding material . )
Lowe also go after ad . One early photographic print adread :
This exponential growth was a boon to Edward Lowe Industries and the skin rash of copycat litter product that followed in its wake . In the seventies , Cloroxenteredthe market and intimately toppled Lowe with an exorbitantly price production identify Litter Green that sold for over double his retail price and promised to control olfactory property more effectively . But Lowe keep back firm , and so didcats — they did n’t appear to like the Clorox product .
By 1989 , the kitty bedding market was top $ 500 million every year , with Lowe ’s products — which let in the original Kitty Litter as well as the Tidy Cat and Sophisticat sword — draw up nearly one-half of it . Some bags even sported a pic of Lowe , smiling broadly and bear a kat . Clever television ad campaigns showed a pitch-dark cat with a puke - like stripe . After using Lowe ’s litter , the banding disappeared .
To keep introduce , Lowe developed the Cattery in Cassopolis , a felid laboratory in which a number of Lowe ’s own cats as well as stray were enlisted to live the ultimate in quat luxury — they simply had to eatand poop . The brood eventuallygrewto 120 subject , which were monitor via video surveillance . Their contributions led to Lowe preface a dust - free pussycat bedding in 1985 .
Lowe enjoyed the spoils of his arduous work . Kitty litter had made him a millionaire many meter over , and his holding grew to include 22 household , include several on a 300 - Accho land in Michigan , one in Chicago , winter retreat in Florida , and locations adjacent to clay mines that were harvested for his bedding . His married woman , Darlene , an interior decorator , forge their homes with antiques . A yacht , theGolden Cat , got him on the water .
There was little the profits of kitty litter could not do for him . Once , Lowe treasured a number of 1000 - pound slab depart over from an old Cassopolis pokey . When he could n’t figure out how to move them , Lowe just purchase the land they rest on .
But an empire built on kitty litter can be punic ground indeed .
Stepping In It
In 1984 , Clorox was back , now with Fresh Step , a litter that released a minty fragrancy to facilitate mask scent . It was the most serious threat to Lowe ’s litter empire yet . Having deferred to his plank of directors , Lowe once again took on an participating part .
A feisty Lowe fend off Clorox for a second time , urging retailers to consider that Fresh Step was only 7 quid compared to Tidy Cat ’s 10 - pound udder , and that the scented granules were being triggered during shipping rather than during cat business . He also lend an odor killer of his own .
Lowe ’s tenaciousness paid off . The company was latersoldto an investment mathematical group for $ 200 million and became the Golden Cat Corporation in 1990 before being put in the fold of the Ralston Purina Company . Eventually , it wound up as part of Nestlé .
Lowe ’s quotation that entrepreneurship changed his spirit never ebbed . In 1985 , he and Darlene created theEdward Lowe Foundation , which put up assistance and education to small business owners .
By the time Lowe passed out in 1995 at the age of 75 , he was arguably the main factor behind the 20thcentury ’s rise ofdomesticated cats . Once weigh noxious burdens , cats became more democratic pets than blackguard for the first time in 1985 . And while there ’s considerable environmental business organization over kitten litter — unable to be flushed , it ’s typically plunge in landfill — it ’s decidedly one of the biggest pet innovations ever developed . If there ’s one individual to credit for that fluffy Quaker dozing on your lap without stink up your sign , it ’s Ed Lowe .
