OXO Founder Sam Farber Dies at 88
Posted in: OXO, Sam Farber
Join us in raising your cushiony Santoprene-handled OXO Good Grips Swivel Peeler in a salute to Sam Farber, who died last Sunday at the age of 88. He founded OXO in 1990 to fill a market gap for kitchen devices that were as comfortable as they were functional, an idea hatched after watching his mildly arthritic wife struggle with a spindly standard peeler while preparing an apple tart in the south of France.
Farber chose the name “OXO” for its graphic versatility: it reads the same horizontal, vertical, upside-down, or backwards and had the vision to tap Smart Design for the hand-friendly Good Grips line, still going strong today. “Sam saw an opportunity to provide comfortable tools that would be easy to use for the widest spectrum of users, changing the relationship people everywhere have with ordinary household products,” noted the company in a statement announcing Farber’s death. “His inquisitive nature and refusal to accept the status quo continue to inspire our product development today.”
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