About 25 years ago our founder, Steve Zaken, had sold his existing business, and found himself with more time on his hands than he wanted, as well as a burning desire to be back in the game.. A friend of his handed him a prepasted toothbrush that he had picked up on his travels in the Orient.
Steve thought the concept was great but the quality was terrible. The bristles were of poor quality, scratched and irritated his gums, and the toothpaste had a horrible taste and was flaking off the brush. His quest to make the perfect prepasted toothbrush began.
He researched all of the formidable toothbrush manufacturers in Korea, Taiwan, China, Malaysia and the Philipines. At the same time he hired a series of interpreters in each country.
His 7 week journey began his quest to manufacture the perfect prepasted toothbrush. After a grueling 7 week trek through the Orient with visits to just about 2 dozen factories, he concluded that the brushes were too poorly made and tasted too medicinal for the US market.
The cleanliness or lack thereof during the manufacturing process was so substandard, he determined that the product could not and would not be made in the Orient.
Still loving the concept of a great quality prepasted toothbrush, he came back to the US and spent the next two and a half years researching the daunting task of creating a great quality prepasted toothbrush. What were the issues to be resolved?
The most difficult task was developing a method that would keep the toothpaste fresh and pleasant tasting on the toothbrush.
What is so very difficult you ask?
Well you see, flavor and fragrances dissipate when they come in contact with air or moisture.
Just like the fragrance of your cologne or perfume disappears as the day goes on. And so years were spent working with a variety of chemists in the pursuit of developing a solution to keeping the toothpaste fresh and flavorful. The chemical bonding process developed, bonding the toothpaste to the bristles and encapsulating the fresh mint flavor to the nylon bristles. He applied for and received 4 patents for this process!
The next task was developing an inexpensive, reusable, fine quality toothbrush. Mexico was in close proximity and offered inexpensive labor, however once again the quality was just not up to snuff. Steve then met with one of the largest toothbrush manufacturing companies in the United States. They worked together in the most technologically advanced surroundings building equipment which featured advanced robotics to drive down the manufacturing cost while ensuring the ISO manufacturing standards of an exemplary sanitary environment.
After more than 3 ½ years of development at a cost of several million dollars, the finest prepasted, reusable toothbrush was born……ReadyBrush.