Pool Noodle
Canadian entrepreneurs Steve Hartman and Richard Koster independently invented the pool noodle in Ontario during the 1980s
In 1980, Steve Hartman entered the plastics manufacturing business with his father in Toronto, Ontario, founding Industrial Thermal Polymers to produce cylindrical closed cell polyethylene foam backer rods used to fill expansion joints in masonry and concrete construction. The long grey foam tubes proved buoyant in water, prompting Hartman to extrude them in bright colors and market them as aquatic toys under the name FunNoodle.
Around 1986, fellow Ontario resident Richard Koster developed a similar flotation tube while designing training equipment and pull buoys for competitive swimmers in Oakville. Koster adapted white polyethylene foam cylinders by wrapping them in colored tape, branding his creation the Water Woggle before distributing solid-colored production versions across North America by 1987.
Neither Hartman nor Koster secured a patent on the underlying cylindrical foam design. Because backer rod extrusion was an established industrial manufacturing method, the unpatented product quickly spread across the plastics industry, turning the simple polyethylene cylinder into a ubiquitous global summer staple.
This fun swimming aid derives from industrial foam sealant for concrete joints. Invented in parallel, its two commonly attributed inventors didn't secure the design, letting others replicate and spread worldwide.