How It Works
How The Rubber Hugger Was Invented
Like many great ideas, Rubber Hugger was invented out of frustration. Inventor, Gregg McIntosh, after purchasing a new mattress, experienced a great deal of problems in dealing with his bottom fitted sheet that kept coming off the corner of the mattress during the night. Also, because his new mattress was thicker, his top sheet kept coming untucked at the bottom of the bed, often leaving his feet exposed. In addition, during the colder months in Michigan, the quilt on this bed would not stay tucked under the sides of the mattress, and with normal night time movement, they would leave him partially uncovered.
After unsuccessfully trying to solve these problems using duct tape, safety pins, and other combinations of several household products, he begin researching products he could purchase to solve these common problems. None of the products he purchased worked that great and not one single product could solve all three of his bedding issues. That’s when the idea of using tension to hold all the bedding in place came to him.
The first plan was to connect several bungy cords together, but it did not look that great, did not grip the best, and the ends of the cords damaged the sheets in several places. Eventually, it was determined that a flat, natural rubber type of band would need to be developed to meet the length, width, and thickness needed to create the right amount of tension. Several more prototypes were developed and the testing lead to one complete circular band, made of a combination of different natural rubbers that would be manufactured with embossed ribbing for added gripping. By eliminating any clips, buckles, or snaps, the band can lay flat on the surface of the mattress. A vulcanization process is used on the ends of the band to complete the circle loop of the band. Vulcanization is when heat and pressure are applied, allowing the sulphur atoms, present in natural rubber, to attack the double bonds of the carbon atoms in the isoprene strands and bind to them together. This allows the band to be very strong at the joining point.
So, although Rubber Hugger looks like just a giant rubber band, there is a lot more to it to create the perfect solution to these common bedding problems.
Rubber Hugger® is a registered trademark of Rubber Tucker, LLC