Zebra (pen manufacturer)

Zebra Pen Corporation is an American manufacturer of high-quality writing instruments. The company was founded in New York in 1982 as an independent corporation wholly owned by Zebra Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, Japan. They sell a wide range of pens, pencils, and highlighters through retail stores, wholesalers, and mail orders.

Origin of Name

The Zebra trademark was adopted in 1914. Legend has it that Mr. Ishikawa, founder of Zebra Co. Ltd., wanted a company name that would be memorable and also appropriate for their export business to other countries. He took an English/Japanese dictionary and, opening it Japanese style from the back, started with the "Z" words. He stopped at "Zebra".

Upon further research, Mr. Ishikawa found that zebras are gentle animals with a strong family herding instinct. This was an important attribute, since he wanted to build a business in which employees and customers were all part of a family-like culture. The fact that the zebra looks like it is decorated with large calligraphic pen strokes may have also appealed to the visual image he was seeking. [ [http://www.zebrapen.com/about.html About Zebra "How We Earned Our Stripes"] ]

Products

Zebra's line of pens and pencils include "The Original" F-301 and M-301, which both have a stainless steel barrel and textured grips. The Jimnie line includes plastic gel-ink pens that are in more vibrant colors as well as a correction pen. Other product lines include Zazzle highlighters, Sarasa retractable gel-ink pens, and Z-Grip pens with soft rubber grips.

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