How OXO Conquered the American Kitchen #Kitchen @Slate
OXO has diced, peeled, and salad-spun its way to America’s cooking heart. Is it really that good?
If you’ve ever stocked a first apartment’s kitchen, or searched the internet for the perfect measuring cup, or asked a friend “Why is your ice-cream scoop better than mine?,” you know OXO. Founded in 1990, it was the brainchild of a housewares mogul who was inspired to create a new kind of product (legend has it) by the struggles of his arthritic wife to peel an apple.
OXO brought universal design into the mainstream: Its products were meant to be welcoming, accessible, and easy to use for customers of differing abilities and confidence levels. And it’s succeeded, without ever substantially changing its iconic look—so iconic that the company’s initial vegetable peeler, with its “Good Grips” handle, is now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
OXO—pronounced “ox-oh,” not “oh-ex-oh”—is the No. 1 kitchen gadget company in market share, according to market research firm the NPD Group. OXO is so dominant in the kitchen-gadget space that the consumer-recommendation site Wirecutter features a blog post simply listing the 42 OXO products that top its various category rankings.
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