A bolt of pink inspiration
struck Don Featherstone one bleak day
in 1957 in Leominster, Massachusetts.
The result was the creation of the world's
first plastic pink flamingo lawn ornaments.
Don Featherstone in one stroke of genius
accomplished more than any other single
person for both the plastics industry
and popular culture. Imagine the drabness
of a world without plastic pink flamingo
lawn ornaments.
The original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo lawn ornaments were manufactured continuously from 1957 through 2005
by Union Products in Leominster, Massachusetts. In 2005 Union Products went out
of business.

In May 2007, the copyright and molds for the original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo were purchased by HMC International LLC in Westmoreland, New York,
a division of Faster-Form Corporation. As of mid-2009 Faster-Form finally began to remanufacture
the original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo lawn ornaments under the Faster-Form label. The reissued
items still bore the signature of Don Featherstone as well as the Union Products Leominster imprint. The most recent incarnation of this era was packaged in a blue corrugated cardboard box with cutouts for the flamingoes. Box labeling was Union Products, a division of Faster-Form. During the HMC-Faster-Form era, the production and distribution of the original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo was random and very limited, making the product very difficult to obtain.
In November 2007, president and owner of HMC International LLC, John C. Waszkiewicz III, died suddenly at the age of 54. This put the future of HMC-Faster-Form in a tenuous condition. In 2010, Cado Products Inc., of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, purchased the intellectual property rights and molds for the original Don Featherstone plastic
pink flamingo from Faster-Form, as well as more than 200 other blow and injection molds used by the former Union Products.
Reliable information has been received that Cado has redesigned the flamingo package to be more of a tropical theme rather than the plain blue Faster-Form box. Plans indicate that the Don Featherstone and Union Products imprints will still be present. Labeling will be Union Products, a division of Cado Manufacturing. Cado appears to be very enthusiastic about the entire Union Products line, and the original Don Featherstone plastic
pink flamingo in particular. The stated intention is to obtain a much wider distribution and make the flamingo readily available. Apparently flamingo sales have already been increasing.
Accept no substitutes. Go for the gusto. Purchase only the original Don Featherstone plastic
pink flamingo lawn ornament.
Donald Featherstone January 25, 1936 - June 22, 2015.
For the creation of
the plastic pink flamingo, Don Featherstone
has won the coveted
Ig
Nobel Prize
.
Check Don Featherstone's
book
The
Original Pink Flamingos: Splendor on
the Grass.
Visit the
Cado Company web site.
View the
Union Products Division of Cado Sell Sheet.
Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingoes are available from
the plastic pink flamingo
and
get flocked
.
|