Cleret is an American manufacturer and brand of squeegees and related products based in

Lake Oswego, Oregon Lake Oswego () is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily in Clackamas County, with small portions extending into neighboring Multnomah and Washington counties. Located about south of Portland and surrounding the Oswego Lake, the town w ...

. The company's original squeegee won an International Design Excellence Award from the

Industrial Designers Society of America The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is a membership-based not-for-profit organization that promotes the practice and education of industrial design. The organization was formally established in 1965 by the collaborative merger of ...

, and sits in the permanent collection of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

History

Hanco Inc. was founded in 1987 by Alan Hansen in Lake Oswego, Oregon, to manufacture Cleret squeegees.Paula Deitz
"Top New Designs Share an Old Trait – Simplicity,"
''

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'', September 3, 1989.Ron Gasbarro
"Ideas,"
''

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'', September 14, 1990. The company name was later changed to Cleret. Hansen began designing the Cleret squeequee in 1986.John Pierson
"This Device Could Change The Minds Of Those Who 'Don't' Do Windows,"
''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'', November 5, 1989. At the time, he was director of corporate audit at

Nike, Inc. Nike, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services. The company is headquartered ne ...

,Laura Oppenheimer
"Portland's Ziba Design, where art meets science, turns 25,"
''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...

'', August 1, 2009. and at Louisiana Pacific Corporation before that.Susan Hauser, "Lake Oswego resident cleans up with new squeegee," ''The Oregonian'', October 28, 1990. After two years of working on concepts for a more attractive squeegee, Hansen hired Beaverton, Oregon-based Ziba Design, founded by Sohrab Vossoughi in 1984. Hansen invested $10,000 of his own money to pay Ziba to design what would become the Cleret Glass Cleaner. The brand name Cleret is derived from "clear-it" and is intended to sound upscale.Michael Rose, "Hansen cleans up," ''

Portland Business Journal Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

'', vol. 8, no. 23, August 5–11, 1991, pp. 1, 11. The company generated $14,000 in sales in 1989, and over $1 million in its first year officially on the market, with 80% of sales coming from high-end catalogs such as

Hammacher Schlemmer Hammacher Schlemmer is an American retailer and catalog company based in Niles, Illinois. History Hammacher Schlemmer began as a hardware store specializing in hard-to-find tools in the Bowery district of New York City in 1848. Owned by pro ...

. It had annual revenues of $16 million by its second year on the market.William B. Gartner and Marlene G. Bellamy,
Creating the Enterprise
', Mason, OH: Thomson Higher Education, 2009, chapter 8, p. 257. In 1990, Hansen moved Hanco out of his home and into an office at the Water Tower in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

's Johns Landing neighborhood. Around that time, Hansen quit his job at Nike to focus on building Cleret, continuing to manage and design new products for the company. In 1991, Cleret expanded beyond the United States, as it was introduced in Canada, Europe and Japan. In 1989, while it was still a prototype, the squeegee was one of 12 products to win an Industrial Design Excellence Award from the

. The squeegee was sold at the gift shop of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In 1997, the original Cleret squeegee from 1989 would join the permanent collection of the

as a part of its Product Design and Decorative Arts collection."Cleret Squeegee, 1989,"
cooperhewitt.org, 1997.

Products and design

Ziba's designers determined that the traditional T-shape of a squeegee was not the most efficient for a wiping motion in a confined area such as a shower stall. After researching the way window washers and filling-station attendants would put their hands close to the blade and rarely use the handle, Ziba designed a plastic squeegee without a traditional handle; instead, it had a tubular rubber grip running parallel to curved twin blades, which moves across glass or mirrors with a wiping motion to reduce strain to the hand and wrist.Patricia Dane Rogers

''The Washington Post'', August 31, 1989. The dual blades leave a surface cleaner than a single blade squeegee. ''

'' called the resulting product "a piece of functional art" and "an elegant product" with a "sensual design". ''

'' wrote that it "looks like no other squeegee in history". Reviewers have lauded it for being easy to hold and for standing on its end for simple storage. Cleret products are manufactured and assembled entirely in Oregon."A squeegee with class," ''D&B Reports'', January/February 1992, p. 27. The company later expanded beyond shower squeegees to manufacture squeegees for windows, kitchens, patio doors and automobiles.

Honors and awards

* International Design Excellence Award (Gold),

, 1989 *

permanent collection, Product Design and Decorative Arts, acquired 1997

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleret Companies established in 1987 Companies based in Lake Oswego, Oregon Cleaning product brands Cleaning products Cleaning tools Bathrooms 1987 establishments in Oregon