The history of Polaroid

Polaroid Corporation, an American company renowned for its instant cameras and film, now endures as a consumer electronics brand. Founded in 1937 by Edwin Herbert Land, the company originally focused on leveraging Land's Polaroid polarizing polymer. In 1948, Land and Polaroid introduced the first instant camera, the Land Camera. Land remained at the helm until 1981. Polaroid reached peak employment with 21,000 employees in 1978 and achieved record revenue of $3 billion in 1991. However, the company declared bankruptcy in 2001. By February 2008, Polaroid announced it would cease film production for its cameras. 

Following this, in June 2008, Florian Kaps and André Bosman met at the factory's closing event and co-founded a company to produce film for Polaroid cameras, establishing The Impossible Project. In October 2008, Impossible purchased Polaroid's remaining production equipment for $3.1 million and leased the north building of the former Polaroid plant in Enschede, Netherlands. Utilizing this equipment, they developed new instant film for existing Polaroid models, launching mass production in 2010.

In December 2014, The Impossible Project appointed Oskar Smołokowski as CEO, with Creed O'Hanlon as executive chairman. In May 2017, Wiaczesław Smołokowski (who is the father of Oskar) acquired Polaroid's brand and intellectual property, leading to a rebranding of Impossible Project as Polaroid Originals in September 2017. Finally, in March 2020, the company rebranded once more, becoming simply Polaroid. Today Polaroid manufactures SX-70 and 600 film, i-Type film, Go film, and large format 8x10 film.