Hugo Maisnik, grew up the son of a printer and back then, you did what your father did. But Hugo was an inventor! He would take a piece of cardboard and stare at it for a while, then start folding and cutting into it, wire it up, and soon it would become a stenciled wrap for a lamp that looked like an animated waterfall – and lit up when you plugged it in!

 

The Inspiration

Hugo came upon the tape quite by accident. Someone delivered a package to his printing plant, its’ contents  completely destroyed…except for one small piece of plastic. He was fascinated by this little piece of plastic.  Struck by how strong it was, he had the idea to roll the material into a kind of tape. He started playing with various thicknesses of plastic until he got it exactly where he wanted it.

He envisioned a roll of tape with no adhesive, that had tremendous holding power – something that could wrap a delicate poster, or pristine rug, or large rolls of heavy paper (inspired by the fact that he operated a massive printing plant). He also imagined this no-adhesive tape as being clear or in translucent colors, so as not to detract from the object it was securing.  

 

Use it for almost anything

From that vision, Hugo’s ‘Amazing Tape’ was born.  Wanting to share his tape with the world, Hugo traveled around the country doing trade shows and fairs. “Feel my tape, ” he would say to passers by at each event.  Hugo would gather a crowd, demonstrate his tape and sell out of whatever quantity he’d brought with him. People loved him, and he loved showing folks what his tape could do. He would hang by the tape to demonstrate its strength and wrap it around anything and everything to show all of its uses – from keeping spools of thread from unraveling (for the sewing set), to holding cards and board game pieces together (for the gaming set), to using it to hold open books, or keeping bags of food airtight, or bundling papers and envelopes together. Plus, you could write on the tape in permanent marker!

 

The make your life better tape

And Hugo was thrilled when any of his kids would call to tell him how they utilized the tape: “Dad, I just fixed my suitcase… held my lunch box together… organized all of my wires and cords… fixed my faucet! You’re amazing!!!”   His response was always the same:  “That’s FANNNTASTIC!

He truly loved how something so simple and clean could make your life better.

 

The traveling helpful tape

But what he loved even more was any opportunity to help others. And that generosity of spirit was consistently in evidence.  Once, when Hugo was driving somewhere in the Midwest on his way to a tradeshow, a man on the road in front of him swerved to avoid hitting a deer.  All of the contents on the back of the man’s truck fell off. It was in the middle of the night so there were very few cars on the road. Hugo pulled over and helped the man gather every last item. The man had used string to tie everything down, but it broke. Hugo proceeded to spend about two hours with this man, helping him get all his objects back onto the truck…then using his Amazing Tape to help secure all of the items as if they were his own.

 

The man was so appreciative because the money he was going to get for his delivery was being sent home to his family in Mexico. Hearing this, Hugo then gave him some cases of the tape to sell and told him to keep the money so he could send more to his kids back home.

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The medical tape

On another memorable occasion, Hugo -- who’d been an avid surfer in his youth -- was at a favorite Southern California beach one weekend when he spotted a surfer come out of the ocean, holding his leg and screaming in pain.  Turns out, the surfer had been bitten by a small shark, and Hugo jumped into action. He reached into his bag, grabbed a roll of his Amazing Tape, ran to the surfer and wrapped his leg in the tape until medical help arrived.  

 

All of which may explain why, when Hugo won the Art Fry Award (named for the inventor of the Post-It), Art Fry himself said, “Everyone who uses Post-Its should have a roll of Hugo’s Amazing Tape in their house.”  

 

It's Hugo's Amazing Tape

Nothing would’ve made my dad, Hugo, more proud than knowing that everyone did have a roll of his Amazing Tape at home.   He loved America and always said it was the greatest country in the world.  The son of immigrants, Hugo appreciated the fact that so many people risked their lives to start anew in this land of plenty.  

He cherished not only his own dreams, but the dreams of everyone he ever met.  

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