| Type | Subsidiary of ACCO Brands |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1925 (New York City) |
| Headquarters | Lincolnshire, Illinois |
Swingline is a division of ACCO Brands that specializes in manufacturing staplers and hole punches. The company was formerly located in Long Island City, Queens, New York, United States, but is now headquartered with its parent company ACCO in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
Contents |
Swingline was founded in 1925 in New York City by Jack Linsky[1] as the Parrot Speed Fastener Company, and opened its first manufacturing facility in Long Island City in 1931. In 1939, the company changed its name to Speed Products, and in 1956, became Swingline. It became a division of ACCO Brands (then a division of Fortune Brands) in 1987. The factory name, Swingline, was a large iconic sign on top of the Queens building.
In the late 1990s, Swingline shut down production in Long Island City, New York, and moved the production of premium staplers and staples to Mexico and began production of economy plastic staplers in China. As of 2009, the all-metal 747 Classic stapler was produced in China.
A Swingline product was featured in the 1999 cult-classic film Office Space. One employee, Milton, constantly mistreated by his boss, has his favorite stapler, a red Swingline, taken away. At the time, Swingline had not manufactured red staplers for years (a prop department employee, named Ric Trzeciak, painted one using candy-apple red paint [2] according to the film's commentary). In 2002 they released a "limited edition" series as a result of customer interest.[3] As of 2010 a "collectors edition" 747 stapler in "Rio Red" is still available, though a "Carmine Red" S7074711 stapler seems to have been discontinued.[4] The current (2011) packaging for the stapler states "the star of any office space".
In an episode of The IT Crowd, Maurice Moss (Richard Ayoade) is seen obsessively counting the staples remaining in his stapler. It is a red Swingline stapler, [5] perhaps in reference to Office Space.
An episode of Scrubs features the character Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) speaking to a red stapler. McGinley had a popular role in Office Space as character Bob Slydell.
In the beginning of The Simpsons episode "The Heartbroke Kid", Seymour Skinner is shown playing with army figures. A Swingline stapler attacks the army figures out of nowhere.