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Kryptonite Lock Company Records, 1972-2003

Extent and Forms of Material: 5.6 cubic feet, 15 boxes (including audio and video cassettes)
Creator: Michael Zane
Abstract: Massachusetts entrepreneur Michael Zane purchased a bicycle lock design and its trade name, “Kryptonite lock," in 1972. Working with members of his family, Zane developed the Kryptonite Corporation. The records consist of audio-visual materials, correspondence, design drawings, photographs, testing records, patent information, sales reports, product information, advertisements, clippings, periodicals, legal documents, and research files.
Repository: Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. archivescenter@si.edu 202-633-3270
www.americanhistory.si.edu/archives
Collection Number: AC0840
Processing Note: Processed by Lisa M. Saywell, 2003; supervised by Alison Oswald, Archivist.
© 2007 by the Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved.

Information for users of the collection

Conditions Governing Access: The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audio-visual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an “as needed” basis, as resources allow.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use: Copyright held by the Smithsonian Institution. Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: fees for commercial use.
Preferred Citation: [Title and date of item], Kryptonite Lock Company Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, box number X, folder number XX, digital file number XXXXXXXX

In-depth information about the collection

Administrative/biographical history
Scope and content
System of arrangement
Acquisition information
Related artifacts
Access points
Container listing

Administrative/biographical history

In 1971, Michael Zane read a newspaper article that sparked his imagination. He discovered that bicycle mechanic, Stanley Kaplan had designed and built a new bicycle lock, which he named the Kryptonite lock. Zane and Kaplan quickly became partners. Aided by the metal manufacturing experience of Ernest Zane, Michael’s father, the partners began to produce and market the locks amid a rapidly growing bicycle industry. In this first year, the company sold approximately 50 locks.

In 1972, Zane bought the lock idea and the company name from Kaplan, and founded the Kryptonite Corporation with $1,500 from his personal savings. Using his father’s sheet metal business, Zane Manufacturing Company, as a subcontractor for the metal work, Michael Zane’s Kryptonite Corp. began manufacturing a slimmer, stronger lock made of stainless steel versus the original hardened steel version. Concentrating in the Boston area where the company was based, Zane started selling the lock to local bike shops. Realizing the need to expand his market and having no money for national advertising, Zane decided to undertake an experiment. He locked a bicycle to a parking meter with a Kryptonite lock on the Lower East Side in New York City for a month. By the time he retrieved the bike, it was completely stripped except for the part attached to the lock. The press was alerted to the experiment, and the resulting publicity helped move Kryptonite locks into New York City bicycle shops, as well as those in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Michael’s brother, Peter, joined the company in 1974. Peter concentrated on exporting and legal matters, while Michael handled marketing, design, research, and manufacturing. In this same year, to supplement and encourage their lock sales, the brothers started Liberty Distribution, a bicycle accessory distribution company. It was also at this time that Kryptonite began guaranteeing its locks—if your bike was stolen while secured with a Kryptonite lock, the company would send you up to $500. The guarantee quickly became a selling point.

The next year the company received another free publicity boost; Consumer Reports awarded the Kryptonite’s U-lock its highest bicycle security device rating. Distribution expanded to Chicago and Los Angeles, and the company sold approximately 25,000 locks.

In 1977, Kryptonite introduced the K-4 lock. Michael Zane refined the company’s basic U-shaped lock by creating a bent foot on one end making the lock easier to use and simplifying the design. This design gained the Kryptonite K-4 U-lock a place in New York’s The Museum of Modern Art permanent design collection in 1983 and won both Japan’s Good Design Prize and Germany’s Museum of Utilitarian Art Award in 1988.

In 1978, Kryptonite expanded into the motorcycle lock market and began exporting its product into European markets. In the late 1980s, just as Kryptonite began to offer a newly designed mountain bike lock, anti-theft guarantee claims began to increase dramatically in Manhattan. This increase in theft forced Kryptonite to stop offering the guarantee in Manhattan and spurred the Zane’s to redesign their locks. During this same time, Kryptonite was under constant competition from various domestic and foreign competitors. Many of these competitors adapted Kryptonite’s U-lock design. Some so closely mimicked the Kryptonite design that the company took legal action.

In 1992, in response to an increase in thefts and ongoing competition, Kryptonite introduced its Evolution series of locks. This new design placed the locking mechanism in the middle of the crossbar of the lock, rather than at the end, making it less susceptible to breakage.

The next year Kryptonite entered the automobile security market. In its first year on the market, the Kryptonite Steering Wheel Lock was named one of Motor Trend magazine’s top ten innovative car care products for 1993. Kryptonite’s entrance into automobile security generated interest from Winner International Corporation, the maker’s of The Club automotive lock, resulting in a number of court battles.

Kryptonite introduced the New York Lock in 1994. This newly designed lock allowed Kryptonite to reestablish an anti-theft guarantee for $1,000 in Manhattan. The company recreated its earlier publicity event by successfully locking bicycles throughout New York City to prove the efficacy of its locks. Kryptonite also issued a top ten list of cities with the most bicycle thefts (based on its claim reports) and expanded its involvement in theft prevention activities.

In 1995, Gary Furst became CEO of the rapidly growing company. In the following year, Kryptonite celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary and developed a program called Flex Security, focusing on innovative locking systems for homeowners and contractors. In addition, Kryptonite entered the computer security market by creating locks for desktops and laptops.

With its expansion into new markets and rising sales, larger companies became increasingly interested in Kryptonite. In 2001, Ingersoll-Rand, a leading industrial firm, bought Kryptonite.

Scope and content

The Kryptonite Lock Company Records, 1972-2001 document a wide spectrum of activities engaged in by the company. The records consists of audio-visual materials, correspondence, design drawings, photographs, testing records, patent information, sales reports, product information, advertisements, clippings, periodicals, legal documents, and research files. The strength of the collection resides in the marketing and sales documents. They tell a remarkable story of a small family business which created an internationally recognized brand name product. The collection also richly documents competition and innovation in the bicycle and motorcycle lock industry, through sales representative trip reports, product research and development records, and the research files on other companies. Although the collection provides a wide spectrum of documents from most aspects of the company’s activities, some portions of the record are sparse and incomplete.

Series 1, History, 1973-1974, 2001, 2003, contains a company history and chronology as well as the field notes and photographs documenting the acquisition of the collection. There are two oral history interviews with Michael Zane conducted by NMAH archivist John Fleckner. The 2001 interview is an overview of the Kryptonite history; the 2003 interview focuses on Zane’s description and history of the artifacts collected by the museum. There is a seven-page transcription of the 2001 interview. In addition, this series includes materials related to two companies associated with the early history of the Kryptonite Corporation, Zane Manufacturing Company (the sheet metal company owned by Michael Zane’s father) and Ernest Zane and Liberty Distribution (a short-lived bicycle accessory distribution company) created by the Zane brothers to supplement and encourage the sale of their locks.

Series 2, Correspondence, 1983-2000, arranged by topic, documents some of the company’s key areas of interest. The topics include customers, design ideas, media, suppliers and distributors, and sponsorships. Most of the correspondence focuses on complaints about or suggested improvements for the locks.

Series 3, Product Research and Development, 1987-2000

Subseries 1: Development, 1987-2000
This subseries is arranged by project and documents the design process of various security devices. It contains design drawings and design revisions.

Subseries 2: Research, 1985-1999
This subseries includes research on various lock patents. It also contains testing data for various locks produced by Kryptonite and outside testing companies.

Series 4, Administrative and Financial Papers, 1972-2000, includes various memos, meeting notes and agendas that thoroughly document the later part of the company’s history. There is sporadic documentation of human resources activities of the company in this series. The series also includes various financial records. Sales representative trip reports are included as well. These reports are narrative accounts written by Kryptonite sales representatives to detail the state of product placement and the competition in retail stores throughout the country.

Series 5, Marketing, Advertising, and Publicity, 1972-2001, is the most comprehensive in the collection. It documents the marketing, advertising, and publicity efforts of the company.

Subseries 1: Marketing materials, 1985-2000
This subseries includes marketing materials, such as product sheets describing each of the company’s products, and promotional materials, such as posters, bumper stickers, and postcards. Market research undertaken by the company is also included.

Subseries 2: Advertising materials, 1989, undated
This subseries contains various advertisements dating from the earliest lock designs to the merger with Ingersoll-Rand. Of particular note is a retrospective advertising notebook illustrating the numerous advertising campaigns undertaken by the company from its creation in 1972 to 1989.

Subseries 3: Publicity materials, 1973-2001
This series documents the multi-faceted publicity efforts of the company. Included are company newsletters, press clippings, reprint notebooks, various printed materials, press kits, and press releases.

Subseries 4: Crime-related materials, 1982-1996
The company was involved in a number of theft prevention activities which are documented within this series. It contains claim reports that Kryptonite used to develop new designs and to generate an annual list of the top twenty cities for bicycle theft. Also included is the report on bicycle theft undertaken by the company in response to a sharp increase in the number of claims filed in New York City in 1988; ultimately this report resulted in the repeal of the lock guaranty in that city.

Subseries 5: Liz Zane files, 1990-1998
Liz Zane is the wife of Michael Zane, founder of the Kryptonite Corporation. She served as the Communications Manager for the company in the 1990s. Included in this series are press kits, her correspondence with law enforcement officers, and various research files related to publicity activities.

Series 6, Other Companies, 1985, 1991, 2001, undated, includes the Kryptonite Corporation’s files documenting its patent infringement suit against Ming Tay, a Taiwanese competitor. Also included is information about the company’s relationship with Trek and the company’s merger with Ingersoll-Rand. In addition, the research files contain catalogs and advertisements of the company’s competition.

Series 7, Visual Materials, 1988, 1996, 1997, undated, consists of black and white and color prints, slides, contact sheets, negatives and two 1⁄2” VHS tapes. The prints, slides, contact sheets and negatives document Michael and Peter Zane, the factory, a motorcycle lock, and promotional prints featuring the lock in advertising and being used. The 1⁄2” VHS tapes include a New York City Channel 4 News piece about bike theft (April 1988) and an Inside Edition, (October 1996) and Dateline (October 1997) programs on the Kryptonite Corporation.

System of arrangement

Series 1: History, 1973-1974, 2001, 2003

Subseries 1, Chronology and company history, undated
Subseries 2, Field Documentation, 2001, 2003
Subseries 3, Zane Manufacturing Company, undated
Subseries 4, Liberty Distribution, 1973-1974

Series 2: Correspondence, 1983-2000

Series 3: Product Research and Development, 1987-2000

Subseries 1, Development, 1987-2000
Subseries 2, Research, 1985-1999

Series 4: Administrative and Financial Papers, 1972-2001

Series 5: Marketing and Sales, 1972-2001

Subseries 1, Marketing materials, 1985-2000
Subseries 2, Advertising materials, 1989, undated
Subseries 3, Publicity materials, 1973-2001
Subseries 4, Crime-related materials, 1982-1996
Subseries 5, Liz Zane files, 1990-1998

Series 6: Other Companies, 1985, 1991, 2001, undated

Subseries 1, Ming Tay lawsuit, 1985
Subseries 2, Relationships with other companies, 1991, 2001
Subseries 3, Competition research files, undated

Series 7: Visual Materials, 1988, 1996, 1997, undated

Subseries 1, Photographs, undated
Subseries 2, Video cassettes, 1988, 1997

Acquisition information

This collection was donated to the National Museum of American History by Michael Stuart Zane III and Elizabeth Zane on June 3, 2003.

Related artifacts

Access points

Subjects/Topical:
Inventions—20th century
Inventors
Bicycle theft—Prevention
Bicycles—Equipment and supplies
Locks and keys

Form/Genre:
Advertisements—20th century.
Awards
Bumper stickers
Business records—20th century.
Correspondence—1970-2000.
Employee newsletter
Photographs—1900-2000
Press kits

Container listing