Duct Tape Goes From Fix-It to Dress-Up

Duct Tape Goes From Fix-It to Dress-Up
THERE was a time when Lady Gaga’s improvised pasties made out of duct tape might have been viewed as a creative, if painful, use of the handyman’s favorite fix-it. But a couple of strips of strategically placed tape is nothing compared to the elaborate ensembles do-it-yourselfers are making out of it these days.
In an odd trend, duct tape has become the material of choice for creating fashions that showcase the wearer’s originality and ingenuity.

“The possibilities of what you can make out of duct tape are ridiculously endless,” said Katie Labruyere, 28, a telecommunications worker in St. Louis who makes duct-tape purses for herself and sells them on the handicraft Web site Etsy. Best sellers include her handbags inspired by Tory Burch and Louis Vuitton, and designs featuring musical instruments and the peace sign.

Duct tape, made of waterproof cloth mesh, was originally developed during World War II to keep moisture out of artillery cases. It came in one shade, olive drab, and was also useful for quick repairs to jeeps, aircraft and other military equipment. In the housing boom of the 1950s, contractors began using it to seal ductwork, prompting its name and the color change to the ubiquitous dull silver.

“Now it seems like every time I go to the store, there’s a new color of duct tape,” said Ms. Labruyere, not to mention patterns and faux textures including paisley, basket weave, grass, denim and various cartoon logos like Hello Kitty and SpongeBob SquarePants. “You know duct tape is mainstream when you can buy rolls of it at Urban Outfitters.”

Leading manufacturers like ShurTech Brands and 3M said sales of duct tape have surged in the past three years. While they declined to give exact figures, Troy Radike, an owner of TapeBrothers.com, an online tape supplier, said his Web site’s sales of duct tape have doubled every year since 2008 while sales of other kinds of tape have been flat or decreasing.

“Duct tape has become a pop-culture phenomenon,” he said. (Though it also gets periodic negative publicity, most recently when photos posted on Facebook of toddlers bound in duct tape resulted in their parents’ arrest on domestic battery charges.)_

Jonathan Neal, the adhesive brand manager for 3M, said overwhelming demand prompted his company to broaden the color palette of its duct tape from 5 shades to 17 over the last two years. Moreover, 3M has expanded the kinds of outlets where its duct tape is sold to include crafts stores, drugstores and retailers like Target and Walmart. “Historically, it used to be available only in hardware stores,” Mr. Neal said.

Some say the father of the current duct tape fad is Keith Drone, 30, a computer network security analyst in Nashville, Tenn., and the founder of the Web site Ducttapefashion.com. He said he wore duct tape apparel and accessories in high school “to annoy the principal.” This led to his making and selling duct tape wallets, belts and ties; the proceeds of which, he asserts, paid for his entire college education.

Ten years later, Mr. Drone said he never imagined that duct tape fashion would become so popular, with clothing designs surpassing anything he ever tried. “For the longest time, it seemed like I was only the one,” he said, “but now it’s hard to find any teens who haven’t sat down with a roll of duct tape to see what they could do.”

Indeed, duct tape fashion tends to skew toward a younger demographic. According to ShurTech Brands in Avon, Ohio, which manufacturers the Duck brand of duct tape; customers in the duct tape “fashion market” (as opposed to the “repair market”) are predominantly teenage girls — including Teresa Scanlan, 18, the reigning Miss America, who lists making things out of duct tape as one of her interests.

“I’ve made a duct tape skirt, shorts, a couple shirts and a dress is my next project,” Ms. Scanlan said. “You know how they ask you what three things you’d want on a desert island? I’d only want one thing: duct tape. It’s all you need.”

Duck-brand duct tape has a Facebook fan base exceeding 4.6 million and sponsors an annual Stuck at Prom contest that attracted 331 entrants last year vying to make the best prom outfits out of duct tape. “Every year the dresses get more detailed and intricate, and the craftsmanship is unbelievable,” said Scott Sommers, the director of marketing at ShurTech Brands, which makes the Duck brand. “Duct tape is the new medium of self-expression.”