Side Quest: Bubble Wrap Was Supposed to Be Wallpaper

Bubble Wrap began as a decorating idea. In 1957, engineers Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes sealed plastic material together to trap pockets of air and tried selling the result as textured wallpaper. It failed. Then they tried greenhouse insulation. That was not the breakthrough either. Eventually, they realized the same air-filled structure was excellent at protecting fragile objects during shipping. In this Side Quest, we explore Bubble Wrap’s strange journey from failed wallpaper to protective packaging—and how a product can fail repeatedly simply because nobody has discovered the right problem for it to solve yet. Hashtags: #SideQuest #BubbleWrap #Inventions #ProductHistory #Innovation #Engineering #Packaging #History #StrangeHistory #BusinessHistory #HistoryFacts