Take a look under your sink, in a cabinet in your garage, or on the shelf above your workbench. There’s a good chance you’ll find a blue and yellow can with a little red top in one of those places. It’s so useful that many use the product name as a verb. There’s even an official document listing its 2000+ uses. If you haven’t guessed by now, we’re talking about WD-40 Multi-Use Product.
Here’s what you probably don’t know about WD-40 Multi Use Product: the formula took 40 attempts to get right and hasn’t changed since. Not even a single tweak in over 70 years. And there’s one more thing: the same product you used to remove your kid’s Silly Putty from your couch was originally created for missiles.
Made for a Missile
In 1953, a three-person team at the Rocket Chemical Company set out to solve a very specific problem: keeping the Atlas Missile from rusting. Working out of a small lab in San Diego, their goal was to create a water-displacing formula tough enough for the aerospace industry. It took 39 failed attempts before they got it right.
Attempt number 40 worked. And it worked so well that Convair, the first aerospace contractor using the product to protect the outer skin of the Atlas Missile, couldn’t keep their employees from sneaking cans home. But they weren’t bringing the product home to treat spare missiles in their garages. Instead, they were using it on squeaky door hinges, greasy bicycle chains, and rusty garden tools.
A product created to protect a missile was about to become something nobody at Rocket Chemical Company had planned for.
From the Plant to the People
If employees were taking the product home on their own, Rocket Chemical Company founder Norm Larsen figured everyone else might want it too. So, he started experimenting with putting WD-40 Multi-Use Product into aerosol cans, simple enough for anyone to use at home. It didn’t take long to find out he was right.
In 1958, WD-40 Multi-Use Product made its retail debut on store shelves in San Diego. And what started as a team of three grew to seven people who believed they had something big. The team spent their days selling cases of WD-40 Multi Use Product out of their car trunks to local hardware and sporting good stores. The operation was small. The demand wasn’t.
It grew in ways no one had planned for, either. In 1961, Hurricane Carla devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast. That led to the company filling its first truckload order for WD-40 Multi Use Product. It was used to recondition flood and rain-damaged vehicles and equipment. A few years later in 1968, goodwill kits containing WD-40 Multi Use Product were sent to soldiers in Vietnam to prevent moisture damage on firearms.
A product originally designed for a missile was now helping rebuild communities and protect troops in the field.
One Formula, a Household Name
In 1973, WD-40 Company, formerly known as Rocket Chemical Company, went public. The stock price jumped 61% on day one. By 1993, the product was found to be in four out of five American households and used by 81% of professionals on the job. Sales had grown to more than one million cans per week.
And through every bit of that growth, the formula stayed exactly the same. The company never even patented it. That process would mean fully disclosing the recipe and the protection would eventually expire anyways. Instead, it remains a formula that the company has worked hard to protect for more than seven decades.
When Persistence and Flexibility Pay Off
The WD-40 Multi Use Product story isn’t about luck. It’s about a team that refused to quit and stayed curious about what they’d built. A product made to protect a missile ended up rescuing flood-damaged trucks, safeguarding soldiers’ firearms, and earning a permanent spot under sinks across America. None of that was the plan. All of it was possible because the people behind it stayed persistent, flexible, and never stopped asking “what else can this do?”
At Gibraltar Business Capital, that’s the kind of partner we aim to be. We believe the best solutions rarely look exactly like what you set out to find. Sometimes the breakthrough comes on the 40th try. And sometimes success comes when you’re willing to step back and see your idea work in a whole new way.