Hello again! Welcome to another installment of The Diary Of An Antiquer! I’ll be your host, Thrifty Grahmpa. Let us begin.

Today we are going to look at something that I just recently stumbled-across at a local antique store…

Sitting alone amongst an assortment of yarn, rusty tools, and vintage ice-fishing equipment was this—priced at just $6.00 (a bargain if you ask me); a yellow, vinyl insulated Kodak bag from the 1980’s, in nearly mint condition too!

Why was this made? Was it used solely for promotional purposes, or sold commercially?

Was it designed to safely store and/or transfer cameras and their film to and from locations, or was this just the fun Summer gift all Kodak employees were gifted one year?

With that being said—let me introduce you to: The Kodak Cooler (Bag)

Based off the patents listed online, the bag itself was invented and patented by Harold Rabinowitz—whom I was unable to track down for questioning in regards to this item—sometime in the early ’80s for the Nappe-Babcock Company.

This collapsible tote bag/cooler design would go on to join a long line of similar lunchbox-style coolers and insulated totes, many of which Nappe-Babecock had already been manufacturing for Budweiser, Pepsi, Frigid Mate, and others for years.

A lot of them are pretty cool too, take a look below at a few I found in my research…

While a lot of these vintage, vinyl Nappe-Babcock lunch-boxes are awesome, my focus for this episode is the specific line with Kodak cameras and film.

After some lengthy web-browsing, it became clear that there were a lot of these collapsible, insulated totes manufactured. Like—a lot…

Currently, there are dozens of listings for sale online—many of them fetching for a lot more than the $6 I paid for mine. Each seems to be listed as being from the early-eighties, just like the one I have, and features a specific brand of Kodak film as the cooler’s exterior graphic (as seen below.)

Unfortunately, aside from just a few design-patents (and a whole lotta eBay listings), there is little information available online pertaining to these cooler/bags nowadays.

Additionally, Nappe-Babcock Co. is now known as Gold Medal Virginia Inc., a manufacturer of home goods and furniture. When contacted in regards to this item, they did not respond (if they do I shall update this post accordingly.)

I also reached out to Kodak themselves to see if they had any additional information on the product in question, but alas-no response.

Thankfully a representative there did reply, and confirmed that (unfortunately) consumer items like cameras, bags, phones, etc. that are manufactured by other companies—Nappe-Babcock, for example—use a license to feature Kodak’s name, design, and technology. Therefore, no one at Kodak presently could assist me with digging up more information on this vintage item.

Nevertheless, this item is surely one of the cooler things I’ve found antiquing. Now I have somewhere to keep my video-camera equipment safe (and stylish) when on-the-go.

It’ll probably keep beer pretty cold too…

Watch the full video on The Kodak Cooler, here.

Thanks for reading, and happy hunting.

-G

P.S. As always, if you have any information regarding the item in this episode, fill out the contact form (here) and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

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