Lessons from Superfest
Never heard of the brand Superfest? If you venture into a pub in the territory of what was once East Germany under the Soviet Union, chances are you’ll enjoy your favorite beer using one. Like the space program, the history of this nearly unbreakable glass is a testament to what can be accomplished in the name of international competition. But, unlike the successful Apollo program like Velcro, Superfest’s lack of market success raises some cautionary and uncomfortable questions about the power of market forces.
The origin of Superfest hardened glassware can be traced back to a pivotal moment in the world of glassmaking—the invention of tempered glass. Tempered glass, born out of a quest for durability and safety, revolutionized the industry with its enhanced strength and resistance to breakage. However, tempering glass and a later innovation involving laminating plastics between layers of glass to strengthen it are expensive processes that can cloud glass clarity.
As a result, the government of East Germany, highly motivated to prove the value and innovation capacity of Eastern Block countries, set out to develop a nearly unbreakable glass that was inexpensive to produce. Through relentless research and development, chemists experimented with ion-exchanging, which involves heating ordinary glass and bathing it in Potassium Nitrate solution, which changes its chemical structure. Gaps at a molecular level that make glass prone to cracking are filled by Potassium Ions, making the glass far more resistant to breaking.
When released in 1977, it was 15 times more durable than standard glassware. Despite its superiority, Superfest, which is German for “super firm,” never became a commercial success. In part, this was due to how remarkable the product actually is. Once most restaurants and pubs in the Eastern Block had purchased Superfest glassware, the need to replace their inventory dropped dramatically. What was once an annual business expense for many businesses was eliminated. Additionally, many companies that one would think would be very interested in it, like Coca-Cola, actually made money off of selling their glass bottles. So, despite offering a far more robust and seemingly more sustainable product, companies preferred an inferior product that helped their bottom line.
Decades later, in response to a request from Steve Jobs, Corning introduced a similar chemically hardened glass for the iPhone. While expensive, it met the need for a thin and robust display for electronic devices. Today, the product is called Gorilla Glass, and it is featured on billions of best-selling consumer electronic devices.
Overall, the Superfest story makes you wonder, as Fern so elegantly asks in the video below, how many of today's products are worse than they should be? Take a closer look at this fantastic story on Fern. It may shatter some of your views of market forces and how they work today.
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