What is Slatwall? A brief history of slatwall.

 

What is slatwall? Slatwall is arguably the most popular store fixture usually made from cutting evenly spaced grooves into colored, textured, or custom printed MDF board in parallel direction, adding aluminum or plastic inserts as reinforcement to hold racks, bins, shelves, and then attaching it to the perimeter of a store or a free-standing fixture within nearly every type of retail store.

A sufficient answer, yes?

A brief history of slatwall

In 1964, Harold E. Graham hand-built a prototype for slatwall and filed for US Patent #US3235218A. His idea was to display items efficiently and effectively on a wall without needing a permeant fixture attached to the wall.

Graham had a hard time enforcing his patent because, with superior machinery, larger companies could rapidly reproduce his invention with slight variations (thus, the many names slatwall now has). With the boom in production, slatwall became common in many retail stores through the 1970’s.

Slatwall customization was exploited early on. Different slatwall styles of wood and other materials became new features to regular slatwall. Custom colors, shapes, patterns, and images created enormous possibilities for in-store branding. Plastic and metal inserts were also added to reinforce and strengthen slatwall.

Slatwall continues to be one of the most popular store fixtures because it is easy to install, customizable, and strong enough to display all types of merchandise.

What is slatwall known as?

Over the years, slatwall has been called many different things by its inventor and his competitors – for legal and practical reasons. Slatwall has been known as

• Slotwall
• Slat board
• Bracket board
• Slotboard
• Groove wall
• Grooved wall
• Fixture display board