Got a Light?

Some brands boast such a storied history and rapport with the US it's imperative to cover them.

Zippo is one of those brands, and cover them we did. So much so that their marketing team reached out to request we put together an extensive media flight leading into the holiday season.

This feature, photographed on-site at their Bradford, PA HQ, is one such piece we put together on behalf of this true-blue American lighter manufacturer.

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Mood

Everything about the Zippo brand is strictly Americana where, even today, every one of their lighters – 12 million per year to be exact – is hand inspected for quality control. It’s a miraculous means of wedding both man and machine – enabling Zippo to ship their lighters worldwide with a lifetime guarantee.

Our self-assigned role was to capture the essence of Zippo, taking the reader on a linear tour of the factory. All the while, we'd sneak in some shots of the work environment to remind people that even though most of us are working remotely and connecting through computer screens, life at Zippo has stuck to its roots.

This was a time-warp in American manufacturing.

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Details

We were thoroughly impressed by the process itself. There's even a dedicated stage of the process where they QA the "click" that's become so synonymous with the brand. And because the details were so unique to Zippo, capturing them soon became a thing of beauty.

All photos were captured in one business day, edited in post-production in two, and published in one week with copy.

Pelican

G-Shock