NIGRIN

It all started with a leather polishing cream … Gentner was a hardworking, inventive young chemist from Swabia who knew as much about business as he did about science. Right from the start, he made use of what we now call marketing, known earlier as advertising. He created various brands for his different cleaning and care products. For what is probably his most famous, most popular product from the Chemische Fabrik Carl Gentner o.H.G. zu Göppingen – his black shoe and leather polishing cream – he created the name NIGRIN, taken from the Latin word “nigrum” = black. In 1896, he marketed his successful product for the first time, with the chimney sweep as its symbol – and what is now the time-honoured brand NIGRIN was born.