This is the Igloo Legacy 20 Qt Cooler, it’s a retro-design-throwback to the golden age of the portable drinks cooler, when they still has steel bodies finished in bright colors, with a folding steel handle, and a bottle opener on the side.
The Legacy series comes in three colorways Red Star, Ocean Mist, and classic Stainless Steel (scroll down to see the different colored versions), and all have the same capacity of 54 quarts, or 51 liters, and it can hold up to 51 standard sized cans.
The Igloo Manufacturing Company was founded back in 1947 in Katy, Texas, just a couple of years after WWII, initially to manufacture metal drink coolers for factory, workshop, and oilfield use.
History Speedrun: Igloo Coolers
The Igloo Manufacturing Company was founded back in 1947 in Katy, Texas, just a couple of years after WWII, initially to manufacture metal drink coolers for factory, workshop, and oilfield use.
Given the extreme summer temperatures in Texas and across the south, the company’s drink coolers sold well and in 1960 they merged with the Production Tooling Company and changed the name to Texas Tennessee Industries (TTI).
This merger resulted in vastly increased production capacity, and attention began to shift towards a still relatively new and seemingly wondrous material called “plastic.” James F. Hutchison developed the company’s first all-plastic drinks cooler and it helped to revolutionize the industry.
In 1971 Texas Tennessee Industries changed its name back to the far more fitting “Igloo,” this was the same year that the company released the Playmate – a cooler with a combined lid and carry handle that rotated back to show the coolers contents.
The Playmate became a best seller seemingly overnight and the lunchbox of choice for countless millions of American workers – from office receptionists and schoolteachers to factory workers and mechanics. It became such an icon of industrial design there’s now one on display in the Smithsonian.
The company has now produced more than 500 product lines, and they claim that nearly three in every four US households own an Igloo cooler – a statement that rings true for many Americans that have at least one in their garage, shed, basement, or storeroom.
The Igloo Legacy 20 Qt Cooler
The Igloo Legacy 20 Qt Cooler is a throwback to the earliest days of the portable insulated cooler, when they were made of metal, finished in bright colors, and perhaps most importantly, made to last.
Each one of these coolers has a steel body and lid, and as noted above the available color finishes are Red Star, Ocean Mist, or classic Stainless Steel. They use advanced Ultratherm® insulation in body and lid to keep the contents colder for longer, and they have a stainless steel swing-up handle with wide grip for easy transport.
This is the Igloo Legacy 20 Qt Cooler, it’s a retro-design-throwback to the golden age of the portable drinks cooler, when they still has steel bodies finished in bright colors, with a folding steel handle, and a bottle opener on the side.
These coolers are made to last, and as such they use stainless steel hinges and zinc-plated steel latch locks, they also have a beetle-back bottle opener built into side. For cleaning you’ll find a triple-snap, leak-resistant drain plug for easy draining.
The Igloo Legacy is now available to buy directly from Igloo here with an MSRP of $239.99 USD, and there is a smaller 20 Qt version for $149.99 USD if you need less space.
Images courtesy of Igloo Coolers
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
