KUPA

KUPA Inc. is famous for the UP-200 electric nail drill (now sold under the Urawa brand). But did you know it started 26 years before that file came out? In 1984, two friends, Robert Upshaw and Kito Ochi, created KUPA. The name 'KUPA' came from mixing parts of their names together.

Both of them knew a lot about dental tools because they worked in that field. In the 1980s, Upshaw noticed that nail workers used tools like dental ones because there weren't many tools just for nails. At a beauty show, he saw nail experts using tools like those in dental work. That gave him an idea: why not use electric files, like in dentistry, for nails?

He talked to Ochi, and they teamed up with a company in Japan that made these dental tools. Together, they made the UP-200, a special electric file for nails. It became super popular!