Rubbermaid is an American manufacturer and distributor of many household items. It is a subsidiary of Newell Brands. It is best known for producing food storage containers and trash cans. Additionally it produces sheds, step stools, closets and shelving, laundry baskets, and bins, but also air fresheners and other household items. Rubbermaid was founded in 1920 in Wooster, Ohio as the Wooster Rubber Company by nine businessmen. Originally, Wooster Rubber Company manufactured toy balloons. In 1933, James R. Caldwell and his wife received a patent for their blue rubber dustpan. They called their line of rubber kitchen products Rubbermaid. In 1934 Horatio Ebert saw Rubbermaid products at a New England department store, and believed such products could help his struggling Wooster Rubber. He engineered a merger of the two enterprises in July 1934. Still named the Wooster Company, the new group began to produce rubber household products under the Rubbermaid brand name.