Crayola.com

Shop at Crayola.com

In 1903, noticing a need for safe, quality, affordable wax crayons, the Binney & Smith company produces the first box of eight Crayola crayons containing red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, and black sticks and they sold it for a nickel. The Crayola name, coined by Edwin Binney’s wife, Alice, comes from “craie,” the French word for chalk, and “ola,” from “oleaginous.”

Crayola Crayons are home based in Easton, PA which is also the home of Boxing champion, Larry Holmes. Binney & Smith, maker of Crayola products, produces nearly 3 billion crayons each year, an average of twelve million daily. That's enough to circle the globe 6 times! In the last 98 years, more than 100 billion Crayola crayons have been made and the Crayola brand name is recognized by 99 percent of Americans. Furthermore, it is ranked 51st of all world brands (1991 Landor Image Power Survey) in terms of the brand's recognizability and consumers' esteem for the brand.

In addition to making crayons, Binney & Smith makes 540 million Crayola colored pencils, 425 million markers, 90 million sticks of chalk, 6 million Silly Putty eggs, and 1.5 million jars of paint. Crayola crayons currently come in 120 colors including 23 reds, 20 greens, 19 blues, 16 purples, 14 oranges, 11 browns, 8 yellows, 2 grays, 2 coppers, 2 blacks, 1 white, 1 gold and 1 silver. Although Crayola crayons come in 120 different colors, the labels are only made in 18, which cover the full color spectrum.