Colombian company Glasst is finally launching its removable paint Unpaint, developed with patented materials and announced more than two years ago. Its founder and CEO, Juan Camilo Botero, revealed to Forbes that it will be available initially in the United States, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
Imagine painting your living room red for the holiday season and then, when you're done, simply peeling off the paint as if it were a sticker. That's how practical Glasst's removable paint is, a Colombian company that has been developing this proposal for years with patented materials for the construction sector and is finally launching it on the market.
“We have a resin patent that makes this possible,” explains in an interview with Forbes, Juan Camilo Botero, founder of Glasst. ”Since I thought Glasst, I thought it could be a global company. What does one want a removable paint for? What it's going to be is that if the consumer wants to have a Halloween party and paint his house orange, he can do it, or if he wants to paint a table black, then you remove it as if it were a tablecloth. It's a paint that can be smeared anywhere beyond the wall, except on textiles.”
This paint will begin to be sold in the United States this month under the Unpaint brand, in channels such as Amazon, Lowe's and Orgill, while in Colombia it will be cobranded with Homecenter. Mexico and Peru will be the next markets where this product will land in the first quarter of 2025.
Glasst, based in Medellin, was founded by Juan Camilo Botero in 2018 and since then has developed, with a raw material from a plant, a liquid polymer of vegetable origin with physical properties that they called Glasstommer, a patented technology that has allowed them to develop products such as removable paint, a universal protector and a concrete release agent.
The universal protector, for example, generates removable films to protect various surfaces, while the concrete release agent is used in casting in civil works to prevent concrete from adhering to the formworks (the molds in which it is poured).
With a team of 37 people, Glasst has its own factories for production. From Colombia and Mexico, Glasst manages to produce and distribute its products, taking advantage of the infrastructure of the second largest paint producer in Mexico, to reach even the U.S. market.
This strategy allows them to concentrate on innovation and development of patented technologies without the high costs of their own industrial production. Botero highlights the environmental relevance of its removable paint, Unpaint, which contributes to the reduction of carbon emissions, achieving “decarbonization of at least 11 kg of CO2 for every kilo of paint used”.
In addition, it emphasizes the opportunity represented by the single-use plastics law for its universal protector, indispensable in modern constructions that seek more sustainable solutions.
Unpaint's reach is not limited to temporary home decoration. Botero envisions applications in the real estate sector, where agents and owners can use this removable paint to modify the colors of spaces according to the type of client or for staging properties without the need to repaint at the end of each visit. In addition, the entertainment industry could benefit greatly, as production designers in film and theater would have the ability to transform sets with ease, avoiding the use of traditional painting techniques that are time-consuming and wasteful.
According to Glasst, the balance between durability and ease of removal was one of the biggest challenges during the research and development phase. The paint had to be tough enough to adhere to surfaces such as wood, metal and drywall without accidentally peeling off.
At the same time, however, it had to be removable without damaging the original surface. This balance was achieved after extensive testing to ensure that the paint would remain in place until the user decided to remove it intentionally, something they were able to master after years of testing.
Meanwhile, Glasst has a gem ready for next year called Termglasst, a product that promises to be useful for temperature control in homes.
“This product, when applied to the wall, can increase or decrease the temperature by up to 10 degrees Celsius,” anticipated Botero.
Fuente: José Caparroso | noviembre 7, 2024 @ 8:11:45 am
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