Polaroid Originals is a Dutch photography company and manufacturer founded in 2008 by Florian Kaps, André Bosman and Marwan Saba. It manufactures its own cameras, the Impossible I-1, the OneStep 2, the OneStep+, modelled on the original Polaroid OneStep Land Camera, the i-Type instant film for both original cameras, and instant film for select original Polaroid instant cameras.
From 2008 to September 2017 the company was called Impossible Project (stylized as IMꟼOSSIBLE)[1][2][3] – Polaroid’s brand and intellectual property were acquired by Impossible Project’s largest shareholder in May 2017.[4]
The Impossible Project was founded in 2008 after Polaroid announced in February 2008 that it would stop producing film for Polaroid cameras.[5] The founders are Florian Kaps, André Bosman and Marwan Saba. In June 2008, Kaps and Bosman met at the Polaroid factory’s closing event and decided to found a company to produce materials for Polaroid cameras.[6] In October 2008, Impossible bought the production machinery from Polaroid for $3.1 million[7] and leased a building, called Building Noord, which was formerly part of the Polaroid plant in Enschede, Netherlands. The company has offices in Vienna, Berlin, New York and Tokyo. It leased the Polaroid production plant and developed new instant film products for use in some existing Polaroid cameras, beginning mass production and sales in 2010.[8] They generated USD270,000 in profit on USD4 million in revenue[7] and sold 500,000+ units.[9]
In January 2012, the company announced that it and Polaroid would launch a range of collectible products, called The Polaroid Classic range, that originate from different periods of Polaroid’s history. Between six and ten products will be released each year. In July 2013, Florian Kaps announced his ‘retirement’ from the project[10] and Creed O’Hanlon took over the role as CEO.
In December 2014, The Impossible Project announced that Oskar Smołokowski would be their new CEO and Creed O’Hanlon would become the Executive Chairman of Impossible’s management board.[11]
Impossible has licensed its name to stores in Germany, Spain and London.
In May 2017, Impossible’s largest shareholder acquired the brand and intellectual property of the original Polaroid corporation.[4] Impossible Project was renamed Polaroid Originals in September 2017.[1][2][3]
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