{nails file}
1. Kupa is headquartered in Anaheim, Calif.
Athena Elliott (left)
poses with singer Mya.
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34 | NAILS MAGAZINE
na1110generalNF.indd 34
2. The UP-200 electric file was engineered
specifically for the nail industry. 3. Kupa
initiated the use of precision carbide bits.
4. Robert Upshaw cofounded the company
with Kito Ochi in 1984.
2
1
Kupa’s UP-200 Celebrates
20 Years in the Industry 3 4
It’s been 20 years since Kupa Inc. introduced its popular and successful UP-200 electric
file, but the company actually opened its door six years earlier. Robert Upshaw and Kito
Ochi founded Kupa in 1984 to meet the needs of the then-young — and growing — nail
industry. They named their company KUPA, an acronym combining the names Kito,
Upshaw, and Associates. The first products grew out of Upshaw and Ochi’s knowledge
of the dental field.
Upshaw had been working in the dental industry since the 1940s when he became
a certified dental technician in U.S. Naval hospitals. After owning and managing dental
laboratories and supply companies, Upshaw became acquainted with the nail industry
in the early 1980s. At that time, the industry was in its infancy, and nail technicians were
forced to adopt products from the dental profession because few nail-specific products
actually existed. The lack of products spurred Upshaw to attend a beauty trade show.
There, he witnessed nail technicians demonstrating the application of what appeared to
be the same product he had previously used in the manufacture of dental implants. As
he watched the nail technicians work with the acrylic, he was reminded of how difficult
it could be to shape and file. Upshaw knew the dental industry had recently begun using
electric files to successfully shape this material and realized it could be adopted for the
nail industry as well.
Following the show, he reached out to Ochi, an American dental technician he had
known since the 1950s. The two contacted a Japanese manufacturer that had supplied
electric filing equipment to dental technicians and dentists — and Kupa was born.
After just two years, Urawa Corp., a Japanese manufacturer of high-quality electric
filing equipment, approached Kupa and proposed developing a new filing product
specifically for the nail industry. Upshaw and Ochi quickly agreed to the partnership,
knowing that the nail industry would benefit from such a specialized product.
Over the course of several months, Urawa and Kupa designed an electric filing
machine that would meet the needs of nail technicians while maintaining the quality
dental technicians had come to expect. The resulting product, the UP-200, became a
quick success and rapid expansion of the company followed over the next few years.
When Ochi passed away in 1994, Upshaw became the sole leader of the company,
guiding the company to explosive growth. >>>
| NOVEMBER 2010
9/24/10 10:57:12 AM