SHAPIRO: The Trapper Keeper never ushered in technological apocalypse, but it did take over the world in a way. People bought more than 75 million of them. CHANG: Crutchfield himself was curious why.

Trapper Keepers became a fixture in the rad, rad world of 1980s school life, matching the era’s love for bright colors, adorable animals, trippy geometric shapes and lots of laser beams.

E. Bryant Crutchfield, the inventor of the Trapper Keeper, has died. The Trapper Keeper, as you might recall, was the hot school supply to have in the 1980s. I mean, I had to have one. (SOUNDBITE ...

Trapper Keepers were designed to solve problems for a very particular, growing market. The Story Of How Meticulous Research Built The Trapper Keeper. Who knew?

E. Bryant Crutchfield, the inventor of the Trapper Keeper, has died. The Trapper Keeper, as you might recall, was the hot school supply to have in the 1980s. I mean, I had to have one ...

The Trapper Keeper, essentially a three-ring binder to hold and organize folders, is a product immediately recognizable to the generations that grew up making cassette mixtapes, laughing at ...

E. Bryant Crutchfield, the inventor of the Trapper Keeper, has died. The Trapper Keeper, as you might recall, was the hot school supply to have in the 1980s. I mean, I had to have one. (SOUNDBITE ...

E. Bryant Crutchfield, the inventor of the Trapper Keeper, has died. The Trapper Keeper, as you might recall, was the hot school supply to have in the 1980s. I mean, I had to have one. (SOUNDBITE ...

E. Bryant Crutchfield, the inventor of the Trapper Keeper, has died. The Trapper Keeper, as you might recall, was the hot school supply to have in the 1980s. I mean, I had to have one. (SOUNDBITE ...

E. Bryant Crutchfield, the inventor of the Trapper Keeper, has died. The Trapper Keeper, as you might recall, was the hot school supply to have in the 1980s. I mean, I had to have one. (SOUNDBITE ...