A German Shepherd and a rubber part.

KONG starts with a dog. In the 1970s Joe Markham’s German Shepherd, Fritz, was wearing down his teeth chewing rocks, according to English Wikipedia, which draws on reporting in the Rocky Mountain News in 1996 and 1997. While Markham was working on a Volkswagen bus, Fritz took to a hard rubber part from its suspension — the company calls it a rubber axle stop — and preferred it to rocks and sticks. The Drive reported in March 2025 that Markham tried to order the part in bulk, could not find the right contact, and designed his own instead.

Wikipedia says Markham then spent about six years experimenting with rubber compounds to make a chew toy of similar size and shape that he could sell, and that the name came from a friend who said it looked like “an earplug for King Kong.” The company dates itself to 1976 — “Only the Best Since 1976,” as an archived 2022 version of its history page put it — and is based in Golden, Colorado.

The product was the KONG Classic: three rounded forms stacked into a hollow, snowman-like shape, in red rubber, that bounces unpredictably and can be stuffed with food. Wikipedia says early sales went mainly to Israel, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom, and that American sales began to rise in the mid-1980s. The local press noticed the business early: the Rocky Mountain News ran a piece on it in October 1996 under the headline “Cornering the pet market; ideas must pass chews of approval.”

Red, black and the rubber line.

KONG’s own account of its growth is told decade by decade. In the 1980s, it says, it built Chomps, a dog with a mechanical jaw, to demonstrate how tough the toy was; the red Classic grew from one size to four; and a tougher black KONG Extreme, made for large dogs and strong chewers, arrived in two sizes. The company calls this the beginning of the rubber strengths and sizes it sells today.

In the 1990s construction began on the first office in Golden, which the company calls its “World Headquarters,” and the range spread beyond rubber into ZoomGroom grooming brushes and dental toys. In the 2000s the brand leaned into stuffing. Its first food product, Stuff’N Paste, was later renamed Easy Treat, and the rubber line grew to four types, adding Puppy KONG and Senior KONG to the Classic and the Extreme, each in a run of sizes.

The company also widened its reach abroad. By its own account it set up operations in the United Kingdom in 2004 and in Australia in 2009, expanded into China in 2015 and in 2017 took over its direct partner relationships in Japan. Wikipedia lists a wider range that now includes balls, the Wubba and Tugger Knots pull toys, floating toys and a line for cats, including a cat Wubba, scratchers and catnip. Some lines have been renamed along the way: the company’s history says the Cool KONG became KONG Aqua, just as Stuff’N Paste became Easy Treat.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all pet names: PetSafe, KONG, Chuckit!, West Paw, Ruffwear, Kurgo and Butternut Box. Between them they cover much of what an owner buys for a dog beyond the animal itself — toys, ball launchers, beds, collars, leads and harnesses, gear for car journeys and outdoor trips, and food. Pet brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from founder-run workshops to labels that now belong to much larger groups, and a single name can be sold everywhere from a specialist shop to a supermarket aisle or a delivery subscription.

A pet brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single product than by a name, a colour, a pack and a tone of voice, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, moved its production or grown far beyond the town where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its products are actually made.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its products are made and how its packaging and advertising have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

KONG in capitals, red in rubber.

KONG makes a strong manufacturing claim for its core product. Its website says the first office and manufacturing facility in Golden “is still our World Headquarters, where all our rubber products are made,” and that its rubber toys are “proudly made in America using only the highest quality natural rubber.” We give those as the company’s statements, and they refer to its rubber products.

The brand styles its name in capitals, as KONG, and its tagline in the archived history was “Dogs Need to Play.” Today it describes itself as “on a mission to enrich the lives of pets around the world.” It runs a programme called KONG Believers for breeders, vets, shelter staff and other “pet professionals who are hand-selected to represent our brand and mission,” in its words, and the 2022 version of its website credited its design and development to Madison Taylor Marketing. In its own history, red marks the Classic and black the Extreme. For its fiftieth year it released a limited-edition gold KONG Classic, which the company calls a golden KONG.

The Volkswagen link came full circle in March 2025. Volkswagen, KONG and VCA Charities released a limited-edition toy in a “cabana blue” inspired by the electric ID. Buzz van, sold through Volkswagen, with net proceeds going to VCA Charities and a toy donated to shelters for each one bought, The Drive reported on 22 March 2025. The advertising agency Johannes Leonardo lists the project, “VW KONG For A Cause,” among its work for Volkswagen.

For a design guide, KONG shows how a single shape and a colour code can carry a whole brand. Compare Chuckit!, another American dog-toy brand built around one object, and West Paw, a Montana maker of chew toys. For this guide we use a red, a black and a gold with a heavy sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep KONG’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.