Colgate introduced toothpaste in a collapsible tube in 1896.
Before collapsible packaging, toothpaste was commonly sold in glass jars or ceramic pots. The metal tube made dispensing cleaner and more convenient, while also helping protect the product from contamination and drying out. Colgate’s tube packaging became an important step in making toothpaste a practical everyday bathroom product.
The Colgate company began in New York in the early 19th century as a soap, starch, and candle business founded by William Colgate. It later became strongly associated with dental-care products, especially toothpaste. The brand’s name is sometimes confused with Colgate-Palmolive, the modern corporation formed through a 1928 merger with Palmolive-Peet.
Collapsible tubes were not unique to toothpaste: artists’ paints had already helped popularize the format. However, Colgate’s 1896 toothpaste packaging is widely cited as a major consumer use of the technology and helped establish the tube as the standard toothpaste container.