who made the super soaker
Lonnie Johnson, an American inventor and former NASA engineer, created the Super Soaker water gun.
Quick Scoop: Who Made the Super Soaker?
- The Super Soaker was invented by Lonnie Johnson , born in 1949 in Mobile, Alabama.
- He first came up with the idea in the early 1980s while experimenting with a new kind of refrigeration system that used water instead of Freon.
- While testing a nozzle in his bathroom, he blasted a powerful stream of water and realized it would make an amazing toy water gun.
From Idea to Toy Shelves
- Johnson built his first prototype in his basement using Plexiglas, PVC pipe, O-rings, and a two‑liter soda bottle as the water reservoir.
- After years of refining the design and pitching it, he licensed the invention to the toy company Larami in 1989.
- The toy first hit stores around 1990 under the name “Power Drencher,” and after a rebrand to “Super Soaker,” it became a huge commercial hit, earning hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.
Why It’s Still a Big Deal
- The Super Soaker revolutionized water guns by using air pressure to shoot strong, long‑range streams of water, making it a standout summer toy of the 1990s and beyond.
- The toy’s success helped highlight Johnson as a prominent Black inventor and engineer, later earning recognition including induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Bottom line: If you’re asking “who made the Super Soaker,” the answer is Lonnie Johnson — the NASA engineer who turned a bathroom experiment into one of the most iconic toys ever made.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.