The History of Coffee Cup Sleeves

In 1991, Jay Sorensen created the Java Jacket to keep hot to-go coffees from burning people’s fingers. He made his first sale out of his car, but soon the idea caught on and he sold 100 cases in 30 minutes at a coffee trade show. While Sorensen’s design has been extremely successful, he wasn’t the first person to patent a cup sleeve. In fact, designs for similar devices date all the way back to the 1920s!