Inflatable Images balloons from humble beginnings to lead its industry

To say that Inflatable Images has evolved since brothers David and Robert Scherba formed the company in 1982 would be an understatement.

Consider, for example, one of its first projects.

"In the early '80s there was a glut of grain and not enough silos to store it in," says Mac Yates, the company's director of sports marketing. "And they made some giant bags that corn was blown into. Then the air was exhausted out and the bags were sealed."

From there, Yates says, "the company took off in a lot of directions."

The most prominent of which, it would appear, was up.

Today, the Brunswick-based company, a division of Scherba Industries, employs nearly 100 and is, Yates says, the largest manufacturer of inflatables in the nation. The company builds between 100 to 150 inflatables a month and enjoys national licensing agreements with a whose who of major brands and professional and collegiate sports programs.

Inflatable mascots. Inflatable game courts. Inflatable tunnels (the company, in fact, made the first inflatable tunnel used by an NFL team, the San Diego Chargers. Now, it seems everybody's running through those things.)

Inflatable signs, games, logos, brand characters. An inflatable house used to teach children about fire safety.

If it can be inflated, Inflatable Images can probably make it (though it abstains from seasonal yard inflatables like snowmen and jack o' lanterns.)

The company even recreated Andrew Carnegie's head, which was commissioned by artist Stephen Antonson last year as a gift to the city of Pittsburgh during its Three Rivers Festival.

"It was about 15 feet in diameter and probably about three feet high, and then we wrapped the inflatable head around a sealed platform to make it look like Andrew Carnegie's head was coming out of the water," Yates says. "And it was put into the Allegheny River. We had a little barge right behind it that we housed the inflation fan on, then we tubed the air into Andrew. The fan was powered by a generator, so we had an attendant who was paying attention to this, going out and putting gasoline into the generator, keeping the inflatable up."

While Inflatable Images will take on a wide variety of challenges, "for the most part we're still pretty much a business-to-business company working with marketing departments and advertising departments of companies that have a need for an event or experiential marketing," Yates says.

Yates says the basic process for designing and building an inflatable has remained similar over the years, though some of the technology has has changed. For example, the company used to make clay models before constructing a new inflatable.

"Now, it's all done by computer using 3D computer design," Yates says. "We figure out how much internal structure it needs to hold its shape, then it gets patterned, then goes to our cutting and sewing tables."

Virtually all of the company's inflatables are built using vinyl-coated nylon. Heavier material is used if the inflatable is something that kids -- or grownups -- are going to jump on, run through or crash into.

"I have a giant horse head out in the back right now for the Indianapolis Colts that's actually a slide," Yates explains. "The ladder in the back is disguised by an inflatable mane that looks like it's kind of waving, and then they'll slide out the horse's mouth. It's a fan development tool that they will tour with and will probably use in pre-game tailgate areas."

Yates pauses: "To be honest, the colt is not a real friendly looking colt. He's a little aggressive."

Over the years, Inflatable Images products have appeared in a wide range of settings, from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, to buildings from Tokyo (a 45-foot locust) to Seattle (a monster).

"We've built stuff that has gone to the far east, Europe -- we do some military inflatables decoys for war games and that sort of thing," Yates says. "We had something to do with the successes in Desert Storm providing helicopter and tank decoys."

While inflatables continue to be the company's bread and butter, digital printing capabilities are opening new doors, says Yates.

"What's changed as much as anything in the last five, six, seven years is how much we can now digitally print images onto our fabric to get the look that we want," he says. "It certainly helps in product replicas where you need to have very specific product labeling."

For example, "right now we are wrapping a Toyata Sienna van for IMG/Ohio State University Sports Marketing," he says. "We've become a partner with IMG/Ohio State, and we've provided them with three inflatables, plus we're doing these van wraps that will go into the Buckeye mobile sports tour. You see a lot of mobile advertising right now, and we actually have entered that market as well."