Before co-founding the company in 1921, Harry Soref had been a traveling locksmith in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, had invented a lock for protecting military equipment, and had founded the "Master Key" company for making master skeleton keys. In 1919, Soref then invented a padlock design that used laminated steel layers to economically produce an exceptionally strong lock body.
He tried unsuccessfully to get some large companies interested in using his design, so he and two friends—P. E. Yolles and Sam Stahl,—worked together to found the Master Lock company in Milwaukee in 1921 to produce the locks themselves, initially with five employees. In 1924, the company was granted the first patent on such a laminated lock design. Stahl led the company to become a major manufacturer of locks and the three co-founders worked closely together until Soref's death in 1957. However, the brand had not yet reached its peak status as a familiar consumer brand at the time of Soref's death. Stahl led the company until selling his shares to Soref's children who took over the company management, later selling the company to the American Brands Corporation in 1970.
At its peak in the early 1990s, the company employed about 1,300 workers in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. In 1993, the company began moving much of its manufacturing to China. Motivated by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), they later also moved some manufacturing to Mexico. Most of the jobs at its Milwaukee plant—over 1,000—were eliminated, although the company continued to perform some of its manufacturing at the plant using heavily automated manufacturing processes.
In 2002, Master Lock released its Titanium Series of padlocks, the first major redesign in fifty years. The goal was to add design variety and aesthetic value to the utilitarian functionality of their locks. The lock mechanism has titanium reinforced steel, with a stainless steel body. A shroud covers parts of the stainless steel, allowing the locks to come in different colors. Master Lock requested that the designer locks be stocked in departments outside the hardware section of retailers. In 2003, the company acquired Illinois based American Lock and all their intellectual and material property.
In May 2023, Master Lock announced its Milwaukee plant would be closing. They completed the closure in March 2024. In the process, they laid off over 300 employees.
Master Locks are made for a variety of uses, including personal locking, vehicle locking, and others. New products in the 2000s moved beyond locks, such as industrial space cover sealing mechanisms. As of 2012[update], almost all of the company's locks are known to have serious security flaws, which allow for easy bypass through lock picking or bump keys or other forms of bypassing. This is because the locks mostly contain standard cylindrical pins, with no, or poorly made, serrated or spool driver pins.
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