Zebra began in 1897 as Ishikawa Pen Nib Manufacturing, when Tokumatsu Ishikawa developed Japan's first domestically made steel pen nib. The zebra name and logo came later, in 1914, chosen deliberately: zebras defend themselves not with weapons but with a strong herd instinct, which is exactly the sense of togetherness Ishikawa wanted from a company making tools for writing and culture — and the logo's zebra faces backward, a reminder to carry lessons from the past into new work. The company didn't formally adopt the Zebra name until 1963, by which point it had already developed its own ballpoint ink (1959) and launched a 3-color pen (1964); the mechanical-pencil-and-ballpoint hybrid Sharbo followed in 1977. We carry their Mildliner line — double-ended markers built to solve a real problem with highlighters: most are too loud. Mildliner ink comes in muted, low-saturation tones designed to sit under text without drowning it out, in both vivid and vintage neutral colorways.
