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The 17 Most Iconic American Products of All Time

By YPB Team4 votes

Objects an American household recognises in silhouette. A guitar body, a burger, a pair of jeans.

  1. Coca-Cola contour bottle — ranked #11
    Coca-Cola contour bottle
    A 1915 bottle designed to be recognised by touch alone, in the dark.
    1000pts
  2. Levi's 501 jeans — ranked #22
    Levi's 501 jeans
    Riveted work trousers from 1873 that became the default trouser of the world.
    907pts
  3. Apple iPhone — ranked #33
    Apple iPhone
    The 2007 handset that folded the phone, the camera and the computer into one slab.
    732pts
  4. Big Mac — ranked #44
    Big Mac
    A two-patty burger with a memorised ingredient list and a global price index named after it.
    553pts
  5. KitchenAid stand mixer — ranked #55
    KitchenAid stand mixer
    A 1919 commercial mixer shrunk for the kitchen and barely restyled since.
    488pts
  6. Harley-Davidson motorcycle — ranked #66
    Harley-Davidson motorcycle
    A Milwaukee V-twin whose sound is a registered part of its identity.
    413pts
  7. Polaroid instant camera — ranked #77
    Polaroid instant camera
    A camera that developed the picture in your hand, decades before phones did.
    413pts
  8. Gibson Les Paul — ranked #88
    Gibson Les Paul
    The solid-body guitar that gave rock its heavier half.
    413pts
  9. Fender Stratocaster — ranked #99
    Fender Stratocaster
    The 1954 electric guitar that shaped most of what rock music sounds like.
    413pts
  10. Zippo lighter — ranked #1010
    Zippo lighter
    A windproof brass lighter from 1932, sold with a lifetime guarantee.
    325pts
  11. Apple Macintosh (1984) — ranked #1111
    Apple Macintosh (1984)
    The beige box that put a mouse and a desktop in front of ordinary buyers.
    325pts
  12. Converse Chuck Taylor All Star — ranked #1212
    Converse Chuck Taylor All Star
    A 1917 basketball shoe that outlived the sport it was built for.
    325pts
  13. Ford Model T — ranked #1313
    Ford Model T
    The 1908 car that made the assembly line, and mass car ownership, real.
    325pts
  14. Ford Mustang — ranked #1414
    Ford Mustang
    The pony car Ford launched in 1964 and has kept in production ever since.
    222pts
  15. Barbie — ranked #1515
    Barbie
    The 1959 fashion doll that became one of the most-sold toys in history.
    222pts
  16. Louisville Slugger bat — ranked #1616
    Louisville Slugger bat
    The wooden bat that has been standard equipment in American baseball since 1884.
    222pts
  17. Jeep Willys MB — ranked #1717
    Jeep Willys MB
    The wartime runabout that turned into a civilian vehicle category of its own.
    0pts

Comments 3

Out of the car park altogether: a coupe against a bottle, a guitar and a pair of jeans: https://youpick.best/articles/ford-mustang-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team
Aug 25

Seventeen manufactured objects that read as American anywhere, and the motorcycle among them has never been large by industrial standards: https://youpick.best/articles/where-does-harley-davidson-rank

YP
ypb-team
Sep 13

Two entries here came from Steve Jobs, the 1984 Macintosh and the iPhone, and only one of them is a desktop computer: https://youpick.best/articles/steve-jobs-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team
Sep 29