Retro Softboxes...

[hjoseph7]

The other day I decided to assemble my Photogenic 2X3' Softbox. For the first time in 5 years I was able to assemble this Softbox in less than 15 minutes. This is why I hardly ever put it up ! This Softbox uses Velcro to attach the inner diffusion baffle and the outer diffusion panel. This Velcro is not your typical Velcro you get at Home Depot. It is really strong and gives shape to the entire Softbox. This made me wonder; I'm pretty sure that Softboxes were used prior to Velcro ? As far as I know Velcro is pretty recent technology. So what did photographers use back in the day to attach the diffusion panels to the Softboxes, or how where these Softboxes assembled ?       

[AJG]

Velcro has been around for a long time--at least 50 years, I think.  The first soft box I bought came from Calumet in the late 1980's (I think it was made by Photoflex, but I'm not sure about that) and it was a one piece unit with the front diffusion panel permanently attached.  There was an inner diffusion panel that had clips attached to elastic the you got to from the inside of the soft box.  I later got rid of it because the white interior gradually turned a pale green so it was useless for the color transparency film that I was using at the time.  Lesson learned--the soft boxes that I bought after that have silver interiors that haven't changed color over the last 20 years. Also, taking that soft box apart required pliers to get the fiberglass wands out of the strobe adapter. The White Lightning ones I mostly use now go together like umbrellas and are much easier to assemble and take down for storage.