Kwikset: From a Postwar Tubular Lockset to an ASSA ABLOY Brand

Founding: South Gate, 1946

Kwikset's history names two founders, Adolf Schoepe and Karl Reinhard. A 1992 Los Angeles Times company profile spells the second founder's name "Karl Rhinehart." This article uses "Reinhard," the spelling in Kwikset's own materials and in a 1954 federal appeals court opinion that names him as a party.

According to Schoepe's 2001 Los Angeles Times obituary, Schoepe was born in Berkenroth, Germany, and came to the United States in 1927. He worked as a metal worker in the aircraft industry, and during World War II he trained women in welding. "As the war was winding down," the obituary says, Schoepe and a partner bought a defunct lock-manufacturing plant in South Gate, California.

The 1992 profile adds the corporate details:

• Founded: South Gate, 1946
• Original name: Gateway Manufacturing, changed to Kwikset Corp. in 1947
• Moved: to Anaheim in 1948

Kwikset's own timeline also marks 1948, the year it built a new manufacturing plant "to meet post-war housing boom needs for a fast, dependable and easily installed lockset."

The Tubular Lockset and the Name

Kwikset's history says that in 1946 the founders pioneered "a tubular lock—named 'Kwikset' to underscore its speedy installation." A 2005 Kwikset fact sheet puts it more directly: "The company owes its name to this innovative design."

"Tubular" here refers to a type of door lockset that fits into a round hole bored through the door and a smaller hole drilled into its edge. It does not mean the round-key tubular lock found on vending machines. The 1992 Los Angeles Times profile describes Kwikset's product as an "inexpensive three-piece tubular door lock." It says the design replaced the "old-fashioned mortise lock in residential use because of easier, less expensive installation." For the bored-lock family, see cylindrical locks.

The same profile calls Kwikset's lock the "nation's first tubular lock." This article does not repeat that claim as fact. Kwikset itself says only that it "pioneered" the design, and a Locksmith Ledger trade history says McKinney introduced a tubular lock with an adjustable backset in the late 1930s. (The same history dates the start of Kwikset production to 1947.)

The Early Patent Record

A 1954 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Kwikset Locks, Inc. v. Hillgren, offers an independent description of the early Kwikset lock. An inventor named Carl Hillgren had sued Kwikset, Schoepe, and Reinhard, claiming that the Kwikset lock infringed his door-lock patent. The court described Hillgren's lock as "a reverse rocker type lock with a deadlatching mechanism" and said "the Kwikset lock may be identically defined." It also noted that the deadlatching idea existed in earlier designs, "as exemplified by the Schlage lock." (For the feature itself, see latches.)

The court reversed both judgments in the case. It held Hillgren's door-lock patent invalid. It also held that a Hillgren doorknob did not infringe Kwikset's knob patent.

That Kwikset patent was U.S. 2,489,160, "Doorknob and Method of Making Same," which the court said was issued to Adolf Schoepe and Albert S. Lord jointly. Google Patents shows it filed on October 20, 1947 and granted on November 22, 1949, assigned to Kwikset Locks, Inc.

Ownership History

The 2023 purchase followed a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to block it. Spectrum Brands' closing announcement says the parties settled after ASSA ABLOY agreed to sell certain businesses. On the same day the deal closed, ASSA ABLOY sold Emtek and its U.S. and Canadian smart residential business to Fortune Brands. That sale included the residential Yale and August smart-lock brands; see Yale & Towne.

Product Milestones (as Kwikset Tells Them)

Kwikset's company history lists these milestones. They are the company's own account:

• 1958: the "K" key design
• 2004: Powerbolt, a keyless touchpad deadbolt
• 2008: the SmartCode keyless-entry deadbolt
• 2014: Kevo, a Bluetooth lock

Kwikset's history also describes several products as "first" or "number one." Those are marketing claims and are not repeated here. For the wider category, see electronic locks and smart locks.

SmartKey, in Kwikset's Words

SmartKey is Kwikset's name for a rekeyable pin-tumbler cylinder. Kwikset says it lets "customers ... rekey their locks themselves in seconds without calling a locksmith," using a patented cylinder design. Spectrum Brands' 2012 acquisition announcement also describes HHI's "patented ... Smart Key re-keyable lockset technology."

Kwikset's own materials give two different launch years. Its company history lists SmartKey's introduction in 2007, while its SmartKey press kit refers to "its introduction in 2008." This article does not pick one.

Kwikset also makes security-performance claims for SmartKey, including resistance to picking and bumping and references to UL 437 testing. Those claims belong to Kwikset and have not been independently verified for this article. For how rekeying works in general, see rekeying locks. For standards, see ANSI/BHMA lock grades and UL 437.

Related Topics

• Tubular locks: the round-key lock, which is different from a tubular lockset
• Cylindrical locks and mortise locks: the two lockset families
• Latches: including deadlatching
• Deadbolts and ANSI/BHMA lock grades
• Rekeying locks: general principles behind rekeyable cylinders
• Smart locks and electronic locks
• Pin tumbler locks: the mechanism inside most residential cylinders
• Walter Schlage: the Schlage lock cited in the 1954 opinion
• Yale & Towne and ABLOY: other ASSA ABLOY lineages
• Sidebar locks

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