Компания из Сент-Луиса Atomic Bubbles производит безопасные мыльные пузыри для детей и домашних животных

There are few things that can send a crowd of St. Louis kids running like the arrival of the Bubble Bus. For nearly 20 years, its iridescent magic has floated through birthday parties, festivals, and family events across the region, leaving plenty of delighted, bubble-chasing kids in its wake. But there’s more behind all of that bubbly fun than families might realize. The Bubble Bus is part of Atomic Bubbles, a company run by Kirkwood husband-and-wife team John and Beth Reider. Tucked in Shrewsbury is the actual bubble factory, where they produce bubbles for kids, parties, and even pets, with products now making their way to customers around the world. (And yes, “bubbles for pets” means exactly what you hope it does: bacon-scented bubbles for dogs.) Discover fun things to do with the family Subscribe to the St. Louis Family newsletter for family-friendly things to do and news for local parents, sent every Monday and Thursday. The Bubble Man For many St. Louis families, John is better known by another name: the Bubble Man. But before he was blowing bubbles for a living, he was working on airplanes. Reider studied aircraft engineering and maintenance at Parks College, earned his aircraft mechanic license, worked on jets at TWA, and spent five years on the F-15 line at McDonnell Douglas. He later started an electronics business. His unlikely pivot to bubbles began one night in the early days of the internet, when he stumbled across an ad for bubbles that glowed under blacklight. “I was fascinated,” Reider says. “This dude invented bubbles that glow. I literally ordered some on the spot.” When they arrived, he and Beth turned on a blacklight and tried them in their kitchen. “They were the coolest things I’d ever seen,” he says. “That’s what started my road into the bubble world.” The couple eventually began selling the product before purchasing its formulas, trademarks, and patents and becoming the exclusive U.S. makers of Tekno Bubbles. The bubbles remained a side venture for years as the Reiders continued running their electronics business. Then came the Bubble Bus. The mobile bubble party began bringing Reider’s creations directly to St. Louis families at birthday parties, festivals, parades, and community events. Over time, the side hustle gained enough momentum that about seven or eight years ago, the Reiders decided to go all in on bubbles. “We were ready for change,” Reider says. “We believed enough in the product, and we had a good following, and doubled down and just went after it.” Today, the Bubble Bus has expanded beyond its hometown, with franchises in three states. But the bubbles themselves still have a distinctly St. Louis home base. Atomic Bubbles operates its factory in Shrewsbury, where the company produces the formulas used by the Bubble Bus and its growing lineup of products. And after nearly two decades of watching people interact with them, Reider has developed a theory about why something as simple as a bubble has such staying power. “Whether you’re 2 or 102 years old, everybody has a memory or an experience with bubbles,” he says. “Everybody can do it. It’s not exclusive.” He’s watched toddlers, teenagers, adults, and older visitors all get pulled into the same experience. “Bubbles affect people in a magical way,” he says. The science behind the silliness Bubbles may be synonymous with childhood, but creating them on a commercial scale is more complicated than mixing a little soap and water in the kitchen. Reider learned that firsthand after a supplier went out of business and he suddenly needed to develop a bubble formula of his own. “It was not an easy process,” he says. A good bubble, Reider explains, needs longevity. It should also catch the light just right. “When you blow a bubble, you want it to last as long as it can,” he says. “You want it to be colorful, like when you blow a bubble and the sun reflects off it. You want colors to rainbow in that soap film.” And, perhaps most importantly for a company whose products end up around plenty of kids and pets, the formula needs to be safe. That commitment to creating a better bubble is also what pushed the Reiders into manufacturing in the first place. As the Bubble Bus grew, Reider says he wasn’t satisfied with the quality of many of the imported bubble solutions available. “We went after trying to create the best experience,” he says. “The manufacturing had to go along with it because we had to make a high-quality product to use in a Bubble Bus system.” Today, that operation produces everything from traditional daylight bubbles and glowing Tekno Bubbles to bubble machines and accessories. Then, there are the bubbles for an entirely different kind of kid: the four-legged ones. For the fur children Atomic Bubbles’ move into pet products began with a joke. When the pandemic put Bubble Bus events on hold, the Reiders had to look for other ways to keep the business going. At a gathering with friends, someone jokingly suggested that Reider invent bubbles for dogs and cats. “I tell you what, that night after the party, I went online and Googled pet bubbles,” he says. He discovered that pet bubbles already existed, but the products he found had poor reviews. Atomic Bubbles already knew how to make bubbles for humans, so Reider started experimenting. The result was Puppy Love and Kitty Love, pet-friendly bubbles with scents designed to make chasing them more enticing. The lineup now includes peanut butter, bacon, pumpkin pie, apple pie, birthday cake, and even lavender-scented bubbles for dogs, along with catnip bubbles for cats. “I think my biggest surprise is how well they’ve been embraced by pet owners,” Reider says. “They started selling crazily.” The products have helped take the Shrewsbury operation far beyond the Bubble Bus’ St. Louis roots. Atomic Bubbles products are sold through retailers including Chewy and Amazon and shipped to customers around the world. Locally, the pet line can also be found at Treats Unleashed. And the company is still experimenting. This holiday season, Atomic Bubbles plans to launch “Treat Play Love,” pairing a new gingerbread-scented bubble with a gingerbread-flavored dog treat. The idea follows another surprise for the Reiders: Pet bubbles aren’t just a warm-weather novelty. During the company’s first holiday season selling them, shoppers began scooping them up as stocking stuffers. “Our sales doubled or tripled during the holiday season,” he says. Can St. Louis families visit the bubble factory? Wondering whether you can bring your kids to see an actual bubble factory? Reider’s heard the question before. When the production line is running, he says, the Shrewsbury facility can be unexpectedly mesmerizing. “It’s kind of like a Willy Wonka factory,” Reider says. Atomic Bubbles doesn’t currently have regularly scheduled public tours, and some portions of the production process are kept under wraps to protect the company’s formulas and ingredients. But Reider says people can contact the company about visiting, and he has considered creating a more formal factory experience in the future. “I think it would be fascinating for kids, or even school groups, to come through and just see how a small factory in their backyard can make money making stuff,” he says. For now, families can find the company’s full product line at AtomicBubbles.com. A St. Louis childhood staple For local parents, Atomic Bubbles’ biggest claim to fame may still be the simplest one: getting kids to run all their energy out under a sky full of bubbles. Over nearly two decades, the Bubble Bus has appeared at birthday parties, festivals, community events, parades, and plenty of other family gatherings around the region. Reider recalls blowing bubbles for crowds heading into Cardinals Opening Day at Busch Stadium, appearing with El Monstero during concerts in Forest Park, and participating in more local parades than he can count. But after all of those events, he credits St. Louis families with helping turn a fascination with glowing bubbles into the business it is today. “You can have wonderful products. You can have great stuff. But unless you have people who support you, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Reider says. “St. Louis has been an amazing town for us to be in,” he adds. “The people of St. Louis have made our company what it is today.”