In 2019, Chris Robinson retired from Lucite International after 39 years with the company.
He began his career working at the Remington Arms division of Dupont in 1980 but moved to its acrylic division in 1987, taking on the spa sheet business in 1988.
Robinson has been a familiar face in the hot tub industry. He’s been part of many industry groups, serving on and chairing committees. He started attending National Spa & Pool Institute spa council meetings in 1997, eventually joining the council and becoming the council chair. He served as the spa council representative to the NSPI board of directors for nine years. He assisted the NSPI when it reorganized as The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals (now Pool & Hot Tub Alliance). He also helped bring the International Hot Tub Association under the APSP in 2013.
“As I look back, one of the biggest accomplishments [of my career] was bringing the disparate and competitive competing hot tub councils together,” Robinson says. “We became so much stronger by putting those two industry groups together. [It was] not a singular accomplishment, but a big step for the industry. If I can be remembered for that, we’ve moved the needle forward during my career.”
Robinson helped implement an annual Lucite ski trip for manufacturers in 1989. “It started as a weekend getaway with a couple of California spa startups called Sundance Spas and Caldera Spas,” Robinson says. By 1993, it had evolved into an annual industry event and was held each March with the top 15 spa company owners. The trip continued for 20 years with the purpose of bringing the industry together to discuss the state of the market, decide new colors for the following year and identify issues important to the growth of the industry.
“I had the pleasure of working alongside some of the best and most innovative people in this industry,” Robinson says. “We worked hard to grow this industry and make it better as well as protect it from legislation and regulations that would strangle it. I am pleased to have been a part of building an essentially new market category.”
