During the 1950s, companies such as Kendall, Parke-Davis, Playtex, and Molnlycke entered the disposable diaper market. In 1956, Procter & Gamble began researching disposable diapers. Vic Mills, along with his project group including William Dehaas, both men who worked for the company, invented "Pampers" while searching for a more fitting product to use.
Over the proximate few decades, the disposable diaper multinational boomed and the Adult Diapers competition between Procter & Gamble's Pampers and Kimberly Clark's Huggies resulted in lower prices and drastic changes to diaper design. Diverse improvements were made, such as the introduction of refastenable tapes, the "hourglass shape" so as to reduce bulk at the crotch area, and the invention of super-absorbent material from polymers common as sodium polyacrylate.