Polaroid Corporation a "juggernaut of innovation", in many respects Polaroid was the Apple of its time with a "leader in Edwin Land, a scientist who guided the company as the founding CEO for four decades". Polaroid’s initial market was in polarized sunglasses — spawned from Land’s self-guided research in light polarization. Land, having completed his freshman year at Harvard University, left to pursue this market, resulting in Polaroid's birth. Land later returned to Harvard to continue his research. Polaroid, owning patents to its polarizer technology, got its start by employing polarization in products that included 3-D movies and glare-reducing goggles for dogs.
Polaroid Corporation several former Polaroid employees to their staff. The company expects the agreement to yield $1.3 billion in retail sales over an unspecified period beginning in 2009. On January 5, 2010, Polaroid appointed Lady Gaga as "Creative Director" for the company. A press release stated that she would be the "new face" of Polaroid. In 2017, the holding corporation for Polaroid, PLR IP Holdings, LLC, was acquired by Polish investor Oskar Smołokowski. The last factory producing Polaroid instant picture film cartridges in Enschede, Netherlands, under the trademark "Impossible", which had already been led by Smołokowski as CEO, was rebranded to "Polaroid