WHAM-O, maker of super ball, frisbee, hula hoop, turns 75
, 2023-04-03 03:19:52,
Balls, hoops, slingshots are some of the oldest known toys. Also some of the simplest. No batteries, computer skills or assembly required.
But make them out of sturdy polyethylene, color them boldly, and put the name WHAM-O on the package, and presto! Everything old is new again. And for baby boomers who were the original target audience, irresistible.
“We want everything we do to be fun,” said Todd Richards, president of WHAM-O, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.
Hula Hoops, Super Balls, Slip ‘n Slides, Boogie Boards — above all Frisbees — are just a few of the WHAM-O products, thought of as passing fads, that have proven remarkably durable. They occupy a unique niche in the toy industry — somewhere between novelty, plaything and sports item.
“I would say we’re not a traditional toy company,” Richards said.
WHAM-O may be a bit of an anachronism, in an age of high-tech toys and video games. But that’s part of the appeal of the brand, Richards said.
“It goes back to what makes us so unique,” he said. “Nothing comes with instructions. There are no rules. It’s up to the users to come up with a way to play with it. It’s amazing to see all the things that have come out of Hula Hoops, Frisbees, Boogie Boards.”
Frisbee — the most iconic WHAM-O product — has lent itself to all sorts of things since it came on the market in 1957: Disc Golf, Double Disc Court, dog Frisbee competitions. Not to mention Ultimate Frisbee, developed in 1968 by some Maplewood High School students, and now a national sport with more than 5 million players in the U.S.
And Hula Hoops, once the classic example of a short-lived craze, have had several revivals since they were officially declared dead in 1959 — most recently as a piece of exercise equipment.
“In the mid to late 2000s, they came back to life in the fitness industry,” Richards said. “There was a huge fad of teachers using Hula Hoops in fitness.”
Shot in the dark
Teachers might not have been so delighted with the first WHAM-O product to come on the market in 1948: a slingshot.
Two University of Southern California graduates, Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin, had tested out their new — which is to say, old — toy, using neighborhood kids.
“The legend holds that every time the kids hit the target, they would go ‘Whammo!’ ” Richards said. It was, for Knerr and Melin, a lightbulb moment. “They said, ‘Wait a second, that’s the name!’ “
The success of the WHAM-O Slingshot put Knerr and Melin on the alert for…
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