“If your hula-hoop never hits the ground,
you’re not challenging yourself enough.”

On this day (March 5) in 1963, the toy company Wham-O received a patent for the “Hoop Toy.” However, by 1963, the world knew it as the Hula-Hoop and the product’s rise and fall were five years old. But Wham-O lived on and the Hula-Hoop still can be found on the shelves of toy stores.

A classic small business story, Wham-O started in a garage. Its founders, Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin, began the company in Knerr’s family garage in 1948 while they were working for their fathers and attending the University of Southern California.

While they grew modestly during their first decade (enough to move out of the garage), in the summer of 1958, they had their first marketing success with the Hula-Hoop. An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone.

But the fad was short-lived. When summer ended and school began, the fad faded as quickly as the fad arrived. Wham-O was left with millions of hoops and only a $10,000 profit for the year, a result of business inexperience and millions of unsold hoops.

But Wham-O survived and went on to create a long list of popular products over the years including the Frisbee, Superball, Water Wiggle, Silly String, Slip ‘n’ Slide and the Hacky Sack.

In 1982, Wham-O was purchased by Kransco and later, from 1994-2006, it was owned by Mattel.

Photo: Alice Barigelli via Flickr.com (CC BY 2.0)
Patent illustration via Google Patents