Wham-O

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Wham-O Toys Inc.
Type Private
Industry Toys
Founded 1948
Founder(s) Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin
Website http://www.wham-o.com/
Wham-O former headquarters in Emeryville

Wham-O Inc. is a toy company in California, USA. They are known for marketing many popular toys in the past 50 years, including the Hula Hoop, the Frisbee, Slip 'N Slide, Super Ball, Trac-Ball, Silly String, Hacky Sack and the Boogie Board.[2]

Corporate history

Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin, two University of Southern California college graduates unhappy with their employment, began the company in 1948 as "WHAM-O Mfg. Co." in the Knerr family garage in South Pasadena. Their first product was the Wham-O slingshot, made of ash wood, which Knerr and Melin would promote by showing off their own skills at demonstrations. The powerful slingshot was used by clubs for competitive target shooting, as well as for small game hunting.[3] The name "Wham-O" was based on the sound of the slingshot's shot hitting the target.[4] When they outgrew the garage they rented a building on S. Marengo Ave in Alhambra, California. The company eventually moved its manufacturing plant to neighboring San Gabriel, California.

Timeline

Frisbee political campaign advertisement designed by San Francisco based advertising executive Bob Gardner of Gardner Communications as part of U.S. President Gerald Ford's 1976 advertising team and given to Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention.[1] At the time, Gardner's company also held the Frisbee advertising account.[1]
  • 1948, WHAM-O founded - For about a year in the fifties, the company tried to brand their sporting goods under the name WAMO. The sporting goods buyers didn't care for the switch so it was soon dropped.
  • 1957, Hula Hoop first manufactured by Toltoys (Developed by David Tolmer).
  • 1957, WHAM-O invents the Flying Saucer / Frisbee and it is first marketed.
  • 1958, Hula Hoop first marketed by WHAM-O.
  • 1958, the Hula Hoop craze occurs.
  • 1958, Flying Saucer / Frisbee sales improved.
  • 1961, Slip 'N' Slide first manufactured by WHAM-O.
  • 1965, Super Ball first manufactured by WHAM-O.
  • 1982, Wham-O was purchased by Kransco Group Companies.
  • 1994, Mattel bought Wham-O from Kransco.
  • 1995, Wham-O bought Aspectus company.
  • 1997, Wham-O became independent again when a group of investors purchased the company from Mattel.
  • 2002, Arthur "Spud" Melin died.
  • January 2006, Wham-O was sold for ~ US$80 million to Cornerstone Overseas Investment Limited, a Chinese company that owns or controls five factories in China. That same month Wham-O donated the office files, photographs and films of Dan "Stork" Roddick (Dir. Sports Promotion 1975–1994) to Western Historical Manuscript Collection (Midwest Disc Sports Collection accession 5828). WHMC is located on the University of Missouri, Columbia campus and is a joint collection with the State Historical Society of Missouri.
  • 2008, Richard Knerr died.[5]
  • 2008, Wham-O introduced the EZ Spin Foam Frisbee Disc (waterproof foam disc with plastic center for spinning of disc on top or bottom of disc).
  • 2009, Wham-O sold to investment firm The Aguilar Group.[6]
  • 2010, Wham-O acquired Sprig Toys Inc.[7]

Products and marketing

A Frisbee made by Wham-O

In 1957, Wham-O, still a fledgling company, took the idea of Australian bamboo "exercise hoops" and manufactured them with Marlex. The new Hula Hoop was born (the name "hula hoop" has been used since the 18th century). Knerr and Melin had created the biggest fad to date.[8][9] Twenty-five million were sold in less than four months, and in two years sales reached more than 100 million units. By the end of 1959, after US$45 million in profits (US$346M adjusted for inflation to 2012), the fad slowly was dying out.

Shortly after, they got lucky again with the Frisbee. In 1955 Fred Morrison began marketing a plastic flying disc which he called the "Pluto Platter". He sold the design to Wham-O in 1957 and the design was modified, the product renamed Frisbee and sales took off in 1959.

In the early 1960s, Wham-O created the Super Ball. It was made of a relatively hard elastomer Polybutadiene alloy dubbed Zectron, exhibiting a remarkable 0.92 coefficient of restitution when bounced on hard surfaces. The company sold some 20 million of these during the 1960s, and the NFL named the Super Bowl games after it.[10]

The Frisbee and Hula Hoop created fads. Other products tried to take advantage of existing national trends. In the 1960s, Wham-O came out with a US$119 do-it-yourself bomb shelter cover. In 1962, they sold a limbo dance kit to take advantage of that fad, and in 1975 when the movie Jaws was released, they sold plastic shark teeth.

Many products, of course, were not successful. One such product came as a result of Melin's safari to Africa in the early 1960s. While camping, he discovered a species of fish that laid eggs in the mud during Africa's dry season. When the rains came, the eggs hatched and fish emerged overnight. Melin turned this into the Instant Fish product, an aquarium kit that consisted of some of the fish eggs and some mud in which to hatch them. Its debut at a New York toy fair made it wildly popular, but the fish could not produce eggs fast enough, so the idea was dropped.

Other products

Vintage Blue and white Wham-O Magic Window toy from the 1970s
  • Wheelie Bar (1966) for wheelie bikes, especially well suited for the popular Schwinn Sting-Ray. The packaging featured 1960s icon Rat Fink, and the image was widely distributed on T-shirts, posters, and decals. The television commercial featured Kathryn Minner, the original Little Old Lady from Pasadena.
  • "Air Blaster" (1965), which could blow out a candle at 20 feet.[11]
  • "Bubble Thing" (1988), soap bubble toy, which is an extremely large bubble wand, usually dipped in a small plastic wading pool filled with bubble solution that claims to make bubbles "as long as a bus," which is actually true. [citation needed]
  • "Huf'n Puf" blowgun, which shot soft rubber darts, a gentler version of the real thing, which Melin and Knerr discovered during a toy-scouting journey to Africa.[citation needed] Wham-O also marketed very real crossbows, boomerangs, throwing knives, and even a .22 caliber single-shot target pistol.[citation needed]
  • Slip 'N Slide (1961)
  • Water Wiggle (1962)[citation needed]
  • Monster Magnet (1964)[citation needed]
  • Super Sneaky Squirtin' Stick (1964)[citation needed]
  • Willie (1964)[citation needed]
  • Super Ball (1965)
  • Super Stuff (1966)[citation needed]
  • Giant Comics (1967)
  • Silly String (1969)
  • Super Elastic Bubble Plastic (1970)
  • Magic Window (1971), was made from two 30 by 30 centimetres (12 in × 12 in) oval plates of heavy clear plastic, with a narrow channel between them containing "Microdium" (glass) crystal sands of varying colors. The concept behind the Magic Window toy came from inventor Roy L. Cloutier, who had a degree in Engineering Physics from Michigan Tech.[12] In 2012, the current owners of the original patent made a slightly modified version of the Magic Window available, created and marketed without Wham-O's involvement.[13]
  • Trac-Ball
  • Magic sand (1980)
  • Roller Racer Sit Skate (1983)
  • Hacky Sack, footbag product design was purchased from its inventors in 1983
  • Splatter Up (1990s)
  • EZ SPIN Foam Frisbee Disc (2008)[citation needed]

Strategy

Wham-O's initial success can be seen as a result of the insight of its founders. Knerr and Melin aimed their products directly at kids, going out to playgrounds to reach them. They also did extensive research to find new product ideas, including traveling all over the world.[14]

For many years, the company's product strategy was to have a stable of eight to twelve simple and inexpensive products, such as Frisbees, Super Balls, and Hula Hoops. New products would be developed and added to the line for a tryout period, and old ones retired (either for a few years or permanently) as their popularity waned. Since the toys were not expensive or complicated, they were sold by a wide variety of retailers, from large department stores to corner Five and dime shops.

After the sale of the company, the various new owners experimented with changes to this formula; the toy industry was changing, with more complicated products and fewer sales outlets.

As of 2006, the portfolio of product lines includes several groups of related items which use licensed brand names. For example, Sea-Doo is a brand name by the manufacturer Bombardier of personal water craft; Wham-O makes a "Sea-Doo" product line of small inflatable rafts designed to be towed behind the watercraft.

Product lines are also more complex, and are grouped into related categories; the Sea-Doo line has around a dozen products, there are several Slip 'N Slide variations, a group of "lawn games" and so on.

On January 31, 2011, Wham-O announced its arrangement with ICM, the company that represents Atari video games, to represent the Wham-O company in various media. The expected result will be movies, television, music, and online content based around the toy products of the Wham-O company.[15]

In popular culture

  • A fictionalized account of the invention of two Wham-O products, the Hula-Hoop and Frisbee, is depicted in the 1994 film The Hudsucker Proxy, though the company is mentioned only in the end credits of the film.
  • In 2003, Wham-O sued to have the film Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star removed from theaters until the "Slip 'N Slide" scene was removed. They claimed it violated the product's safety instructions.[citation needed]
  • The band "Monster Magnet" is named after a Wham-O toy from the 1960s.
  • Wham-O is parodied as Blammo in Ren and Stimpy on Log advertisements, which was a parody of the slinky.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 John Jacobs (November 19, 1992). News. "Ad Executive Tells How Bush "Blew' Election Cites Failure To Come Up With A Coherent Message". San Francisco Examiner. p. A18. 
  2. ↑ http://www.toydirectory.com/monthly/industrynews.asp
  3. ↑ Robert Hertzberg (April 1951). "Return of the Giant Killer". Mechanix Illustrated. 
  4. ↑ Wham-O. "History". Retrieved 22 Apr 2011. 
  5. ↑ Wham-O co-founder Knerr dies at 82
  6. ↑ Wham-O CEO sues over post-purchase ouster
  7. ↑ Said, Carolyn (2010-03-08). "Nostalgia (and Frisbees) in the air at Wham-O". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-0-08. 
  8. ↑ Brymer, Chuck (2008). The nature of marketing: marketing to the swarm as well as the herd. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 22. 
  9. ↑ Olson, James Stuart (2000). Historical dictionary of the 1950s. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 136. 
  10. ↑ http://www.history.com/news/super-bowl-owes-its-name-to-a-bouncy-ball
  11. ↑ "The History of Wham-O". Retrieved 12 February 2013. 
  12. ↑ "MTU Physics - Alumni - Department History - Exhibits - BS Degrees". Phy.mtu.edu. Retrieved 2012-02-17. 
  13. ↑ "Get Yourself a Magic Window, just like the popular 70's toy for all ages!". Magicwindows.org. Retrieved 2012-02-17. 
  14. ↑ "Branding In History:Fad and Brand â€" Wham-O" Marketing Doctor Blog. April 14, 2008.
  15. ↑ Kit, Borys. "EXCLUSIVE: ICM Signs Wham-O Toy Company". The Hollywood Reporter. 

External links

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