Hooping It Up

The men who started all the current whoopee in hoops are Toymakers Arthur Melin and Richard Knerr, 33-year-old owners of the Wham-O Manufacturing Co. of San Gabriel. Calif. Last March, while attending a New York toy fair, they got a tip from an acquaintance on a wooden hoop popular in Australia. Melin and Knerr turned out a score of wooden hoops, did not like them, started experimenting in plastics. In May they made some 3-ft. hoops out of brightly colored polyethylene tubing. Melin field-tested them on some neighborhood children--and a national fad started. From children's games, the hoop soon graduated to adult calisthenics.

The partners began mass production of their Hula Hoop, and a dozen companies quickly imitated the Hula Hoop (the name could be registered, but the hoop could not be patented) and cut into Wham-O's monopoly.

For Melin and Knerr, the hoop is the biggest thing yet. Eleven years ago they opened a shop with less than $1,000 cash and plans to make slingshots. Since then they have added three dozen other toys and gadgets to their production, now employ 670. Last year they hit their first jackpot with a lightweight plastic platter, the "frisbee." They have already sold about 2,000,000 Hula Hoops (93-c- wholesale, a 16% gross profit), hope to sell millions more before the craze dies.

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