Sunday, June 22, 2008

Wheelie Good



I stumbled across this little video on YouTube and laughed myself silly. Amazingly, the Wham-O company is still around, but sadly I can't find the Wheelie Bar amongst it's list of products. Sad really, I can imagine a new market for this kind of thing. According to Wikipedia,
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. 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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have never heard of these things - I must have had a deprived childhood.

I wonder if I could fit one to my touring bike?

Adrian said...

I'm sure you could build a custom model for the tourer, although I think I'd just stick with the spokey dokes.