Bringing fun to the world for three-quarters of a century
California's Wham-O has been toying around for 75 years
The company sold balls that could bounce over houses, flying discs that looked like UFOs, flexible foam boards for beach acrobatics and a slippery water slide that somehow worked on lawns. But for one 11-year-old boy, playing with these toys was not enough. He needed to know more.
When school was out, Todd Richards and a friend would bike over to the Wham-O factory in Pasadena which churned out those toys and a lot more. There, he went on dumpster-dive treasure hunts.
“We'd find all kinds of cool stuff,” Richards said. “Tubing that would stretch from one side of the parking lot to the other, toys that were maybe prototypes and we'd just try to piece them together. Once in a while we'd see if we could sneak inside the building, and the security guys would be chasing us back outside.”
These days, Richards is still going to the Wham-O building, which is now in Carson, but he no longer has to sneak inside the place. Richards is president of the 75-year-old company's U.S. operations, a fact that he
sometimes still finds a bit hard to believe.
“You've got to be kidding me,” was Richards' initial response when he was offered the post in 2015 as new owners were preparing to take over. “I've been playing with Frisbees, and I've been using their boogie boards my whole life.
They told me I was the perfect guy for it.”
But what Richards could not have known at the time was just how difficult his dream job would be. After five domestic and foreign ownership changes since the company's 1948 beginnings, Wham-O had become a shell of its old self.
Wham-O salespeople couldn't get meetings with buyers because their company was considered old news. And even when stores wanted Wham-O toys on their shelves, they too often simply weren't delivered, Richards said.
Now, after rebuilding relationships, fixing its supply chain and reconnecting with retailers, Wham-O is making a push for relevance in its 75th year.
It's bringing together a mix of familiar toys and new ideas, such as a foldable e-bike. There will be a drought-friendly Slip `N Slide that doesn't require water.
The company is working with artists to use Frisbees as canvas to increase the collectability quotient. And Wham-O is tapping into the lucrative pet market with items including a Super Ball that is more chew resistant and has ridges so that it bounces unpredictably.
“What was unique about Wham-O is that we made products that became toy categories of their own. We want to do that again,” Richards said.
It all began when boyhood friends and USC graduates Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin began making wooden slingshots in Knerr's parents' South Pasadena garage, naming the company after the sound the projectile made when it hit its target, according to the company's online “Fun Facts about Wham-O.”