• #154: Slinky – It’s Slinky, Oh What a Wonderful Toy

  • May 22 2024
  • Length: 15 mins
  • Podcast

#154: Slinky – It’s Slinky, Oh What a Wonderful Toy By cover art

#154: Slinky – It’s Slinky, Oh What a Wonderful Toy

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  • A failed suspension idea for the navy, slinky becomes a toy so popular they sell over 300 million of them. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Seaside Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders podcast. I mean, that assumes that you've listened to an episode already I guess. Stephen Semple: Very presumptuous, very presumptuous. Dave Young: That was very presumptuous of me. I'm Dave Young, Steven Semple's here, and he's got a new story for us and told me just before we got started here that it's going to be slinky. It's Slinky. It's Slinky. Yeah. Childhood favorite. I used to love playing with a Slinky, and I could keep one without getting tangled for about an hour. Then it'd just be a tangled mess of scrap iron. So I'm going to take a wild guess as to the origins. Stephen Semple: Okay, go for it. Dave Young: Because I could be completely wrong. I don't have any basis for this other than a hunch, because it feels almost like the Silly Putty story. He made a thing that was, oh, this is stable and it's industrial and it won't hold its shape, and it's of virtually no use. Let's let children play with it. I feel like a spring made out of flat steel that's springy, but not springy enough to really help you as a spring, somebody just said, well, this is kind of fun just to play around with in your hands. Is this an accidental toy or did somebody set out to say, oh no, we're going to build a toy out of a spring? Stephen Semple: You're pretty close. It was started in 1943 by a mechanical engineer, Richard James, and to date, they've sold over 300 million of these things. It was inducted in the Toy hall of Fame. It's on the Toy Industry Association Century Toy List. In 1999, Slinky was a US stamp. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Semple: Yeah. But the origin goes back to, if you think about 1943, World War II was going on, and the control of the sea is critical to supply lines. Richard James is working on a way to keep sensitive instruments safe at sea and what his ideas are- Dave Young: To suspend them from springs. Stephen Semple: Suspend them from torsion springs and what does he do? He accidentally knocks over one of the springs and it looks like it starts to walk. So what he does is he goes home and he says to his wife, "I think we got a toy here now." Now he seemingly had brought home all sorts of strange things. Keeping in mind, during World War II toys were also made a cardboard because there was a shortage of steel and things along that lines. Dave Young: He can't go making toys out of spring steel in 1943. Stephen Semple: Yeah, a little tough. Also, the Navy rejects the idea for the equipment, but he continues to tinker with it and for two years he experiments with different wire. He finally lands on, it's 98 coils of Swedish steel, and it's about two and a half inches tall. It's Betty who comes up with the name Slinky because they're running around trying to come up with the name. Betty goes, "I think we should call it Slinky." Dave Young: Springy. No, it's stretchy. No. Stephen Semple: Right. Yeah. Dave Young: Slinky is great. Stephen Semple: Slinky is a great name. So they decide to borrow $500 and they make 400 of them. Look, it's like no other toy in the market, and no other toy has really come along like Slinky really, if you think about it. Dave Young: No. Stephen Semple: But now he has to convince... So he's got this thing that's completely diffe...
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