Flybar - Super Pogo - 1505

Since his first boyhood bounces on a pogo stick, pro skateboarder Andy Macdonald had a passion for the elevation, exhilaration, and pure fun that the pogo offered. Even though Andy went on to become the world's top-ranked skateboarder (a title he still holds today), he never lost the desire to revisit that rush he knew as a young boy on his pogo. However, no product substantial enough to support the weight, strength, and demands of a world-class athlete existed. So in the summer of 2000, Andy embarked on an effort to find a manufacturing partner that could deliver on his vision for this next-generation product.

Irwin Arginsky, president of SBI Enterprises, had shared that same vision and goal but for an even longer time. SBI Enterprises has been manufacturing pogo sticks since 1918 and developed a reputation as the industry leader. In fact, the company is the original holder of the Hansburg Pogo patents. Although SBI experienced steady success over the years, Mr. Arginsky continually searched for an opportunity to develop a product that would bring the "excitement of elevation" to a new level.

It was this common quest for a product that could elevate adults as well as children to new levels and in new ways that ultimately led to the unlikely partnership between Andy Macdonald and SBI Enterprises.

After countless meetings and false leads, Macdonald was about to abandon his quest, frustrated by the futility of his efforts to find a sporting goods manufacturer willing and able to develop this new product--until August 10, 2001. On that date, Macdonald spotted a story in The Wall Street Journal on the fad of newfangled pogos on the market, ones that included bells and whistles but lacked any new technology or capabilities. SBI's Irwin Arginsky was quoted in the article, making reference to a new technology that would revolutionize the concept of bouncing. Arginsky's goal: To create a new product category--not just a new fad.

Macdonald quickly contacted Arginsky, who eagerly offered to share the beta prototype of a patented elastomeric spring system that was mobile like a pogo and could clear heights of over 5 feet, with a bounce that felt like a trampoline. After testing the system in a secret meeting with Arginsky in the shadow of the 2001 Gravity Games, Macdonald was convinced this was the real deal. A partnership was born as the two businessmen and visionaries agreed to collaborate in developing and marketing the product known today as the Flybar 1200 model. But there was much work to be done.

With the market flooded at the time with pogo sticks that made promises they could not deliver, this team knew their product had to withstand the skeptics and truly earn respect. For three years, SBI and its development team of engineers, designers, and manufacturing experts collaborated with Macdonald to translate the patented system into a product capable of mass production and that met the exacting demands of Macdonald and Arginsky. After investing more than a million dollars and innumerable labor-hours, testing multiple prototypes, and resisting temptations to rush to market, the Flybar is now available in two models.