The Great Wide Open

As the calendar turns to spring, it brings the promise of warmer days and more opportunities for outdoor play. But with outdoor toys now having to compete with a vast selection of video games and other indoor-centric kid activities, it seems manufacturers have their work cut out for them when making a play for kids' previously free time.

It would be natural to think that a growing concern pertaining to kids' physical fitness and healthy lifestyle would have an influence on the state of the outdoor toy market, determining whether or not consumers will look for more active toys for their more sedentary kids. Yet, for some outdoor toy manufacturers, this trend has not yet impacted sales as much as they would originally have thought.

"In all honesty, we were expecting that the news of higher child obesity rates would increase at least the awareness of sports for children," explains Scott Wisner, vice president of sales and marketing for Carlsbad, Calif.-based sports toy maker CoopSport International. "The reality is that we have seen little in the way of increased awareness, or even a change in direction, by retailers to compensate for any increase in consumer buying in our categories."

Encouragement, though, is coming from the millions of dollars spent in advertising and marketing campaigns to improve consumer awareness about the benefits of being an active kid. "Parents and kids are being bombarded with media telling them to eat better and get active," says Nathan Keker, CEO of Diggin, Emeryville, Calif. "I think we will see a bigger emphasis on purchasing active products in the coming years." While Keker says the $2.2 billion U.S. market for outdoor toys was essentially "flat" over the last couple of years, he points to more positive data, such as sports serving as the No. 1 after-school activity—"participation has actually grown this decade," he says—and that 90 percent of boys watch sports regularly on television. All the more reason, he says, for manufacturers to recognize this as an opportunity for growth and development.

Given consumers' continued fascination with electronics and other technologically advanced playthings, many outdoor toy vendors realize the challenges they are up against, but remain undeterred.

Mark Rappaport, president of Marky Sparky Inc., Escondido, Calif., doesn't ascribe blame to kids' increased interest in the video game space. "Kids' DNA is very similar to kids 200 years ago," he quips. "You can't expect Nintendo or PlayStation 3 to change their evolutionary path." Instead, he believes, children must be presented with the means to create the desire to go out and play. "I think the onus is on us to supply these … play patterns in compelling formats," he tells Playthings. Case in point, he recalls when Nerf prevailed at retail years ago, even while Nintendo was part of the market. "[Nerf] was a type of play kids had never been able to experience," he notes.

Kirk Bozigian, vice president of marketing for Providence, R.I.-based Little Kids, says success in the outdoor toy categories is a matter of appealing to a range of consumers. "Creating outdoor toys requires that you look for toys that fit a variety of different demographics," he explains. "It isn't hard to get most preschoolers to go outside and play, because they are physical and encouraged to wonder and use their imaginations." This year, the company expands its No-Spill bubbles line with licensed versions based on Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go!, two properties popular with younger children.

Because the market for older children is focused on more involved hands-on play, Little Kids has also enhanced its outdoor toys line with some extra bells and whistles. "With school-aged kids, one avenue we have taken is to create backyard sporting goods toys that enable them to have fun while facing new challenges on a ball field or court," Bozigian says.

For 2007, the company will be adding electronics to its popular Junk Ball line with the Ghost Runner Electronic Scoreboard and the Junk Ball Strike Zone, an all-in-one pitching target, backstop and strike zone. Bozigian says the company is exploring some promotional programs for Junk Ball for late this spring.

Like Little Kids, other manufacturers are exploring the subcategories of outdoor toys to determine which trends will flourish in the marketplace this year.

Auburn, Wash.-based Toysmith has noticed consumer interest in three particular areas—soft balls, water toys and kids' gardening—and is introducing five new outdoor lines for 2007 in response. The company's Zocker Toys brand will encompass foam sports balls, along with foam darts for use in the water and on land. Its MindWalk line is comprised of water toys that national sales manager Bill Bordegon says are "cool in the pool and a blast in the bath." They will include Subbies, which race, dive, flip and scoot all around under the water, and Torpedoes Darts, which dive, glide and rise out of the water with a simple flick of the wrist.

In addition, Toysmith's Yoho! Collection is based on playground-style products, such as juggling balls and team jump ropes, and is packaged with an instructional CD. Skushi Balls are designed for little hands to squeeze, bounce, catch and throw. Finally, a complete collection of gardening tools will debut, along with a canvas garden tote bag that is stocked with a hand rake, shovel and spade.

Also finding continued success with water toys is Los Angeles-based Toy Quest. The company is entering the fourth year with its Banzai Falls blower-powered slides. "The extreme nature and sheer size of these slides has expanded the age range of kids who play with seasonal toys, bringing them back to the toy aisle," says Mitchell Cameron, product manager of seasonal for Toy Quest.

For 2007, Toy Quest will launch four new offerings in its Banzai brand. The Double Drop Raceway is a two-lane, blower-powered slide with two water-spraying arches and a pair of steep drops. In addition, the new inflatable Sidewinder Falls features a giant curved slide, a run and dive tunnel slide and a splash pool. "We listened to feedback from kids about our slides," notes Cameron. "They wanted a curving slide, and a curving slide is what we gave them."

To further enhance its slide ensemble—and to minimize the possibility for scraped knees—Toy Quest is also introducing the new Cannonball Splash Water Slide, which is sized so that kids can take a running start before jumping down its ramp. An included inflatable body board provides some additional speed.

Another category of opportunity for the company is paintball, which Toy Quest addresses with its Color Stream Blaster, a water gun that uses specially colored, yet stain-resistant, cartridges to blast bright hues up to 30 feet. "Kids want to play [paintball], but parents are concerned about potential injuries," Cameron tells Playthings. "We saw this unsatisfied demand and combined the established water gun play pattern with the fun of paintball."

The Banzai brand will be advertised via television commercials and retail end cap displays across the country throughout the summer. Toy Quest also plans to sponsor an athlete in the summer X Games.

A return to the backyard—and a revamped twist on an old favorite—is the reasoning behind Marky Sparky's latest product, the Big Jack. Rappaport had invented and licensed the Vortex Power Bat to Hasbro several years ago, and after it was later dropped from their line, he began receiving phone calls and e-mails concerning its whereabouts. "A void was created in the market," he tells Playthings. "Kids really missed that bat." This year, the Big Jack is back and, at 30 inches long, bigger than ever.

On the other side of the playing field is Diggin's FlixStix, which Keker describes as "a new way to play catch." Players simply "flick" the ball to another player who then catches it using a Velcro pad. The company also takes to the court with its ShootOut Challenge, an electronic basketball game for outside use. "This product taps into how kids play at home in their driveways and at their local parks," explains Keker, noting that the toy takes basic basketball-based games like "H.O.R.S.E." and "Around the World" to a completely different level with audio call-outs, music and timed play.

While some manufacturers look directly to popular sports themselves when developing new products, others drill down even further and closely examine the appearance of their sports merchandise for kids, in order to more closely align what they're producing with current style trends.

Branded as a lifestyle company, CoopSport utilizes fashion trends in its product design and thus assumes a more visual approach in its designs. "We see companies distressing their clothing and making it look used," explains Wisner, and so the company has responded to this fad by using retro color palettes—pale pink, green, light blue and brown—in its CoopKids line of hockey and lacrosse sticks.

Implementing different materials also achieves this distressed look and feel, Wisner says. CoopSport recently added PVC to its products, and is currently working on a thermoplastic rubber coating that gives their balls a more graphic look. "Most of the reasoning in offering new colors and patterns is to keep our line looking visually new and trendy," he says.

No matter what tactic manufacturers use to introduce their new outdoor wares, one common denominator exists: providing parents and kids with the means to get outside and have fun.

"If you give a kid a toy that viscerally appeals to them, they'll come back," says Marky Sparky's Rappaport.