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BUSINESS
Chicago

Radio Flyer rolls into 21st century with scooters

Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
  • Radio Flyer is moving beyond wagons
  • Its new scooter for boys comes with special rear shocks for higher jumping
  • Its new scooter for girls comes with a special iPod holder and speaker

CHICAGO — Those shiny, red Radio Flyer wagons that have been placed under Christmas trees for decades may be upstaged this holiday by something equally red and shiny — but a bit more edgy: scooters.

Radio Flyer CEO Robert Pasin with the "world's largest wagon" outside company headquarters in Chicago on Nov. 14.

Never mind that a 26-foot-high and 27-foot-long Red Wagon of steel sits on the front lawn of the company's headquarters.

Forget that this 15,000-pound wagon reminds everyone driving by what this 95-year-old company makes first and foremost — and that, over the years, it's made upwards of 100 million of them.

Pay no attention to the fact that tall and lanky CEO Robert Pasin, who prefers to go by the title chief wagon officer, willingly sits cramped in a conventional kid's wagon for 40 minutes answering a reporter's questions while also being videotaped for USA TODAY'S website.

The future for Radio Flyer is not just about wagons. Far from it. A decade ago, wagons accounted for virtually all of its sales. Now, wagons drive less than one-third of sales. These days, it's also scooters. And ride-ons. And tricycles. But, particularly, scooters.

Radio Flyer's already making 10 different scooter models for ages 1 1/2 to 10, but mostly three-wheelers. Now, it's going whole-hog into two-wheelers. In a demanding nation where McDonald's can no longer just sell burgers and Starbucks has to stretch well beyond coffee, Radio Flyer has opted to embrace the scooter.

Not just any scooter, mind you. One of the two-wheeled scooters boasts rad rear shock absorbers for higher jumping. The other comes complete with an iPod holder and speaker. Watch out Razor. Radio Flyer is no longer flying under the radar. At Toy Land's most critical time of year, one of its oldest — albeit smallest — major toymakers suddenly has its eyes on a bigger piece of the toy industry's estimated $22 billion in annual sales.

Radio Flyer's already proved that it can reach outside its own box. Ten years ago, it didn't even make a tricycle. Since then, it's supplanted several top brands and is now the nation's largest seller of tricycles. The near-century-old toymaker is acting more like an upstart, with ambitious plans to do the same with scooters — and, for that matter, just about anything else that's got wheels.

"Anything a kid under 10 can ride on is fair game for us," says Pasin, whose grandfather Antonio, then a poor, Italian immigrant, founded the company on a shoestring back in 1917. "People expect to find a sleepy, little wagon company. But we're like the Harley-Davidson of scooters. We see a sea of sameness in the scooter category. The trick is not to do what everyone else is doing."

In a world gone high-tech, how can a company that mostly makes bulky, red wagons possibly thrive, let alone survive? Perhaps by staying true to its brand even as it adds some who'd-a-thunk-it twists. It has no choice. This is the season when most wheeled vehicles for youngsters compete in a wild race for half of their annual business — or more.

For Radio Flyer, whose sales have doubled to almost $90 million over the past eight years, it's all about rolling into new categories or adding twists to old ones.

Like the new scooter for girls, Groove Glider, that comes with an iPod speaker and holder. Like the new scooter for boys, Shockwave, made with special, flexible shocks in the rear that give riders the feeling of jumping extra high. There's even a new, customizable wagon available online this holiday that lets folks design their own wagons with everything from shade protection to optional iPod speakers.

Consumers — if not the toy industry itself — are taking notice.

"Ten years ago, they were nothing but the red wagon company," says Jim Silver, editor of parental toy guide Time-to-Play magazine. "They've grown way beyond that."

Growth has not always been simple for the privately owned company. Last year, with the nation's economy still in flux and retailers cutting back on toy orders, the company's sales fell more than 15%, says Pasin. But this year, with the economy recovering, he expects sales to jump more than 20% vs. 2011.

The little-red-wagon-that-could company may be at a critical juncture. Should it become a different kind of company that opts to push the coolness factor and layer on techno chic, or should it rely more on its heritage, its nostalgia factor and, truth be told, its squareness?

"I honestly don't believe that Radio Flyer needs to become hip to extend its brand," says Bob Friedland, former Toys R Us publicist who is now a consultant at Kaplow PR. "To extend the brand, they should rely heavily on the nostalgia factor."

Certainly, the folks at scooter rival Razor, which dominates the scooter category, hope that Radio Flyer clings to the past.

While Radio Flyer's a strong, heritage brand, it has no real "aspirational value" like Razor, says Katherine Mahoney, vice president of marketing at Razor. That's because Razor enjoys a strong coolness factor with teens — and beyond, she says. "A 6-year-old kid riding a scooter is really looking at teens competing at the X Games who perform flips off of ramps."

That's not coming anytime soon in a Radio Flyer.

What is coming, says Pasin, is a major move into the category, which will be particularly evident this holiday at Walmart, Target and Toys R Us. Over the years, Radio Flyer has made scooters on and off, but they've never been a focal point or widely marketed. This holiday, however, it's deadly serious about the two-wheelers. Radio Flyer is even airing its first-ever national TV campaign to convince kids and parents that its new scooters are mixing one part nostalgia and two parts original R&D to be cooler than cool.

Nostalgia comes first, says Pasin. "Who doesn't remember, as a kid, sitting in a little red wagon with the wind in your hair, the sun in your face and someone you love pulling you forward?" asks Pasin. "We're all about love, warm memories and smiles."

Sometimes, it's even nostalgia by illusion.

Take, for example, the classic, $50 Radio Flyer tricycle. It's red and shiny. It's got chrome handlebars. It's got a big, silver bell. And it's even got red streamers flying out of the white hand grips. What grownup doesn't remember riding this very same Radio Flyer bike?

Except, of course, no one can.

That's because Radio Flyer simply pieced together the best of Boomer tricycle memories about a decade ago and essentially claimed them as its own. While the bike may look like everything Baby Boomers recall about the tricycles they best loved, Radio Flyer was still decades away from making trikes when Boomers were kiddies.

"Our goal was to create a tricycle that people remember riding as kids," says Pasin.

But 9-year-old Kaitlyn Hickman, from Lombard, Ill., couldn't care less about nostalgia. Something else was on her mind one recent afternoon while she barreled around on a new cutting-edge scooter, supposedly one targeted for boys because it has extra spring action, on a makeshift test track outside Radio Flyer's headquarters.

Her most critical comment after several laps around the track: "I want this for Christmas."

This is music to the ears of Radio Flyer executives. Never mind that the scooter that was supposed to target Hickman — and her female peers — is the pink one with the iPod holder.

Radio Flyer is taking no chances. It's even gotten the new scooters into the hands of 300 mostly mommy bloggers.

Bloggers aside, as far as Tom Schlegel, senior vice president of product development, is concerned, it's all about getting into the minds of kids.

"It takes a lot of failures to get to the end result," he concedes. To be precise, he estimates, it took about 20 mock-ups of each scooter model before one finally passed the test.

One key: Watch what kids do, not what they say. Although young boys, for example, said that they preferred to have the special springs placed in the front of their scooters — observations of them actually riding and testing the scooters showed that boys much preferred versions with springs in the back.

But it isn't just kids that Radio Flyer observes. It also watches the behaviors of moms and dads.

Take Mom and the baby stroller — or Mom and the tricycle. Radio Flyer observed a number of moms who jury-rigged ways to push tricycles. It also observed moms who had trouble getting their kids to sit happily in conventional strollers. So for this holiday, it created a 4-in-1-Trike, a $100 combination stroller tricycle that can be either — or both.

This holiday, it's also turned its familiar wagon into a totally customizable machine. Parents — or grandparents — can go online and customize the wagon of their choice using Build-A-Wagon.

Besides a steel or plastic wagon, folks can choose from classic rubber wheels or more-cushy rubber, air-filled wheels. Then there's the optional storage compartment with a couple of cup holders for Mom's and Dad's lattes. And a sun-protection canopy for junior. Seat pads. An optional plaque inscribed with your kid's name. Oh, and an iPod speaker, of course.

Buy the fully loaded wagon, and it'll cost nearly $300.

A tour of the headquarters building shows how little — and how much — has changed over the years. A cavernous room — soon to be turned into a modern play lab and focus group area — where the wagons were once manufactured on an assembly line, still displays several reminders of the past. Nearby is a state-of-the-art new products lab where costly machines create instant mock-ups of future products.

Not that every new product has worked perfectly over the the years. In fact, most don't, says Pasin.

Like the baby-doll-in-a-wagon set it rolled out 15 years ago. The company was well aware how many young girls were using the wagons to shuttle around their dolls. So why not combine the two? But there was one little problem, says Pasin: "We didn't know anything about dolls." Result: total flop.

That won't stop the company from trying new things. Perhaps motorized vehicles for older kids. Or maybe even — watch out Burton — skateboards.

With Radio Flyer's 100th anniversary just a handful of years away, Pasin is asked what the company might be making 100 years from now.

He thinks hard. He shuffles uncomfortably. "One thing I know for sure," he says with a smile. "We'll still be making wagons."

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