Where the hoop came from
Nobody knows exactly when someone first spun a ring of willow, rattan or grapevine. Hoops go back thousands of years. Children in ancient Egypt are said to have played with hoops of dried grapevine.
A Greek vase in the Louvre from about 500 BCE shows a figure rolling a hoop.
The name
The name comes from the Hawaiian hula dance, because the hip movement looks similar.
The 1950s craze
In Australia, kids twirled hoops made of bamboo, and plastic hoops followed. Wham-O began making plastic hoops in the United States in 1958, and the craze spread across the country that year. A 1958 store ad listed the hoop at $1.98.
Wham-O registered the name "Hula Hoop" as a trademark.
The comeback
Bands, festivals and fitness studios brought the hoop back for adults. The jam band The String Cheese Incident is widely credited with sparking new interest by tossing hoops into the crowd at shows.
Fun facts
- Song cameo: Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" name-checks hula hoops.
- Not the snack: in Britain, "Hula Hoops" are also a potato snack, first sold in 1973.
- Science prize: Ramesh Balasubramaniam and Michael Turvey won the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for exploring and explaining the dynamics of hula hooping.
- Contest moves: old hoop contests judged set moves like the Knee Knocker, the Stork and Wrap the Mummy, plus freestyle.