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who invented the hula hoop

The modern plastic Hula Hoop toy was created and popularized in the late 1950s by Arthur “Spud” Melin and Richard Knerr , co-founders of the Wham-O toy company, based on bamboo exercise hoops they saw used in Australia.

At the same time, the story is more tangled than a simple “one inventor” answer.

Quick Scoop

  • Ancient hoop toys go back to Greek, Roman, and even Egyptian times, but those weren’t called “Hula Hoops.”
  • The name “Hula Hoop” itself had been used since at least the 18th–19th centuries, inspired by the similarity between hooping and Hawaiian hula dance.
  • In 1957–1958, Wham-O’s Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin made a new plastic version using Marlex plastic and turned it into a massive toy craze.
  • Wham-O patented and trademarked its Hula Hoop design and branding in the early 1960s, cementing their role in the commercial “invention” of the modern toy.
  • Later accounts and a documentary highlighted Joan Anderson , who brought a bamboo hoop idea from Australia to the U.S., coined the name “Hula Hoop” in that context, and informally showed it to Wham-O—but she never got full credit or big compensation.

So who “invented” it?

If you mean the modern plastic Hula Hoop fad toy that exploded worldwide in 1958:

  • Credit usually goes to Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin of Wham-O, who designed, manufactured, marketed, and patented the plastic Hula Hoop and sold tens of millions of them.

If you look at broader history and naming :

  • Hoops as toys and exercise tools are ancient , so no single original inventor is known.
  • The term “hula hoop” and the U.S. introduction of a modern hoop concept are strongly tied to Joan Anderson , who brought the idea from Australia, coined the name in that modern context, and later fought (with limited success) for recognition.

In everyday usage, most sources will tell you: the Hula Hoop toy was “invented” (in its modern, plastic, Wham-O form) by Knerr and Melin in the late 1950s—built on a much older hoop tradition and on ideas that people like Joan Anderson helped bring into their orbit.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.