That’s a pretty good offer and I’m guessing it might not last that long! Also note that these hoop kits regularly go out-of-stock due to demand.

Richard “Rich” Knerr and his partner Arthur “Spud” Melin co-founded the Wham-O company which specialised in fun products like Silly String and the Super Ball.

Knerr, who retired when he and Melin sold Wham-O in 1982, died this week at the age of 82 after suffering a stroke at his home in California. Melin, his partner and lifelong friend, died in 2002.

“The company motto was ‘Our Business is Fun,’ and that really describes both Dad and Spud,” Mr Knerr’s son Chuck said. “They were two boys who just loved to have fun.”

In 1958 they began selling round, plastic hoops at 98 cents apiece. People snapped them up by the millions, as seemingly everyone attempted to spin the things around their waists, hips, necks or knees. Just as quickly, however, the fad ended.

“By the time September rolled around you couldn’t give them away because every household in America had two and they lasted forever,” Chuck Knerr recalled his father telling him.

Soon afterwards the Frisbee, which had been introduced the year before, began to catch on and not just with people. Dogs loved to play with it too.

Because dogs tended to chew up Frisbees and people tended to lose them, they proved a much more lucrative product for Wham-O than Hula Hoops had.

Knerr and Melin met by chance as teenagers outside a cinema. They went into business together because Melin raised falcons and they used home-made catapults to fire meatballs at young birds to teach them to dive for prey.

Their catapults proved so popular that their barber suggested they place an ad in a magazine and start selling them by mail order.

Source: Press association.

Here’s a hula hoop video for you (it’s just over 5 mins in length):

Yes, you did hear right - her name really is Betty Hoops!

Here’s the product information:

Putting the fun into fitness. Tone and strengthen your whole body with this innovative 6-piece foam-covered hoop complete with 60 minute DVD. Quick and easy to assemble, adjustable to fit your size. With exclusive Betty Hoops design. Features:

• Exhilarating total-body workout
• Burns calories
• Builds a powerful, toned body
• Great fun
• Weighted, foam-covered hoop
• Clips together and unclips for storage
• Guided and structured Dance Hoop Workout on DVD set to music

It’s priced at £25 with free standard delivery!

Click here to order yours today from John Lewis. Or try amazon as an alternative.

Whilst we might mention kids hula hoops for use as toys in outdoor play we’re here to promote the use of adult size dance hoops as an excellent means of getting and keeping in shape. Hooping classes are becoming very popular across the UK as a fun way of exercising with friends.