One solar day in the summer of 1960 , Robert Carrierarrivedat his base in Lakewood , California , and saw his 10 - year - old son Mike place in front of the service department . When he got tight , he observe his son was laughing . The holding had a painted concrete private road , and when it get under one’s skin wet , its surface became slick . Mike and his friends had spend the good afternoon ferment on the garden hose , catch a track start from the service department — which was carpet — and then belly - flopping onto the concrete , slue all the fashion to the curb .
“ You guys are going to kill yourselves doing this , ” Carriersaid . Yet he did n’t tell them to blockade .
When the Carriers moved to a new home — which had a back patio painted with the same slick program — Mike and his acquaintance brought their garden hose antics with them . The fun and games continued until Mike ended upcrashingthrough a logic gate and break it .
It was at this peak that Robert Carrier decided that if his son was going to insist on sliding , he might as well examine to make it as safe as potential .
Carrier was an upholsterer who happen to work for a company that produced sauceboat hindquarters and had access to a variety show of materials . So he brought home a 50 - foot roll of Naugahyde , a fabric cake in vinyl , which he unspooled on his property . Carrier curl the stuff over on one side and stitched it in interval . When the hosepipe was feed through the curl , weewee seeped through the holes and kept the surface wet .
The result was a backyard lane devoted to slip and slide . When Carrier saw neighborhood kids hasten over and traffic on his street getting backed up , he make up one’s mind to patent his innovation . Theapplicationreferred to it as a “ portable aquatic play twist for body planing . ” He called it the Slip ‘ N Slide — though he in all likelihood should have name it the Slip ‘ N Sue .
Carrier and his business partner , Richard Eriser , tookhis estimate to the Wham - O company , a branddevotedto celebrating off - kilter toy like the Hula Hoop and Frisbee . Wham - O was also artificer - friendly and open to outside submissions . They harmonise to fabricate and commercialize the Slip ‘ N Slide with one adjustment : The expensive Naugahyde material would have to be supplant with credit card .
The 30 - substructure - long , 40 - in - wide Slip ‘ N Slide pass on sale in 1961 and was an straightaway hit , selling 300,000 unit priced at $ 9.95 in a thing of months . kid were instruct to loosen up the material across an area free of rocks or rubble and then stake it into the undercoat . The surface had a lubricant mold instantly into the plastic that acted as a propellant , so that kids sprinting to the top of the glide would take off like human projectiles . Some kids evenaddeddish soap to the water provided by their garden hose for additional propulsion .
The same yr the Slip ‘ N Slide was introduced , Wham - O officials observed an interesting phenomenon : The more fun kids had , the more compelled grownup felt to try it . Initially , this was n’t seen as a big deal ; plenty of parents diddle with their kids ' toy . But the Slip ‘ N Slide had been organize for children of limited height and weight , typically under 125 pounds . When adults rise on the aerofoil , they were not always jettison across . Sometimes their weight meant they would dead stop , the forward momentumdrivingthe weight unit of their body instantly onto their neck . This could be withering for the spinal cord and it was possible to suffer quadriplegia , paraplegia , or even dying as a result of the impact .
Between 1973 and 1991 , it ’s calculate that a sum of seven adults and one 13 - twelvemonth - old stick out neck injuries or palsy as a direct result of using the Slip ‘ N Slide . Though these instance were rare , Wham - O was apparently concerned to the point they opt to take it off the marketplace in the late 1970s . It was n’t brought back to hive away shelves until Wham - O waspurchasedby the Kransco troupe in 1982 .
The Slip ‘ N Slide had always carried warnings that it was for use by children 10 or 11 days of age and younger . But it was not a superficially dangerous - looking plaything , and adult either fail to take the warning seriously or simply discarded the box and instructions without paying any attention to them . As a potential result , Kransco experience two major lawsuits that would raise the Slip ‘ N Slide to the tier of a public pain in the neck .
In 1987 , Michael Hubert of Wisconsin used his neighbor ’s Slip ‘ N Slide and suffered a broken in neck opening . The 34 - year - former was leave an incomplete paraplegic , meaning he had a limited ability to walk and use his workforce . HesuedKransco over the injury . American Empire Surplus Lines Insurance Company , which insured Kransco , offered Hubert a $ 250,000 settlement , which he disapprove . The guinea pig went to a jury trial in 1991 and Hubert was awarded $ 12.3 million . The jury declared the Slip ‘ N Slide defective and immoderately unsafe .
Kransco ultimatelysettledwith Hubert for $ 7.5 million . They subsequently litigate American Empire , claiming the policy company could have go down for $ 750,000 but chose not to , leaving Kransco on the hook for paying the settlement above the $ 1 million they had in reporting . Kransco deliver the goods that pillowcase and was awarded $ 17 million .
In 1988 , a University of Central Florida student nominate Robert Goldstein broke his neck on the slide . He alsosuedand was awarded $ 1.6 million in 1995 . John C. Mitchell II , the lawyer who comprise Goldstein , later said he believed the case tempt Kransco to take the Slip ‘ N Slide off the market in 1991 . But that was far from the end of the controversy .
In 1993 , the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ( CPSC ) go forth a recall notice in conjunction with Kransco to alarm consumers to the dangers of the slide . Though it had been discontinued , 9 million had been sell between 1961 and 1992 and an unknown number were still uncommitted in stores . ( A amount of 30 million slides weresoldthrough 2011 . ) The CPSC warned the swoop was for nipper and that adults and teenagers might suffer permanent spinal cord injury . Unlike some mathematical product recalls , however , the CPSC did not take natural action to take it off the market entirely . The grounds , according to a representative , was that it was a product for children , and nipper were not getting ache on it — only adults were .
In 1994 , attorney Matthew RinalditoldThe Seattle Timesthat accurate harm number were knockout to make out by because premature settlement may have include agreements not to hash out the case . Rinaldi play a man in California who became a quadriplegic as a result of the slide . In planning for that subject , he found two people who broke their necks in the seventies , one of whom had died . He also incur six grownup who ache broken necks in the eighties and 1990s as well as one 8 - year - sure-enough young lady who stomach brain damage . In 1989 , a consumer protagonism radical recognise as the Consumer Affairs Committee of Americans for Democratic Actionreportedthat 5000 mass had gone to the hospital for coast - related injuries in 1988 alone .
In 1994 , while the Slip ' N Slide was still inactive , Kransco sell Wham - O to Mattel . The company was sell again in 1997 , this meter to an investiture group led by Charterhouse Group . In 2001 , Wham - O brought out a vamp adaptation of the Slip ‘ N Slide with a long path , water tunnels , and archway . The companysaidit was “ absolutely good ” for anyone under the years of 11 to use .
Since that meter , Wham - O has beensoldtwice more — first to Cornerstone Overseas Investments in 2005 and then to InterSport and Stallion Sport in 2015 . The Slip ‘ N Slide rest on sale with the standard admonish that it should only be used by kids , though that has n’t prevented adults from trying it out . This time , they tend to mail the effect on YouTube .
" Officially , the box seat say under 12 , " Wham - group O president Todd Richards told theLos Angeles Timesin 2017 . " Not everyone abides by that . "
While the account of the Slip ' N Slide look sensational , it ’s not alone in the kingdom of plaything that can instigate injury . Between 2002 and 2011 , some 1 million the great unwashed — most of them banter under the age of 16 — wound up in the emergency brake way as aresultof bounce on a trampoline . A third of them suffered foresightful ivory fault .
When used as directed , Slip ' N Slides can be a fun and safe recreation , though that still has n’t stopped the product from being stigmatise . In recent 2018 , another consumer guard dog group , World Against miniature Causing Harm , releasedtheir list of the most dangerous toys on the market . Among them : weewee balloon catapult , backyard syndicate , and the Slip ‘ N Slide .
