The target audience for this blog is Purdue University Entrepreneurship-minded students.
Of course, anyone interested in entrepreneurship, marketing, technology, and Happy Fridays can read and comment therein also!
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Goodby Walter
Posted on March 3rd, 2010 45 comments
Over 200 million sold!
It happened a little bit by accident, as great ideas often do, when a 17 year old and his girlfriend played catch with a popcorn can lid on the beach in California. When the popcorn lid lost its shape they began using a more durable round, shallow tin pan. A passerby offered them money for their pan so Walter Frederick Morrison and his girlfriend, Lu, decided to capitalize on the opportunity. They began selling 5 cent “flyin cake pans” to people on the beach for a quarter. They weren’t the first to sail a flat round object into the air. Yale University students were known to toss empty pie tins back and forth from The Frisbie Pie Company which supplied pies to their university. Walter and Lu were, however, the first to recognize a market for the object. It took them a few years to perfect their product and get it ready for consumers, but it was worth the wait. After Walter returned from World War Two, nine years after they first thought of their idea, Walter sketched a design for the “Whirlo-Way”. Two years after that, with the help of an investor, Walter got his design molded in plastic. He named the plastic disk the “Flyin-Saucer”. Another nine years passed by before he, with the help of his wife Lu, improved upon the design and named it the “Pluto Platter”. Finally, in 1957, twenty years after first playing with their tin pan on the beach, the couple sold the rights to their saucer to the Wham-O toy company for 1 million dollars plus future royalties. Wham-O was aware that kids, influenced by the pie company name, were using the term Frisbie for similar objects. They changed the name slightly to avoid a lawsuit and the “Frisbee” was finally born. Wham-o improved the design a bit more and got it patented. Though Walter thought “the name was a horror” he had earned 2 million in royalties by 1982 and said “I wouldn’t change the name of it for the world.”
Walter Frederick Morrison- Frisbee inventor- left this world at the age of 90 on February 9th. Thanks for a great product Walter! Beth Carroll
45 responses to “Goodby Walter”
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Matt Kompara March 3rd, 2010 at 09:17
It seems like a really long time for this to go from idea stages to something profitable. I assume Walter was making decent money on the whirlo-way to get the toy company interested. If Walter hadn’t patented it, why did they need to purchase the product concept from him?
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Craig Hasbargen March 3rd, 2010 at 10:36
Wow this is almost as simple idea as the pet rock! And the product is still selling strong after almost a century. That is pretty cool how the idea came about, I thought Wham-O just came up with it.
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Michael Tym March 3rd, 2010 at 10:51
This is very interesting, you never really think of how the Frisbee came to be or who started selling them lol. That is really cool that he saw it was profitable and took advantage of it.
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Colleen Cahill March 3rd, 2010 at 11:18
I am so glad this was blogged about. My friends and I are avid frisbee golf players in the summer. I can’t wait to obnoxiously bring this story up next time someone asks to go toss around a frisbee.
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Anthony Sikorski March 3rd, 2010 at 11:44
It is crazy how people can come up with the easiest ideas and make a large profit off of them. I bet he wish’s he would have gotten it done faster instead of 20 years after thinking of the idea.
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Alexandra Graves March 3rd, 2010 at 12:26
This is a great story about an entrepreneur. Some ideas just come to us sometimes!
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Colby Beacham March 3rd, 2010 at 13:12
Sometimes the littlest things are the greatest ideas, thanks Walter your Frisbee has brought all of us countless hours of fun
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Dan Wyss March 3rd, 2010 at 13:32
This is a great and very interesting story. I never knew where the name “Frisbee” came from or who invented them. That was a very good success case.
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Rob Lampert March 3rd, 2010 at 14:07
Im so glad Walter marketed his idea. I love throwing around the frisbee!
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Shree Frazier March 3rd, 2010 at 14:43
I always wanted to know the story behind the Frisbee. It’s amazing how such simple ideas can become so profitable. It’s also amazing how such a simple idea can also go through many ordeals before a profit is made from it.
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Molly Longest March 3rd, 2010 at 15:11
I love hearing stories about how things were invented. Sometimes the best inventions or products are created by accident. What a great story of success!
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Ben Albers March 3rd, 2010 at 15:45
I love how he hated the name, but he soon ate his words once he receive 2 million dollars from the name. He is a true entrepreneur in the sense that he never gave up on his product. It took him more than ten years to perfect his product. It all worked out in the end for him, that’s for sure.
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Michael Evans March 3rd, 2010 at 15:46
What a great story! It’s amazing how a simple idea can produce such a success. I know I play with Frisbees all the time, but I never thought about where they came from!
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Harsh Sanghvi March 3rd, 2010 at 15:46
One more example how the most of the greatest inventions happen by accident.Very interesting story.
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Kyle Egbert March 3rd, 2010 at 17:11
This is really interesting, never would have guessed something as simple as a Frisbee had such a complicated history and so much money attached with a constantly changing name.
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Thomas Gick March 3rd, 2010 at 17:19
Love frisbees, glad to finally know where they came from
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loic mazet March 3rd, 2010 at 17:30
Unbelievable story !!It gives me hope. Sometime a simple accident can change your life.
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Austin collins March 3rd, 2010 at 18:20
Their are so many storys just like this one where something so simple makes millions of dollars. Sometimes the simple ideas become the best ideas.
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John Gorbandt March 3rd, 2010 at 19:31
So thats how the Frisbee got its name. That is a very good story. I just shows you that you never know where you can come up with a business idea. Very cool.
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Adi Muley March 3rd, 2010 at 20:40
I loved playing frisbee as a child and I still love to play it as a college student. It’s nice to know how the amazing idea of frisbee was born.
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Arpit Bawa March 3rd, 2010 at 20:53
this proves that opportunity can be found anywhere, and at anytime. You just have to keep an eye out and have an open mind.
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Ryan Poxon March 3rd, 2010 at 21:02
It’s amazing how something so simple can produce so much income. 2 million by 1982! Add on another 28 years of royalties, and this man died very weathly for creating a disc to toss back and forth.
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David Hyman March 3rd, 2010 at 21:08
Its weird how just playing with somthing simple like a lid, can turn into a million dollar corportation!
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George Petrov March 3rd, 2010 at 21:28
The invention of the frisbee has never crossed my mind. I have grown up playing with one. I really do not know how I could attend the beach with out one, haha.
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It takes genius to take an accident and turn it into 2 million bucks. Good job Walter.
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Taylor Gelsosomo March 3rd, 2010 at 22:35
It’s so cool how some ideas come about! I love playing frisbee in the summer and I never really stopped to think how the whole idea was developed. Interesting piece of information!
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Justin Riley March 3rd, 2010 at 22:47
I agree with Taylor, it is cool how some ideas come about. I mean, when they were just throwing around the popcorn lid I am sure they never thought everything would turn out how it did. It just goes to show even simple things can turn in to bigger things. There is always an opportunity to turn something simple into something as big as this.
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Soroosh Karamyar March 3rd, 2010 at 22:56
Frisbee is awesome. It is amazing how ideas put into action can produce amazing opportunities.
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Casey Piquette March 3rd, 2010 at 23:19
Really interesting how that one idea lasted his whole life time. Now there is such quick turnover for toys, but this truly stood the test of time and is still going!
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Curtis Brackett March 3rd, 2010 at 23:30
Interesting story; I enjoy learning about how things are invented or came to be. How cool is it that an idea of something as simple as Frisbee can make you millions and millions of dollars. Just goes to show great ideas don’t always have to be complicated ones
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Amanda Edmondson March 4th, 2010 at 00:05
I never knew the history of the Frisbee, until now! This just goes to show that an idea doesn’t have to be complicated or complex in order to be successful. You never know what type of material or idea you can turn into a profit as this story shows. Opportunities are endless and it’s up to you to capture them and turn them into something sustainable.
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Andrew Huff March 4th, 2010 at 00:23
This just goes to show you that the simplest ideas can lead to great fortune. I agree that it is interesting how such a simple toy that we take for granted has such an interesting history. Just makes you wonder about all the other things we take for granted…
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Tony Coiro March 4th, 2010 at 01:16
I love frisbee, this guy has added so much to the world with such a simple idea based on very complex physical phenomenons. I actually went to a three day long class on the math of it. It’s nuts.
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Zach Morgan March 4th, 2010 at 08:00
Who would have thought that the frisbee was technically developed and marketed by a young couple on a beach! Such a simple design, yet it is most likely one of the most recognized outdoor toys of all time!
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Stephanie Mellady March 4th, 2010 at 10:00
I love hearing stories about how business started almost as an accident that took off because of hard work. This is a great story.
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Jill Stolzman March 4th, 2010 at 19:33
What an intersting story, I never knew where those came from. I always find it very interesting to hear about different entrepreneurs and how they create stuff that most of use use in our every day life.
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Keegan Klauke March 4th, 2010 at 22:47
Frisbee is sweet, especially ultimate.
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Jeff Olen March 5th, 2010 at 12:48
This is an amazing story. Thank you very much for the invention Walter. Me and my friends play frisbee almost every day in the summer and absolutely love it. You sounds like an amazing person…rest in peace.
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Aditya Chaudhari March 6th, 2010 at 21:10
I like how such a simple idea can be so profitable. Just truly shows how many opportunities there are out there.
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Byron Young March 7th, 2010 at 10:43
This blows me away, just the little games we used to play for fun can actually be profitable.
There are a number of games that can be played for the fun, but can be turned into a great business ideas! -
Courtney M. Cronk March 7th, 2010 at 15:41
ohh the frisbee! the were throwing a popcorn tin lid and made millions off of the frisbee. yikes. how do these things ‘JUST HAPPEN’!?!
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Meiqi Zhao March 7th, 2010 at 21:26
I have never think that such a small round plastic thing can have such a big market and owners can earn such a big amount of money. It seems that every ideas can not be ingored.
From this story, we can learn how to make a whole brand and control the market. -
Joseph Mecca March 8th, 2010 at 10:18
I love how people just hanging out can monetize their resourcefulness, for millions of dollars none-the-less. He allowed years to pass without really moving forward on the growth of this idea, but that would be foolish this day and age, as communication is much easier and technology has spread the idea of entrepreneurism.
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Letteer Lewis March 8th, 2010 at 20:02
Its interesting that he didn’t like his name, then after he made a load in royalties, he loves it haha!
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I learned something new today! The origins of the Frisbee. Its a bummer to have lost such a great business man and inventor of sorts! I enjoy playing a great game of Ultimate Frisbee!
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