CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts

Hula-hooping to success

An entrepreneur puts new spin on an old toy.

Subscribe to Top Stories
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
By Amy Haimerl, FSB Senior Editor

hoop_dreams.03.jpg

Patrick Deluz spends his days crafting battery-powered Hula-Hoops that pulse with light and color.

His interest was first piqued when his girlfriend brought two hoops home and he tried to spin. He failed miserably and gave up until he met a performance artist who explained that it's all in the hoop, not the hips: The children's models are too light for adults.

Inspired, Deluz, 58, made his own hoops out of black irrigation tubing wrapped in leather from thrift-store skirts. He added LED lights for flash, and his company, Psychedelic Sensually Interactive Hoops, based in Encinitas, Calif., was born. Since then, Deluz's customers have been spinning them everywhere, from nightclubs to the opening party of Cirque du Soleil's Ka in Las Vegas.

Each hoop costs $250 to $320, and Deluz says he has sold 1,000 over the past three years. He is looking for a Chinese manufacturer to help boost his volume, but until he finds one that matches his quality, he must spend six hours handcrafting each hoop. To top of page

To write a note to the editor about this article, click here.

Photo Galleries
Holiday gifts for the yoga nut These 7 small brands are helping fuel a booming yoga industry. More
Best of the L.A. Auto Show Fuel economy is the name of the game in Southern California. More
Are things really getting better? Last quarter, the economy grew by the largest amount since the summer of 2007, but there are signs that things are still getting worse. More
Sponsors
© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.