It all started with golf accessories. In 1982, David Scherba was a 26-year-old golf-cart salesman who started a side business selling canvas golf-cart covers. David made the sales while his brother Robert did the sewing. Driving home from a sales call one day, David spied an inflatable shaped like a hot-air balloon on the roof of a McDonald's in Elyria, Ohio. Inspiration struck. Robert agreed to sew a few inflatables, which David rented out to local businesses.
The duo soon produced a Frostie cup for a local Wendy's and a B.F. Goodrich tire. Within three years the Scherba brothers had quit their day jobs, and the house they shared was filled with seamstresses. When neighbors objected to a 20-foot-tall Ronald McDonald inflatable peeping in their bedroom windows, the business moved into its first warehouse.