Skip-It by Tiger Toys

Skip-It is probably best-remembered as a Nineties toy, but the history of this skipping toy actually goes back to the Sixties.

At some time in the 1960s, toymakers realized that they could capitalize on a solo jump-roping toy. The toy probably preceded the sixties, but records around toys become even spottier the further back you go. The concept is relatively simple—it's a skipping or solo jump rope-style toy where you tether a ball to your ankle and attempt to spin it while jumping over it. So, anyone with a ball, string, and something to make a rigid ring could create one.

Small toy manufacturers started making them, but its big introduction to the North American market came via two Canadian companies in the late sixties. As you might guess, because I said two companies, controversy and a lawsuit were involved in the toy’s release.

Twinpak, a Montreal-based package maker threw its toymaking hat into the ring in 1968 when it released a skipping toy called Footsie. Retailing for just 98 cents, it was a classic solo jump rope toy that, in just a few weeks, had sold over 300,000 units. Many were comparing its success to that of the Hula Hoop, which had been a huge hit a decade earlier.

The president of Twinpak, Bob Asche, said he spotted a child using a wood-and-rope version of the toy when he visited Jerusalem in 1967. He thought it would be a big hit, and as soon as he got back to Canada, he applied for a patent for a plastic model. A few weeks later, a mold was made, and they started to produce the toy and get it to market. They couldn’t keep up with demand—it was so popular—and that was when Reliable’s version of the toy began to show up in stores with plenty of inventory. Their toy was called Skip-it—note the lowercase "i."

While Twinpak had just the one mold, Reliable made two, which allowed them to crank out their version of the toy. The dispute revolved around the patent claim made by Twinpak. Reliable Toys’ president, Mannie Grossman, said he had received a manufactured version of the toy from an associate in Israel in July of 1967. This toy was unpatented, and they made their molds from that version. The fact that other similar toys had been around for a while was their basis for rejecting Twinpak’s sole rights to it.

Fortunately for both parties, they were able to come to an agreement. After just one day of legal arguments, they negotiated a settlement that cleared the way for both of them to sell their toy. And sell them they did—by the next year, Twinpak had sold over 3,000,000 Footsies.

The United States already had a version of the toy on the market a few years earlier. The Jingle Jump had the same concept, but as you can see the process for attaching it to your foot was a bit more involved. A cool toy, but I do not think it was a big seller, which opened the door for the Canadian version of the toy to descend from the north.

They would eventually start selling both the Footsie and the Ski-it in the U.S. and they sold well, although my favorite was a version, called the Lemon Twist, put out by Chemtoy, in which the ball was replaced by a plastic lemon.

Two decades later, in 1988, Tiger Electronics acquired the rights to the Skip-it from its American rights holder, the Paul E. Price Company. They gave their version a bit of a redesign, and this Americanized Skip-It (now with a capital "I") was quite the rage from 1990 to 1992. It was a well-designed toy that came in bright, different colors and now had a counter so you could continue to challenge yourself to become a Skip-It champion.

Released in late 1989, Skip-It is probably best remembered as an early 1990s toy, perhaps because of a big promotional push that year at various National Tiger Challenge Events.

The events were often held at malls and attracted hundreds of participants. They could compete in contests featuring Tiger Toys like Skip-It, Skoots-Kick, and Ribbit Race. You could win toy prizes, but winners of local competitions would also be entered to win a family trip to the Bahamas in a national drawing.

It was a great way to get visibility for their products, with local newspapers and TV stations covering it. This led to a solid Christmas season as we moved into late 1990, with Skip-It becoming a surprise hit in what newspapers referred to as the “girls' toys” category. With its fun coloring, promise of active play, and a price tag under $10, it was easy to see why it ended up under so many trees that holiday season.

It was a novel toy and had a good shelf life, easily found in toy stores until about 1996. After that, I see a lot of clearance mentions, so the big sales wave of the toy was in the past. The toy would linger, Tiger would put out some variations, and even today some versions this skipping toys can be found in stores. Still, in the United States, the nineties were a golden age. Many who were around in this era, even if they didn’t play with a Skip-It, probably still remember the commercial and its jingle.

My experience with Skip-It came when I went to visit my friend, whose younger sister had gotten one. She had grown bored of it, and he had adopted the pink toy and would spend hours trying to beat his own high score. When I first saw him doing it, I thought, “Well, this is just silly.”

Fifteen minutes later, it was my turn, and we spent the rest of the afternoon taking turns using the Skip-It while the other one played Sega. It developed into a weird but short-lived obsession. It might seem like an easy toy, but when you started to get into higher reps, you went into a sort of trance that made you break your concentration and potentially trip. Combine that with the small size of the toy, and you could see the potential challenge. More that a few times we fell over or tripped up. It makes me marvel at the skill of people who could do one Skip-It on each ankle. That sounds like a recipe for doom.

Skip-It and its ilk, may not have had the staying power of some of the all-time great toys, but for multiple brief periods, it was everywhere. It got kids moving, sparked friendly competitions, and left a lasting impression on those who played with it. Even today, just hearing the name can send you right back to a time of neon colors, mall events, and the simple joy of trying to set a new high score in your backyard (or friend’s living room while he played Sega).