Lee Lynch, founder of Carmichael Lynch Advertising Agency , came up with the idea of an inflatable basketball player while shooting hoops with his grandson a few years ago. When his grandson told him, “I want to play basketball with Michael Jordan,” Lynch’s creative mind went to work.
After giving the request some thought, Lynch came up with the idea of creating a life-size inflatable complete with a photo of a star basketball player. He presented the challenge to Mike Sable, founder of Sable Premiums & Promotions, who, through his contacts with sporting goods and toy manufacturers, started creating prototypes.
Through tinkering with a sequence of different prototypes and testing the concept with young basketball players, both realized a few things:
- Kids like the idea of practicing with an inflatable player on their driveway courts.
- Kids thought making the inflatable a life-size, NBA player was even more exciting.
- Kids liked the idea of being able to dribble around, shoot over and drive into the inflatable player.
- While play value was very important to players, many were also interested in just showing support for their favorite players and teams by displaying the inflatable players in their bedrooms or basements.
Further refinement and improvements were made to the prototypes and a new company — PlayAir Systems — was established to bring the product to basketball players around the world.
