Sunday, September 15, 2019

A toy that tops them all






A few days ago, an ad popped up on one of my news feeds for a toy manufactured by a Canadian company called Forever Spin. The ForeverSpin top is the only toy manufactured by the company. The tops are available in 18 different metals and finishes.

The metals used include titanium, 24k gold, brass, and magnesium, but the most expensive top is one made from Tungsten, which sells for $195. The company also recommends the purchase of a base, which range in price from $39 to $78.

The Tungsten top is pictured below:





Most of us likely played with some very basic spinning tops when we were kids, but it may surprise you to know that spinning tops are a lot older than you might imagine, since a clay top unearthed in Iraq was dated to 35th century BC—nearly six thousand years ago.


Most modern tops are made from wood, and look like those in the picture below:





Using modern materials and technology designers have attempted to minimize friction as much as possible in order to create tops that spin for a very, very long time. Lacopo Simonelli currently holds the record with a non-mechanical top that spins for over 50 minutes. Since the tops made by ForeverSpin are precision made out of exotic metals, my guess is that they also would spin for a long time.

The 3 founders of the company originally wanted to start an analytics company, but did not have the funding to get it off the ground. One of them had the idea to manufacture the top as a modern piece of nostalgia. Rather than obtaining funds from banks or other more traditional lenders, the company relied on a series of crowdfunding campaigns to raise money. To date, the company has raised over $1,000,000 from their crowdfunding campaigns.

There are two lessons you can draw from the ForeverSpin story:

1)    If you are looking for a unique gift, high quality spinning tops can be a reasonably affordable choice

2)   If you have a unique idea, and are creative about financing it, you can make a lot money.










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