1. Snuggie
If anything, you will probably struggle to find anyone that has not heard of a Snuggie before! However, if you have not, think of a blanket with arms, as that is basically what a Snuggie is. It is a very simple idea, but it was so lucrative it made hundreds of millions. It is worth noting that it was the first of its kind, but rather a company made it as a competitor to someone else’s invention that was similar, called a Slanket. We all know which one successfully mesmerized the public.
The Snuggie became one of the biggest viral successes of the late 1990s and it was a sought-after product, both online and in stores! It was everywhere at one point and their commercial appealed to everyone, so it was not a surprise that it sold so well. The company that sold them, Allstar Marketing Group, made about $500 million from the sales of the Snuggie and about $40 million of them were in the first three months alone! They basically became millionaires overnight!
2. Pet Rock
You may remember this pretty well, as it created a craze in 1975, and the man that came up with this idea managed to sell five million units in the first year they launched. Priced at the moderate sum of $3.95, it was not expensive, but it did become one of the first dumb fads with its success in the first year alone, the inventor, advertising executive Gary Dahl, easily became a millionaire.
The Pet Rock is truly such an easy and quite a dumb concept, we are wondering why no one before Dahl ever tried it out. It is in effect just a box, with some wood shavings, the instruction manual and, you guessed it, a rock. That’s all you get, but the way it was marketed made Dahl a millionaire. This one is credited as the classic dumb “invention” that made someone extremely rich!
We doubt you would be able to pull off such a stunt today!
3. Silly Bands
It was impossible to not have seen these in 2006, as they were all over commercials and they were a hit with elementary school children at the time. They are small rubber bands that were initially shaped like animals, but grew to include a whole array of shapes over the years, making kids not have enough of them! They were trading them around and trying to have all the shapes and colors, wearing them as bracelets and more, starting a craze among kids back then.
They are not very complicated in concept and they make for a very affordable collection, one that kids can enjoy with all their friends. The inventor of this product is named Robert Croak and, while not having an exact figure on how much he made from these, it is definitely in the realm of millions. They still produce them today, so if you happen to have young members in your family you can gift them a packet.
Who knows, maybe you have a future collector close by!
