This Christmas, active toys are taking on electronic games, and the KMX - a kart-cum-trike for children and big kids - is leading the way. Ian O'Riordan reports.
They said skateboarding was just a craze, and BMX too. They'll probably say the same about KMX, but who cares? It's the coolest thing on wheels for quite a while, and possibly one of the most-wanted Christmas presents this year. Plus, it's actually good for the kids - and, grown-up reader, there's one for you, too.
The KMX (kart motocross) is not unlike like a BMX (bicycle motocross), but the thing bicycle magazines often compare it with is the old Raleigh Chopper - which doesn't come close to doing it justice. Could you do "two-wheel rolls" on your old Chopper? Or even "front stoppies"? And try "grinding" on a BMX bike.
The KMX looks like a cross between a kart and a low-lying tricycle. The pedals extend out over the two front wheels, and power the larger real wheel. Hand brakes and gears are attached to a steering shaft, and although the kids' model is designed solely for off-road use, the larger version could almost make a commute enjoyable.
It's not surprising that proactive toys are asserting themselves on the Christmas market. Outdoor games are taking on electronic games, and the backers aren't afraid to trade on parents' worries about childhood idleness and obesity.
The KMX isn't cheap (the children's model, or K-class, is €439, and the older kids' model, or X-class, goes as high as €899). Older kids, by the way, include adults. But the KMX didn't win the best-new-product award at Cycle 2005, an international bike show in London, for nothing.
If parents are happily considering shelling out on a KMX for their kids this Christmas, then it's largely due to Thomas O'Connell. The 25-year-old from Monaghan is at the centre of the KMX business in Ireland. Since May of this year, when he got his first full delivery of the bikes, his turnover has been €1.2 million.
"It's been a crazy two or three years for me," says O'Connell. "I came so, so close giving up . . . When I started off I was just out of college in UCG, and working with Kingspan in Cavan. After a few weeks I realised that wasn't for me, and I had to find something different."
While researching ideas on the internet he came across a gadget called the Rock-It Scooter, a variation on the modern foot-powered scooter. He expected that they'd fly out of Irish bike shops, so he ordered 500 - on his credit card. "I sold a few all right," he recalls, "but people didn't understand how the scooters worked. I know now I should have had DVD players in the shops showing exactly how they work. So I ended up with an awful lot of these scooters, and still living at home in Castleblaney."
Then, two years ago, he came across the KMX, and late in 2003 he brought the first models to Ireland. Demand quickly outstripped supply. "I got a call from one of the first people I'd sold one to. The mother said to me I was in trouble, because she couldn't get her kid off the thing. I knew then I was going to make it."
O'Connell has since founded Atomic Sports to deal with his growing business. Besides the KMX, he now sells the Flybar (a high-tech pogo stick), the Scooby (a cross between a bicycle and a scooter) and the Street Surfer (a sort of cross between them all). And he's still selling the Rock-It Scooter, too.
www.atomicsports.ie