Swimming pool inflatables to float your boat

Pull up a lounger by any backyard pool this summer and it’s likely the waters will be crowded — not with people, but with an assortment of oversized inflatables, jostling for space as they bob around. Doughnut-shaped rings might resemble crowns, emojis or, well, doughnuts; there might be some giant lips or angels — with wings, too, ideal for sprawling spread-eagled to sunbathe.

Other floaties might be made to look like convertible cars, boats or planes. There’s even a blow-up coffin by Pom Pom Floats, complete with lid — in bubblegum pink, of course.

The past decade has witnessed a surge in this market, as pool toys have become staples of summertime. Manufacturers have proliferated, from Miami-based Floatie Kings, with bargain-priced designs that can cost less than $30, to New Zealand-based &Sunday, whose rings and floats in muted, grown-up colours cost $60 or more.

There are designer riffs, too: it costs £165 to snare one of Versace’s gold-accented Crete de Fleur rings, while Saint Laurent’s leopard-print heart float, a partnership with Floatie Kings, is a relative bargain at $95.

It’s such a phenomenon that two enterprising twentysomethings on the New Jersey shore set up their own float festival in 2016, encouraging folks to gather en masse on floats, dubbing the get-together “Floatchella”. At least, until a cease and desist letter from the organisers of the Coachella music and arts festival in California forced them to rename it.

West Coast-based FunBoy is one of the best-known float specialists stateside, thanks to its Pop-py, Instagram-ready designs — the latest launch is a multiyear licensing deal with Barbie. FunBoy was founded by brothers Blake and Max Barrett alongside their wives Celeste and Raquel. “We were competitive swimmers growing up, and every summer we’d wash cars to save up money to buy something to float on in the lake,” Blake says.

The quartet was on the beach on New Year’s Eve in 2014, reminiscing over glasses of rosé, when the idea to start FunBoy emerged: could they update those childhood floats and lilos with snazzier designs and better manufacturing?

Max Barrett had a background in sourcing, which allowed the team to ramp up rapidly. Their first product, a Pegasus with golden wings, launched in spring 2015, and they quickly added more designs, including a pink flamingo (the former is sold out, but a glittery version of the latter is available at $79).

Barrett says his business was transformed by a social media post that summer: the singer Taylor Swift posted a photo of herself and her then boyfriend DJ Calvin Harris at their Fourth of July party, pool filled with an assortment of FunBoy’s designs. Sales exploded, and the company has since expanded into making everything from a $139 inflatable daybed decorated with a rainbow to a $429 giant cabana dayclub, large enough for four people.

Barrett does admit to occasional missteps, though — the peacock design, for example, which he calls “an awesome epic float, but it was just too expensive for what it was, at a little north of $100. People didn’t quite see the value in it.”

But a rival company says that FunBoy wasn’t the first to float the idea of an inflatable pink flamingo. Australia-based Sunnylife claims to have pipped Swift’s favourite by two years, launching its own blow-up bird in 2013, according to founder Barry Glick. “The flamingo is an icon that evokes summer: stylish, unique and a bit rare,” he says.

His two-decade-old company started out selling the trappings of outdoor summer life — picnic sets, beach cabanas or towels — before introducing an oversized inflatable for the first time in 2010. It was a rubber duck, and Glick added the flamingo three years later; more birds followed, including swans, parrots and toucans. Sunnylife then launched a range of fruit-shaped floaties, including pineapples and watermelon, which also proved popular.

This year, Sunnylife is introducing designs made from biodegradable PVC, which cost about 50 per cent more than those made with less sustainable plastic. It also launched its own proprietary waterproof cotton-coated PVC, used to produce retro-looking lilos and rings that evoke the classic designs of the 1960s and 1970s; these cost from $50. Sunnylife still makes other items, such as towels, but Glick says that floaties contribute 25 to 30 per cent of the firm’s overall revenue.

So how did these cartoonish, blow-up toys crowd out swimmers from the pool? Instagram, of course, was essential: affordable and visually appealing, floats are cheap clickbait props for a snap or two, readily tagged #floatlife. But there’s more to their appeal than social media, says FunBoy’s Barrett.

He points to the playfulness of such toys. “It’s about tapping into that childhood sense of glee,” he says, noting his firm’s own name. “In the last five years, there’s been a real reassessment of how you spend your downtime, and people have started prioritising play. Life’s not just all about work.”

What’s more, we’re liberated from many social norms when we’re poolside, according to Annie Kelly, author of Splash: The Art of the Swimming Pool. “Everyone’s in what amounts to their underwear, entertaining at home, so it’s a different experience — there’s an element of voyeurism and disinhibition,” Kelly says. Pools have long been places to socialise as much as to swim — sexy and playful in equal measure, like a Hockney painting.

“Though [Hockney’s] too grown up to have inflatables,” Kelly adds. “I’ve been to his house, and I’ve seen his pool and I can assure you there isn’t one in sight.”

The industry’s marketing is canny, too; it has evolved to borrow tricks from fast fashion and sneaker culture. As in streetwear, collaborations are commonplace, whether Barbie or Saint Laurent, while FunBoy releases products “drop”-style, as sneakers are often sold now: new items appear throughout the week and are deliberately produced in limited runs. Its website is proudly littered with “sold out” signs.

Prices are kept low, too: few of the simple floats cost more than $100, and many much less than that. Such an approach prompts concerns around sustainability, of course, though Barrett says that FunBoy’s products ship with a repair kit that can be used to patch minor punctures (Sunnylife bundles a similar kit with its designs, and Barry Glick points to his company’s efforts to introduce biodegradable PVC).

These toys are no longer limited to the pool — many companies now produce what’s essentially inflatable furniture that can be used both on the lawn and in the water. “We’ve moved from designing something that’s desirable and nice looking to products with much more comfort and functionality,” says Glick. Blake Barrett sees the shift as a nod to the trend for inflatable furniture in the early 2000s. “Y2K fashion trends are coming back, too, and this is a wink and a nod to those vibes.”

Both companies are primed to expand further — not just outside the pool, but beyond summer, too. Sunnylife is workshopping a new PVC material with the aim to launch year-round inflatable furniture in 2023, intended to use in the pool when it’s hot and for lounging on the porch when the days get chillier.

It’s about tapping into that childhood sense of glee. People have started prioritising play

FunBoy has a range of products aimed expressly at winter: inflatable snowmobiles, toboggans and sleighs, made with rubber bottoms to slide more easily over the snow, and all costing $199 or less.

“Our products are for the best days of summer,” Barrett says. “So we thought, what about the best days of winter? That’s when you have a snow day in your hometown and you don’t have to go to school so you can go out and play.”

Find out about our latest stories first — follow @FTProperty on Twitter or @ft_houseandhome on Instagram