How Flybar Is Reinventing Active Play Through Influencers, Retail, and Real Emotion

Flybar is more than a pogo stick company. It is a 100+ year-old brand evolving at the intersection of heritage, active play, retail strategy, and influencer marketing.

On a recent episode of the podcast, Sol Ostrowski of Flybar shared how the iconic brand is adapting to modern marketing, why influencer content works in retail, and how real emotion still beats AI.

A 100-Year Legacy Built on Active Play

“Flybar is an iconic company with a very big heritage. We started in 1918 with the pogo sticks.”

From simple pogo sticks to professional-grade technical models, the brand has expanded across 10 active-play brands, all centered around one core belief:

“Our DNA is active play, have kids playing outside, really playing with friends… We believe that play is a big part of the development of the kid. Real playing is essential.”

Flybar now spans three primary categories:

• Bouncing (pogo sticks, including My First Flybar)

• Ride-ons (bumper cars, licensed electric vehicles)

• Outdoor active play (NSG sports, Chicago Skates, Swurfer swings)

The mission remains consistent: bring kids “from the computers, from the screens” back into physical, shared experiences.

Why Influencer Marketing Works for Toy Brands

Sol’s retail background shapes her brand philosophy:

“That retail background strongly influenced how I think about brand building, consumer trust, and long-term partnerships.”

In the past, toy marketing relied heavily on television:

“It was mostly about TV and running the spots and the GRPs, but the world has evolved. People are not on TV anymore as they used to be.”

Now, the trust dynamic lives elsewhere:

“They are a lot on social media and social media is about influencers. So these influencers are building communities around them and they are getting the trust of the parents.”

For Flybar, influencers don’t just create awareness. They create emotional translation.

“They take your product and they find things that you haven’t thought before that this could be relevant for parents.”

Most importantly, they bring products to life in real homes:

“They show the emotions of the kids when they bring the products to their houses.”

That emotional demonstration drives purchasing intent:

“When they see these influencers showing their experience with their kids, they say, yes, this is what they want. This is a fantastic product. I want this emotion in my house also.”

Beyond Awareness: Repurposing Influencer Content

For Flybar’s Imaginary ride-on launch, influencer marketing had a clear primary objective:

“It was about launching the product and made the people know the product and how amazing it is.”

But the content did not stop at awareness.

“We have those videos that are so fabulous that we can also use them on our listings in the internet, on e-commerce, or we can use them when we go for toy fair to show the buyers.”

This is modern UGC strategy in practice. Influencer content becomes:

• E-commerce listing media

• Retail buyer sales support

• Trade show visual storytelling

• Social amplification assets

“It’s about having all these assets that we can use in so many different ways.”

Influencers and In-Store Retail Strategy

Retailers increasingly appreciate influencer support:

“The retailers appreciate all the support we are bringing with influencers because they make a lot of efforts to launch the products and support them.”

Especially with innovative products like Imaginary:

“It was a common effort to launch new products, especially as Imaginary that was like so different, so fresh, so complicated.”

Influencer content helps complete the shopper journey:

“I see where I have to buy it. I see how is the box. I see if it’s big or it’s not big. I see how it gets in the house and how the kid will love it.”

“It facilitates the communication and I think is the clearest way to translate everything you need to translate to the customer.”

This is shopper marketing in 2026: influencer content bridging emotional inspiration and retail clarity.

Toy Fair, Licensing, and Brand Evolution

Flybar uses Toy Fair to communicate transformation:

“It is one of the most exciting moments of the year for us… we really want to show our DNA, our personality.”

Upcoming innovations include:

• Disney-branded hoppers

• New Imaginary licenses (Universal, Peppa Pig)

• Chicago Skates licensing expansions

When discussing Imaginary, Sol described the product magic succinctly:

“When you see them with the inflatable part, it’s like magic.”

AI vs Real Emotion in Marketing

Flybar is experimenting with AI — but cautiously.

“We are exploring a lot of AI and it’s going so fast.”

AI is effective for analytics:

“We are using AI, of course, to analyze the data… to find the right channel at the right moment.”

But when it comes to creative assets:

“You don’t get the same result.”

“You can’t translate the emotion with AI.”

For a brand built on active play and real childhood moments, authenticity remains non-negotiable:

“For the real content to translate our products, we still believe real live, real photography, real video has to be there.”

The Story That Defines the Brand

One story captures Flybar’s mission better than any campaign metric.

A grandmother reached out about her grandchild who had severe health challenges and limited mobility.

“She bought one of our bumper cars and then he was able with this small joystick that just needs your hand to move to start moving around the house and having fun.”

“It was like a life changing thing. He could have fun… and become a kid like the other kids.”

Flybar responded by sending him an Imaginary ride-on:

“He loved Mickey, of course, and have Mickey behind him to have the full experience of his best friend and the ride on.”

Sol’s conclusion was simple:

“We were feeling that we were doing something good for the world.”

What Flybar Is Actually Betting On

Flybar’s strategy is not about chasing channels. It is about protecting a core idea while modernizing distribution.

They moved from TV to influencer marketing.

They integrate UGC into e-commerce and retail.

They use AI for analysis.

But they draw a line at simulated emotion.

“Real playing is essential.”

In a digital-first marketing landscape, that position is less nostalgic than it sounds.