Beyond The Fence: OgoSport’s Jenie Fu On “Making Stuff,” Playing Santa & Teaching Through Creative Play

Here’s a perk of being a professional toymaker: your children may sometimes see you in mythical terms.

“When my son was three, he thought I was Santa,” said Jenie Fu, one of the co-owners of Brooklyn Navy Yard-based OgoSport. “Occasionally he’d ask me a random question, like, ‘So, how do you make all of those toys before Christmas?’ It occurred to me he thought I was Santa!”

Fu’s children, now eight and nine, have discarded the idea she’s St. Nick, but remain big boosters of the award-winning company that creates toys ranging from Aero Zipp ball launchers to aim-and-toss Copter Darts, to make-it yourself OgoBild kits to the bestselling OgoDisk, a “hand trampoline” for balls and water balloons.

All the OgoSport toys are designed to enhance so-called “open play,” activities that encourage kids to experiment and make up their own games.

“My kids understand what we’re trying to do,” said Fu. “I bring home test products…but they never do what I thought they would do with the toys. Open play!”

Growing up in Houston, Fu didn’t dream of making toys, but she did wish to do pursue a creative line of work. So after graduating from Rice University with a double major in electrical engineering and art history, she moved to Clinton Hill. “It was cold! Everyone was walking really fast!” Fu was hooked.

She accepted a job at a boutique Internet agency, working on a product that tuned out to be a precursor to Google Analytics. After Monster.com purchased the start-up, “Everyone got golden handcuffs or golden parachutes, depending on how you looked at it,” said Fu with a chuckle. “Fortunately, that event allowed me to really think about what I wanted to do.”

Forgoing the dot com stock-option mania of the time, Fu enrolled at Pratt Institute. “I wanted to make something tangible, something that you can touch,” said Fu. “That’s what drew me to industrial design. My partner Kevin (Williams, an OgoSport co-founder) likes to use the term ‘vapor ware’ to describe nonexistent things. I think I had enough of it. I wanted to make stuff.”

First, “I had to get my butt into art school,” she said. Fu was inspired by a class on product design that was conducted in the offices of New York City-based Smart Design. “I thought that was cool because we got to meet the designers and see things that they were working on.” She also took a branding class with Andy Spade at Kate Spade. “I wanted to be part of that creative process.”

Kevin Williams and late Pratt admissions chief Rick Goodwin started OgoSport just as Fu was completing her masters program in 2007. “I started out as a consultant for them,” said Fu. “The three of us jelled really well. But it became apparent that they needed another partner/investor. They said, ‘Could you be that person?’” Fu was surprised by the offer, but accepted.

Williams and Goodwin launched the business with a hula-hoop sized version of the OgoDisk. “They wanted to launch water balloons a great distance,” said Fu. She came on board to oversee details like “fulfillment and operations, logistics, making sure we got paid, making sure we got paid enough.”

Since then, the company has released two or three products each year, usually unveiling them at the annual Toy Fair in New York. “A lot of our inspiration comes from looking at classic play patterns (like catch or action figure games) and then seeing how we can add value to that pattern or make it more fun,” said Fu.

“Children learn a lot through open play. They work out a lot of their thinking though open play. At OgoSport, I feel like I am part of something that has a good social message; that we aren’t just focused on pumping out toy after toy after toy.”

OgoSport employees know they need to bring their creative hats to work each day. The company holds frequent brainstorming sessions, sometimes on subjects unrelated to toys. At the same time, they know they work in a competitive market with thousands of small players and a handful of dominant companies like Mattel or Hasbro.

“In the end, it’s a consumer product business,” said Fu. “It’s not always Santa’s workshop.”

OgoSport is one of 30 New York companies featured at the Making It in NYC: the Era of New Manufacturing free exhibit at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s BLDG 92 through the end of the year. OgoSport toys can be found at Little Things Toy Store in Park Slope, Half Pint Citizens in Dumbo, Heights Kids in Brooklyn Heights, FAO Schwartz, the Toys “R” Us flagship store in Times Square, Amazon, or through the company website.

Reporting and photos by Anselm Doering (CEO of EcoLogic Solutions, a Navy Yard-based manufacturer of eco cleaning chemicals and technologies for commercial users) and Franz Wisner (a freelance writer living in Fort Greene).