About Neon Husky

This page was last updated on August 9, 2006.

From our founder:

I started juggling in September of 1986. In 1989 I was diagnosed with 2 degenerative retinal disorders that have been steadily decreasing my eyesight. On December 1st, 1998 I was certified as legally blind and while my sight has been stable for short periods, it has continued to decline. I expect that someday I will not be able to see at all. Since juggling has brought so much joy and so many wonderful friends into my life, this situation really bummed me out and I was facing the possibility of having to leave all that fun behind.

Silly me.

It's not often we can point to a moment in time when life changes, but in the fall of 1999 that's what happened. I was at the Lopez Island Jugglefest and playing around with some home-made glow stick poi someone had brought. They were fun, and my interest in club swinging paid off as I found them easy to get the hang of. While I was happily spinning away, the thought occurred to me that since I wasn't letting go of the props I shouldn't need to see them. So never being one to turn away from an idea, I shut my eyes and to my mild surprise, everything kept flying right where it was supposed to. In that moment I realized that my juggling days weren't over, they were just in for a change. Since then I have been searching for manipulation arts that don't require throwing and catching, and to my surprise and delight there are a lot of them! The more I look, the more I find.

So there I was, armed with an idea and no direction. In early 2000 I made up some chain poi and took them to the first-ever Damento juggling festival where some people showed interest and placed orders for some fire poi. At this festival I was also introduced to the idea of nunchaku as a "don't let go of it" prop, and came home full of excitement and ideas. In early summer of 2000 I quit my day job and started Neon Husky with my idea and $88 a week in unemployment checks. The first version of the website went online in the fall of 2000 and after 4 re-designs has settled down into something that seems to work very well. The business has expanded rapidly and all startup debt was paid off almost 18 months ahead of my original projections. We are consistently breaking our own monthly and festival sales records and orders & inquiries come in from all over the world. This year (2006), we marked a very special event as we have shipped goods to every continent on Earth, including Antarctica. When people on the moon need cool props, we'll be there too :)

Over the last year or so, we have begun to widen our product lines and include props that you can let go of if you want to. Why? Two main reasons: 1) People like them and they will buy them, and 2) Why not? We take the "infinite possibilities" part of our tagline very seriously. We keep our emphasis on illuminated props and we will never abandon the "never let go" ideal, but we are committed to a more general view of providing cool things for people to do cool stuff with.

If anyone has any feedback, comments, or ideas for new products, please don't hesitate to contact me.

--Jim Dorman, Head Husky