Emily Lopizzo makes designer adult size hula hoops.  She does pretty well too.  She sells more than a few each week and gets a lot of attention from the press in Philadelphia, the city she now lives in.  Not to bad for someone who probably should be dead. Most of her friends, from a previous existence are. Yet somehow she dodged the tragic fate of a junkie. Emily’s path crossed mine after I posted the most recent bulletin, looking for vendors for the next Funky Flea.

This is Emily:

“Hi!  I hate the phone but I guess I can call the guy mentioned in this post but I make hula-hoops from scratch. Do you think something like that would fit here?
www.philthyhoops.com
Let me know if this looks like a reasonable thing to sell at the flea market and if you think so, I will man up and use the telephone.
Thanks a bunch
Emily”

This is me :

“Hi Emily, it’s the guy mentioned in the post.
This is definitely the kind of venue where interesting people show up looking to party, enjoy the underground arts scene and shop for cool stuff. I'd love to have you here. How much do you sell the hoops for? Do you have other merch as well, like t-shirts?
I love the idea of handmade hoops. What’s been the response so far to them?”

And this is Emily again:

“Oh hi, nice to meet you.
The hoops are from 25 to 45 bucks each. I have some t-shirts and crap through cafe press (I order a few before events).  I am just waiting until I create a few designs I like enough to actually get some printed. I sell about 7 to 10 hoops off my website a week. They’re very big in CA (or course), and even NY.  It’s just not that wide spread in NJ or PA yet.

People freak out when they see them in person. They are 42-45 inches tall and very cool in leopard or zebra, or skulls or flames. People always want to touch them. Its getting people to try them out in front of other people that’s funny, and sometimes hard. But anyone can hoop. I haven’t seen one person try that couldn't.

They are big and I would guess people wouldn’t want to walk around all night with this massive hoop over their shoulder but I hand out TONS of cards and we just mix people cosmos all day. It’s a really good time even if I only sell a few. And we ALWAYS get our picture in the paper if there is press because it’s just such a ridiculous site.”

Emily was really straight up with me, and before I could even launch into the origin of hula-hoops, or how hooping could change the world, she dropped a bombshell on me.