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From 1942 to 1945, the company shut down its production of wagons and made five-gallon steel gas cans for the war effort. As men returned home at the end of World War II, housing was short and the 1944 G.I. Bill subsidized mortgages, allowing many to flock to the suburbs. The sale of wagons surged during the subsequent baby boom, and Radio Flyer branched out into gardening wheelbarrows to meet changing demands. Today, Radio Flyer still makes those red wagons, but it also makes electric bikes and scooters, tricycles, bounce houses—and Teslas for kids. The factory on the west side of Chicago closed in 2004 (it’s the design office now), and most products are currently made in China.
Of course, baskets and car seats are available accessories, but a rear cargo rack is standard. “My niece a few years ago was diagnosed with brain cancer and she spent eight months in children’s hospital and she would sleep in the radio flyer wagon – she preferred to sleep in that,” Garone said. “It just made those moments when she knew she was going into more chemo, going from her bed to the treatment room… it transformed it and allowed her just to be a kid with something familiar and loved.”
In the 1990s, Radio Flyer worked to expand its product line and step up its marketing to maintain its market share. It used the Radio Flyer name on toy bicycles, such as the Totally Rad Flyer Bicycle. Its name received wide press in 1992 with the release of a movie called ‘Radio Flyer,’ the story of the imaginary journeys of two boys in their . Already by the year 1930, Radio Steel was the world’s largest producer of children’s coaster wagons, and it set the standard for what a wagon should look like.
Another unique attribute is that one side of the wagon bed unzips, turning your wagon into a bench. You wouldn’t want to pull it around with legs dangling, but if you’re parked the bench mode is quite comfortable for three bigger kids who just need a place to sit. Its seat cushions wipe frozen ride on toy clean pretty easily, and it has two external cup holders and a very easy one-hand fold. To fold, simply pull up a handle in the center of the seat and it collapses into a rectangle. The ability to fold up this Radio Flyer compactly is a unique feature among this group of basic wagons.
Radio Flyer Inc. was founded by Italian immigrant Antonio Pasin. Pasin’s family had been fine woodworkers for generations, specializing in furniture and cabinetry. But he longed to leave his small town outside of Venice and make a new start in the United States. His family backed his plan, selling their mule to raise money for Antonio’s ticket. Here he hoped to work as a cabinetmaker, but at first he could only find unskilled work, beginning as a water boy for a crew of sewer diggers.