The Jump Rope King

All it is, really, is 50 or so colorful plastic cylinders slipped onto a piece of rope, and it only costs about 75-c- to make. But Sears, Roebuck, J.C. Penney and Montgomery Ward all carry the Lifeline jump rope (plus its special exercise booklet) for $4.95 a throw. These days, legions of Americans who are neither little girls nor prizefighters are jumping rope--and making Bobby Hinds an instant tycoon.

Bearded and brash, Hinds, 47, is a comer from way back. At ten he was sent to a reformatory as a truant. A varsity boxer at the University of Wisconsin, he later taught art. In 1958 he began selling life insurance in Madison, Wis.; fifteen years later, he had sold $20 million in term policies--the highest tally in the land.

Hinds took up rope jumping as exercise in the late 1950s. In 1970 he began fashioning ropes in his basement to hand out to clients as favors. He strung little cylinders on a line to create a more stable jump rope that is resistant to twisting and swaying. Two years ago, he borrowed $30,000 and recruited family and friends to begin turning out ropes in volume. Today Hinds fills monthly orders averaging 200,000 ropes, all made--for a 23-c- piecework wage--by physically and mentally handicapped people recommended by seven "opportunity centers" in Madison. Hinds nets a neat $1 per rope, so his profits are running at about $2.4 million a year.

Speed Record. "I'm getting people healthy and happy," exults Hinds. "And I'm also very healthy mentally and physically, not to mention my wallet." To keep those three facets in trim, Hinds demonstrates the Lifeline every chance he gets. Just last month in Washington, D.C., he set a new world "speed-jumping" record by skipping over his rope 63 times in ten seconds.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.