After 130 Years, the Flexible Flyer Is Still the Cadillac of Sleds

Even if you've never heard the name, odds are, you know the vehicle

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According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the country is just now shaking itself off from the snowiest period of the year. That makes it peak season for sledding—an activity for which NOAA keeps no statistics, though it’s a good bet that most kids in snowy regions (and a goodly percent of their parents) are busy doing it. Chances are, too, that they’re using one of those $34 plastic sprinters or discs purchased from the likes of Walmart and Amazon.

And, of course, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But among sledding’s true connoisseurs, the thrill of gravity and crystallized water vapor sending you careening down a hill can be entrusted to but one kind of sled, the kind that speed demons have sworn by for 130 years: the Flexible Flyer.

To keep workers at his farm-equipment factory employed through the winter months, Samuel Leeds Allen (top left) began making steel-runner sleds.
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This story first appeared in the Feb. 4, 2019, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.