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Breaking Through to Big Profits

4 minute read
Stephen Koepp

A craze born in the ghetto becomes a whirling cash dance

Break dancing has been banned from certain shopping malls, sidewalks and no doubt countless living rooms as a public nuisance. But the ghetto-born dance fad, with its twirls, windmills and head spins, has shown remarkable staying power. As a result, dozens of entrepreneurs are making a fast break to cash in on its widespread popularity among teenagers by spinning off such accessories as clothing, how-to books and video games.

A world break-dance championship sponsored by Swatch, the Swiss watch brand, took place last week in Manhattan. The purse totaled $25,000, including $3,500 prizes for the top soloists. Best foreign team was the West Germans, who outspun the British and French crews.

Inspired partly by Kung Fu movies and African dance styles, black and Hispanic teen-agers invented breaking more than ten years ago in New York City’s South Bronx. Its name, some say, came from the percussive instrumental break in soul-music songs. The dance caught the fancy of the press about two years ago and was propelled into fame by music videos and such recent films as Breakin ‘, which earned $36 million, and Beat Street ($16 million). Breakin’ has sold more than a million copies, and music to break by continues to sizzle on the charts. Says Monica Lynch, vice president of Tommy Boy Records, a Manhattan label: “The beat’s the most important element of the music. After a couple of listenings anyone can catch it.”

Many of the new breaking products are intended to make the acrobatics easier on the knees and skull. Most break dancers do their gyrations on cardboard retrieved from supermarket dumpsters or on sheets of linoleum. Early in September, though, a California toy company called Koki rolled out a 4½-ft.-sq. polyvinyl dance mat designed especially for breaking. Price: $18. The company is promoting the mats with a $1 million TV ad campaign, and hopes to sell 500,000 by Christmas. Orders are already tumbling in from K mart stores across the country. Tucked inside the packages will be catalogs featuring matching T shirts, bandannas, armbands, knee pads and silicon wax to make spinning easier. A Pennsylvania firm, Apex International, has introduced a six-piece break-dancing kit for $20 that includes a folding mat, padded gloves, a glossary of the lingo and a 30-minute cassette of instructions and music.

Wrangler, the jeansmaker, in January will begin selling its Wrapid Transit collection of break-dancing fashions in red, purple, blue and black. The twill pants ($25) will be loosely tailored in the legs and reinforced in the seat and knees. The jackets ($30) will be sleeveless, with six pockets. Van Doren Rubber of Anaheim, Calif, has produced a special red-black-and-white version of its Vans wrestling shoe ($32), designed for break dancing’s fast footwork.

Teach-yourself products are especially popular. K-Tel’s three instruction records and cassettes have sold more than 2 million copies since May. So far, at least five paperback books have hit the shelves.

The bestseller, Breakdancing (Avon; $2.95), by Mr. Fresh and the Supreme Rockers, has sold 600,000 copies. Says Avon Executive Leigh Haber: “Break dancing has created incredible excitement. It’s no longer just a trend.”

This summer break dancers have appeared in commercials for McDonald’s, Pepsi-Cola and Mountain Dew. R.H. Bruskin, a New Jersey market research firm, estimates that some 30% of U.S. teen-agers have tried break dancing. The company does not estimate how many of them may have broken an arm or a leg in the process. But would-be breakers no longer have to risk aches and sprains to get their kicks. A Silicon Valley firm, Epyx, has marketed a video game called Breakdance. Its joystick-controlled hero, named Hot Feet, knows more than 400 different moves.

— By Stephen Koepp. Reported by Dorothy Ferenbaugh/New York and Charles Pelton/San Francisco

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