Released in 1999, paralympic champion Becky was a friend of Barbie. The doll was short-lived primarily because the wheelchair did not fit through the doors or elevators of the classic Barbie Dreamhouse. Redesigning the entire Barbie ecosystem (houses, elevators, vehicles, accessories) to accomodate Becky was more complicated and expensive than Mattel wanted to undertake.
Released in 2006, the PlayStation Chainsaw Controller featured a built-in sound effect triggered by pulling the ripcord, and a unique, hand-painted blood splatter pattern on every controller. However, the device had an awkward button layout and ergonomics, while manufacturing costs were high due to the custom shell and packaging.
The McHotDog was a short-lived hot dog introduced by McDonald’s in 1995. It famously went against the wishes of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, who had a strong aversion to hot dogs. McDonald’s built its global reputation on burgers, fries, and consistent fast service. Preparing hot dogs didn’t mesh well with McDonald’s highly optimized kitchens. Plus sales were slow as customers didn’t see it as a must-have choice compared to McDonald’s core menu items.
In 1966, Pepsi released the Devil Shake, a chocolate-flavored drink marketed as a richer milk-based soda. However, Pepsi was known for cola so a chocolate milk-style drink didn’t naturally fit the Pepsi brand. In addition, it ran into production problems, didn’t have a long enough shelf life, and didn’t compete well against incumbent Yoo-Hoo who had strong brand loyalty and established distribution.
Schlitz was one of America’s top-selling beers. After a brewery strike and pressure to expand nationally, management focused heavily on increasing output and reducing costs. This led to using cheaper ingredients and stabilizers while shortened aging time. The beer became less consistent and developed haze/flavor problems. Perception then spread that Schlitz was no longer premium quality leading to competitors such as Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing, and Coors Brewing out executing them on quality consistency, national distribution, modern marketing, and better logistic.
Warrior Custom Golf was a direct-to-consumer golf equipment company best known for aggressive TV infomercials and “free club” promotions in the 2000s and 2010s. Warrior clubs were marketed as premium custom clubs at bargain pricing, but many golfers considered the products inconsistent in quality compared to established brands like Callaway Golf or TaylorMade Golf. The company developed a reputation for low-quality manufacturing and aggressive upselling. Bankruptcy filings described serious accounting and recordkeeping problems.
LiveWire was launched by Harley-Davidson as its electronic motorcycle division and later spun out via a SPAC in 2022. Investors initially valued it like a high-growth EV startup, but demand turned out to be much smaller than hoped. Younger EV-oriented riders often didn’t want a Harley, preferred cheaper bikes, and weren’t willing to spend luxury-motorcycle prices.
FlexICs, an early 2000s semiconductor startup, set out to commercialize a technology that could print transistors on a flexible substrate. The initial application was for flexible displays. The core tech spun out of Lawrence Berkeley Labs. They were able to get initial prototypes working, but never got to scale manufacturing. The company ultimately ran out of money when it was clear that this deeptech venture was going to take a lot more capital, which the investors around the table were not prepared to support.
Founded in 1998, Fogdog tried to become the online version of a sporting goods superstore. It sold athletic apparel, equipment, and gear online during the early e-commerce explosion. Fogdog went public in late 1999 during the peak of the dot-com bubble. Fogdog failed because they sold low-margin physical products that were expensive to warehouse and ship, they spent massive amounts of money on ads, they had difficulty competing against traditional sports goods retailers, and after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 investor sentiment collapsed. The company was sold for $40M in a distressed deal by Global Sports in 2000 after peaking at a $700M valuation in the public market.
Launched in 1978 by Mattel, the Battlestar Galactica Cylon Raider toy was discontinued due to safety concerns. It was a die-cast and plastic spaceship featuring spring-loaded missile launchers, a functioning cockpit that opened for a small pilot figure, and landing wheels. However, children could shoot projectiles into eyes or choke on them.
