Every other crisp on the shelf in the early 1970s was flat, ridged, or curled. Hula Hoops had a hole through the middle, and that one design decision is most of the reason the brand is still around fifty years later.
A ring built to stand out
KP Snacks launched Hula Hoops in 1973, at a point when the British crisp market was crowded with variations on the same flat potato crisp. Rather than compete on flavour alone, KP built a genuinely different shape: a small ring of potato snack with a hole through the centre, unlike anything else on the shelf at the time.
The ring that became a party trick
The name was a deliberate nod to the hula hoop toy craze, which, while past its 1958 American peak, was still culturally current enough in Britain in the early 1970s to make the connection obvious. The ring shape also created a habit that outlasted any advertising campaign on its own: putting a Hula Hoop on the end of your finger before eating it became such a widely shared bit of behaviour that it's still referenced in the brand's marketing decades on.
Part of a wider KP portfolio
Hula Hoops was one of the earlier entries in what became a much larger KP Snacks portfolio of distinctively shaped savoury snacks, joined later by Discos in 1979 and Space Raiders and Wheat Crunchies in 1987. KP Snacks itself has been owned by the German snack group Intersnack since 2012, but Hula Hoops has stayed a KP-made product throughout.
Still a lunchbox regular
Half a century on, the ring shape is still the whole point: Hula Hoops remain one of the few crisp formats defined entirely by their shape rather than their flavour, with the original flavour range built around simple salted and cheese and onion options rather than the wilder flavour experimentation seen elsewhere in the crisp aisle.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented Hula Hoops?
KP Snacks launched Hula Hoops in 1973, introducing a ring-shaped potato snack to a market of mostly flat crisps.
Why are Hula Hoops shaped like rings?
The ring shape stood out on shelf and referenced the hula hoop toy, which was still culturally current in the early 1970s.
Who makes Hula Hoops now?
KP Snacks still makes Hula Hoops, and has done since 1973. The company is now owned by Intersnack.