in 1978 former high school teacher, geral fauss came up
with the #1 foam hand, since then it has become a universal
symbol for the phrase 'we're number one' and is among the
most popular pieces of US sports merchandising.

the beginning
after attaining a masters degree in industrial arts from
sam houston state university in huntsville, texas,
fauss taught high school industrial arts at cypress fairbanks
ISD in cypress, texas. his specialty was technical illustration
and drafting, and being a designer himself, creating and
drawing products came naturally to him. also dear to his
heart was high school sports.

in 1978, cy-fair high school, where fauss taught, made their
way to the state football finals, fauss created the #1 hand
to match team spirit with profits to earn funds for the
school's industrial arts club, he designed the hands so that
the students could actually be involved in producing them
in his classroom. geral designed a one dimensional
replica of an oversized hand based on his own hand.
students then cut wooden hands and painted them with
the graphic '#1' in the school's colors.

'I saw the students in the stands holding up an index finger,
and shouting 'we're number 1' at the playoff games.'
fauss recollects .

'students rallied around the team and kept a fevered pitch
during the playoffs. I knew that they wanted something
'big' to show their spirit.....so I thought , why not a large
hand sign.'

his first design and production of the #1 hand sold out.
he made money for the school club as he had hoped,
and thus the beginning of a cultural phenomena was born.
this idea began to niggle at him... if it sold here,
why wouldn't other schools want to show their spirit
in the same way? the sheer simplicity of the design
was also attractive to fauss. he felt that every school had
team spirit and loyalty, even if they were not winning.
so the market seemed unlimited.

'not having any business background or training may
have been a blessing, I didn't know enough to worry
about obstacles I might encounter - I just had an idea,
and I didn't mind working hard.'

in 1978 in texas, after having taught in public school
for 10 years, and serving as the department head,
fauss earned a salary of $17,000 annually.

'I had a wife, son and mortgage, and no savings,
at one time I had a full time job and 4 part time jobs just
to pay the bills. in addition I also taught drafting at two
other junior colleges, drew maps for the tax office,
and supervised a work crew at hughes oil tools.'

the smell of success
'my first venture into selling the #1 hands was at the
1978 cotton bowl game. the university of texas was
playing notre dame. I hand cut the #1 hands out of
plywood, painted them white, and used an orange
board-marker to hand draw graphics on every
hand - they were actually very professional looking.'

'I enlisted a friend to go with me to sell these in dallas
at the stadium. we spent the night before the game
in my camper van on the parking lot, it was cold
and we had a catalytic heater that we lit and kept
burning all night. while we were sleeping, something
woke me up.....smoke! a pillow was sitting on the
heater, and was smoldering. had I not woken the van
would have gone up in flames'

fauss saw this lucky break as a signal that things
might just work out alright for him afterall.

'I didn't have a plan for selling these. I just thought
I would work it out after I got there. so I found out
who was the manager for the concessions in the
stadium, showed him our hands, and asked him
if we could sell them on consignment. he agreed
to a 60/40 split, and I was in business. I sold all
the hands I'd brought before the game started,
and was able to enjoy the game without having a
ticket, so I called that success' - fauss jokes.

#1 fan... #1 salesman... #1 team... #1 mom...
after this venture, fauss decided that he wanted to
really try to make a go of his creation. he quit his
teaching position to start his own company
manufacturing and marketing the #1 hands.
for fauss' wife the part of the marriage contract,
'for better or worse' was being called into play;
with a new baby, a home mortgage other typical
expenses, and no savings, her husband had just told
her that he was going to quit his secure teaching
job and start a business making oversized hands.
use to living on a moderate income, all his wife susan
insisted he do is earn the same salary he earned
teaching - and, absolutely 'no large debt!'
susan continued to teach to keep one secure check
coming in for the family bills, but by 1980 she was
able to quit her job and start working with the
new #1 hands company.

'spirit hands co.' was a family enterprise from
the beginning. fauss' dad, O.L.fauss, had an old metal
building on 10 acres that he had once had a sheet
metal business in, so geral decided to setup shop
for his new manufacturing enterprise there as the
the rent was about right: free. the building was full
of old sheet metal, scrap iron, cast off furniture,
old equipment and other accumulations that found
a home there over many years. in addition , several
generations of cats called this building 'home'.
three houses surrounded this building where his
parents, a great aunt and uncle, and his grandmother
lived. also, this was home to several fauss family dogs.
and the family garden. now, also, the home office of
the spirit hand company.

to get started, all fauss had to do was clear out
the building, get rid of the stray cats, figure out the
best design and what he would need to manufacture
his product, how to market it, and who would help him
do all this without any money.

fauss's dad joined geral in coming up with a better
raw product for the hand design. they knew that the
plywood used in the first models was too heavy.
they tried masonite, but it was too hard and heavy.
the original design had a cut-out slot, and the person
holding the hand and waving it simply had to grasp
the slot. one problem with using this material for the
#1 hands out hand design was that the rigid, heavy
plywood or masonite could not be held up and waved
for very long due to its weight. using these hard
materials could also become a liability if someone
decided to hit someone with it in a moment of
excitement. thus began the quest for the right material
for the design. they tried layered card board, styrofoam,
and finally found polyurethane foam. the material had
to be stiff enough to stand up, soft enough not to hurt
someone, and have the ability to be imprinted.
geral and his dad made a design change - so that a
person's own hand could be inserted into a slot at the
bottom of the oversized hand design. this gave the
hand more stamina and control while being waved.
the new foam hands went on sale prior to the 1979
sugar bowl between alabama crimson tide and
penn state nitty lions. by kick-off the hands had
sold out and the game gave the hands the visibility
to ensure interest from other clubs.

still #1
gradually the business (now named spirit industries)
grew as the demand for the product did. in the
beginning geral fauss created all of the designs until
1983 when two employees, (who still work with him)
joined the design team. today you'll find a foam hand
in just about every US sport team's merchandise line-up,
and spirit industries roster has also increased,
with four other people working in the office (fauss' wife
susan, and son deryl among them) and 30-45 employees
in the factory depending on the time of the year.

spirit industries has continued to further its lines and
now it produces a wealth of foam based products -
along with the fan hands they also produce novelty hats,
beverage holders megaphones and footballs.

today the foam #1 hand can be seen in the national
football league (NFL) hall of fame.

related links:


http://www.spiritindustries.net

designboom woul like to thank susan, geral and deryl fauss
for providing text and images for this article.