You shouldn’t be playing with your food – but these stuffed toys have changed that.
Jellycats – plush toys shaped like fruits, vegetables, waffles, sweets and other objects and animals – have grown in popularity among Gen Z, who are spending hundreds of dollars on the adorable stuffed dolls.
“Jellycats are the only thing that’s ever come into my life where I’ll see one in a store window and think, ‘I’ve got to get that,'” 25-year-old Andrew Elliott, a Jellycat collector based in London, which boasts. 43, told The Guardian.
“They’re like a modern-day Beanie Baby, but not just animals.”
The company, founded in 1999, has seen significant growth as toys have risen to internet stardom.
According to Bloomberg, Jellycat Ltd. saw its annual global revenue nearly eightfold from 2013 to 2022, reaching $57 million. From 2021 to 2022, it almost doubled.
The figures coincide with “a growing number of ‘kids’ who boast toys, dolls and other figurines.”
“If you tell people you collect cuddly toys, it can feel like you’re going to be judged because it feels like a kid’s hobby,” Chloe Day, a 25-year-old Jellycat collector from the United Kingdom, told The Guardian.
“But then when you go on TikTok and you see all these people the same age as you – women and men – it encourages you not to hold yourself back.”
On the social media app, the hashtag “#jellycat” has now been used in more than 214,000 posts as people advertise their giant collections, sparking a viral frenzy for the stuffed animals.
In one clip, content creator Spencer Barbosa referred to her collection as “family,” while other Gen Z girls participate in Jellycat swaps with their friends or carry their beloved teddies in their bags or attached as beauty
“I like to replace things at home with them every now and then,” Elliott said. “I put Jellycat fruits and vegetables in the fruit bowl. At work, I used to replace my colleague’s office supplies with Jellycats, things like rulers and pencils.
The craze has also prompted a wave of food-inspired storefronts from the company, from a fish and chip counter at Selfridges in London to a Parisian patisserie making plush French pastries.
At FAO Schwartz in New York, Jellycats in the form of pancakes, waffles and bagels are served in a pan before being sold to eager customers who flock to the tourist hotspot.
“In the generations before us, I feel like a childlike essence was taken away too early,” 21-year-old Jellycat Diner employee Taylor Sailsman told NBC News.
“You had this idea of dropping out of high school, going to college, going to work, starting a family, whatever. But, you know, you can still be a pro and love plushies. I feel like we’re moving away from old ideas of what it’s like to be an adult.â€
The toys — which range in price from about $20 for smaller sizes to more than $100 for larger ones — have become somewhat of a collector’s item, with variations of the stuffed dolls being sold online.
Jellycats can become unavailable in just a few days at times, according to The Telegraph, and the company has begun to “recall” some designs.
“It’s like stocks. You have to sell something when it’s hot,” San Francisco-based Aria Babow, a shareholder and Jellycat obsessive, told the paper.
She boasts an impressive collection of 2,700, often buying two of the same – “one for display and one for backup”, just in case.
Some fans look forward to online releases so they can add new collections to their stash.
“Jellycat keeps supply really tight too, and die-hard fans know that if they don’t buy lines as they launch, they may not get a second chance,” children’s store owner Nicola Tompkins told The Telegraph.
“Unfortunately, there are customers who take advantage of the shortage and buy to resell at massively inflated prices on auction sites.”
On eBay, some rare Jellycats go for hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars, a price spike that has prompted shoplifters to wipe out the toy shelves. A colossal ice cream cone costs $1,200, while the NYC-exclusive soft key goes for $999.
While Jellycat fanatics have called the “scalping prices” a “joke” and a “disgrace,” according to The Telegraph, some overzealous customers just can’t help themselves.
A TikTok creator named Meggy revealed that she grabbed “the most expensive Jellyfish I’ve ever bought (to date)”, which she called her “prized possession”. The ice cream cone — apparently a hot item — goes for over $600.
“Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy Jellycats,” she said.
#Gen #obsessed #Jellycat #teddies #spends #thousands #modern #Beanie #Baby
Image Source : nypost.com