Though no Squishmallows have been officially retired, according to a spokesperson, certain characters aren’t continually sold-rather they’re brought back for occasional small-run batches (something the company does “to help drive the element of collectibility,” the spokesperson says). “Squishmallows are easy to collect because they are not expensive, they are widely available, and they have a variety of appearances.” Indeed, the company offers more than 1,000 characters, so the sky’s the limit to the number of Squishmallows someone could collect. “Collecting, as a consumer behavior, can be seen as a form of escapism because it lets a person focus and be immersed in a quest to grow the collection,” she says. “Gen Z is likely to be a strong market for goods that cater to escapism,” Stacy Wood, a professor in marketing and the executive director of the Consumer Innovation Collaborative at North Carolina State University wrote in a publication for the school’s Institute for Emerging Issues. Squishmallows are collectibleĪside from social media, Squishmallows’ characteristics appeal to Gen Z’s consumer buying patterns. (My 18-year-old sister, for one, thinks that might have been the first time she heard about the soft toys.) Kate Hudson and Lady Gaga have also made posts about Squishmallows. Charlie D’Amelio, a 17-year-old dancer who’s amassed an impressive 100 million followers on TikTok-the largest following of anyone on the app-posted about her Squishmallow collection in February on Instagram, where the post garnered nearly 5 million likes from her 42 million followers there. Social media platforms, including TikTok and Instagram, no doubt played a huge role in making Squishmallows surge in popularity. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what launched these plushies into the spotlight, but a combination of social-media attention, collectibility, and envelope pushing are likely key factors in their sudden success. Most Squishmallows aren’t that expensive, though, and come in somewhere between $22 and $50. They range in price from as little as $5 (for the smaller ones, of course), to a jaw-dropping $119 for a 24-inch Maui Pineapple from Walmart. Squishmallows come in seven sizes, starting at a mere 3.5 inches tall, and going up to 24 inches. Some are bakers, others are sports narrators, and others, like the cat that I bought, sound like borderline millennials, despite their Gen Z appeal: “Tres’zure loves to plan events for her friends… favorite part is creating the vision board and making memories.,” the tag reads. #PANDA SQUISHMALLOW FREE#It’s free and you can unsubscribe at any time.Įach Squishmallow's tag features a brief personality description and name for the character. Need help finding products? Sign up for our weekly newsletter. “The brand expecting to reach its 100 million milestone in the next couple of months.” To date, “more than 85 million Squishmallows have been sold,” he says. When they quickly disappeared off store shelves, Kelly saw their potential. Initially Kelly released just eight characters that were sold at Walgreens. The first Squishmallows date back to 2017, says Jonathan Kelly, Co-President of Kellytoy, the company behind the craze. Squishmallows’ popularity has led them to be likened to Beanie Babies, Furbies, and Webkinz. They’re popular among all age groups, from little kids who love imaginary play to college students to adults who have Instagram accounts devoted to the purpose of showing off their collections. You can find designs ranging from pandas and elephants to avocados and pineapples to cats crossed with unicorns (picture a kitty with a sparkly forehead horn and you got the idea). Squishmallows are egg-shaped stuffed animals (and, ahem, fruits) with pieces of different colored fabric or embroidery that create features such as the stomach, mouth, and eyes. Sign up for text message alerts from the deal-hunting nerds at Reviewed. Get expert shopping advice delivered to your phone. Which got me wondering, what exactly is it about these toys that captured the collective adoration of millions? And when you see a brand on TikTok and at the very front of Costco, you know it’s kind of a big deal. I’ve run across the puffy plush animals on TikTok on a handful of occasions, but I didn’t pay them any mind until I went shopping at Costco and saw a giant bin of mega-sized Squishmallows right after walking through the door. (In fact, between January and March of 2021, the volume and frequency of searches for “Squishmallows” outpaced searches for “Selena Gomez” a few of times.) But so reads the quirky intro on the tag of a Squishmallow, the insanely popular stuffed toys that exploded in fall of 2020. “Have you ever seen a panda pegathorn do muay thai?” I certainly haven’t. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission. Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors.
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