Name: How ‘Baby Yoda’ Unlocked Build-A-Bear’s New Business Strategy | WSJ The Economics Of
Uploaded: 2026-02-23T00:00:04.000Z
Duration: 8 min 49 s
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The first thing you do when you come to Build a Bear is you have to pick out which furry friend that you want.

Modal verbs - B1

Nearly three decades after Build a Bear Workshop first opened, the company is banking more revenue than ever.

Say little bunny sleeping till it's nearly noon.

It's growing at an unlikely time as toy makers are facing big hits from tariffs.

The key to Build a Bear's success isn't just what you take home.

Its strategy focuses on the workshop itself and growing it beyond the brick and mortar store.

I'm gonna pick out this choco cat because this is one I've really been wanting.

This is $38, so I'm gonna add this one to my bag.

We are definitely in the crosshairs of the nostalgia economy.

Build a Bear opened in 1997 as an interactive retail destination, mostly in shopping malls.

It's competing with an experience, with going to the theater, with going to a theme park.

That's really where their competition is for customers.

At the end of the day, if you buy a plush that is something else, there's a distance to it.

Close your eyes tight and make a great big wish.

But the whole process of the Build A Bear starts from the very beginning that the child is engaged and connected and a participant in the creation.

You guys can go ahead and pick out any clothes you want.

They created more and more purchase occasions with different products, with smaller products, with collectibles, with outfits.

So it was really an opportunity to expand that relationship.

But it's taken the company time to turn that relationship into profit.

The decline of malls combined with the recession put it at risk of bankruptcy until a leadership change in 2013.

While it is true that when I arrived at build a bear, 20% of our stores were unprofitable, and

And we looked into the vision very details down to every Single line.

And so we started to create a very distinct strategy to go to hospitality locations like great wolf lodge or carnival cruise line.

We have three different models of stores in terms of business models and numerous models of footprints.

Small footprints inside of girl scout stores, two to large footprints inside of FAO Swartzen in Rockefeller plaza.

The company was still finding its footing and had just updated its digital storefront when the pandemic hit.

We had what was one of our largest unit selling items ever that just made the boat, which was baby Yoda.

And we decided to not at the last minute when we saw some of this happening, to not ship baby Yoda out to the stores where it ultimately would have been trapped.

We kept it at the warehouse and put together an entirely new system and process.

It was overwhelmingly an older consumer that was purchasing this, like teens and adults.

So you guys can kind of see him peeking in the little window right here.

I think it's awesome that, you know, build a bear still kind of tags that along, even though, you know, you're not able to go into the store and do this yourself.

Our teen and adult and collectors over index online to this day.

Definitely one of my favorites in my collection.

I already collect certain plushies like squishmallows.

I had a pretty large build a bear collection as a child, so I've always loved the brand.

It's always been in the back of my head that I want to rebuild my build a bear collection.

My kids will have this build a bear one day.

The kidult has been a huge phenomenon in the toy industry, certainly in the last 1212 years or so.

We still have that desire as humans to collect things.

And whereas you used to collect porcelain figures or coins or stamps or other dolls, people are now collecting what would traditionally have been seen as just toys because they remember them from their childhood.

Just over the last couple months, I've collected maybe around 60 or 70 build a Bears.

Adults and teens make up nearly half of build a bear sales.

He was an online exclusive, very popular for a very long time.

The kidult spending is also fueled by a release cycle of exclusive and licensed products.

I really love these Sanrio build a bears that I have, and

Build a bear also collaborates with brands like pokemon, Stranger things, Disney, Harry Potter, Marvel and more.

We've created a micro site for some of these licenses called the Bear Cave, where it might be something like Deadpool Bear or Matrix Bear that's specifically designed for an adult.

Shoppers in the Bear cave can also find more adult themed items like tiny plush martinis, zaddy shirts, and

We have a tremendous opportunity to have a little bit of a tongue in cheek approach to things that are completely benign in many ways.

Online sales grew by 110% between 2019 and 2024.

I'm seeing a lot of stuff that I already had because I did just make a really big purchase.

I have a really bad habit of when I'm shopping, not looking at the price tag.

But I mean, if you cap in the outfits and the bear, like, it's definitely between 5 and 700.

One of the cheapest bears available is the $16 Lil Cub Brownie Teddy bear.

But once you add a set of clothes, a sound, and

an accessory, the total price shoots up to $50.

There's been times where I went into Build a Bear and just walked out with a bear.

I mean, it is a really expensive hobby if you think about it.

That's why I do enjoy thrifting a lot of the time, because there's been many times where I found a Build A Bear full outfit for like $3.99.