Stuffed Animal Fever in America

Many ‘hunters’, even though they are too young, are still passionate about collecting Squishmallow and have spent a lot of effort collecting them.
After reading an announcement on social media, Jess Columbus (40 years old) immediately drove 40 minutes to a toy store in Wexford (Pennsylvania, USA). Here, the mother of two volunteered to stand in line for 3 hours, according Wall Street Journal.

Notably, Jess does not go to the store to hunt for concert tickets or wait to buy new exclusive clothing lines. She just wanted to find and buy stuffed animals Patty the Cow. Jess’s two sons with a collection of 461 Squishmallow stuffed animals. Photo: Jess Columbus. Finally, Jess was held in the arms of a soft pink and lavender cow, which she has been searching for for the past three years. Answering the question why she yearns for Patty the Cow so much, Jess said: “Because it’s cute. I like cows and pigs the most. ” After hundreds of moves to hunt from store to store, the 40-year-old woman bought or traded 461 Squishmallow stuffed animals. Each has its own name and the story attached to the inside of the mark. “Hobby exploded into something bigger than I imagined,” Jess admitted. The mother of two even built a group of more than 600 members living in the city of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) on a social network to exchange and find more missing items. Even with 461 Squishmallow at home, Jess still yearned for more stuffed animals called Simone the Shrimp. “I’m crazy looking at Walgreens right now,” she said. Many toy stores have a limit to one Squishmallow per customer. Photo: Haley Velasco / The Wall Street Journal. Endless passion Squishmallow is like the fancy toy kids collect for years. Many “hunters”, even though they are too young, say it is a process of finding and adding to the collection. “The Squishmallow collection reminded me a lot of Beanie Babies, Tamagotchis and Furbies’ hunts in the late 90s. Is there anything new in the store? ”Kayla Hill (31 years old), a user experience researcher in Auburn (Washington state), told Wall Street Journal. In addition to her main job, Kayla also helps run the official SquishmallowSquad group of 13,000 members of this stuffed animal maker. Sydni LaPlaga’s (23) Sydni LaPlaga’s hunt for Squishmallow took her from the Manahawkin neighborhood to the Seaside Coast in New Jersey. Here, the girl tried 75 animal grabs over many hours only to get 2 Squishmallow size 21 cm. “I love these hunts”, Kevin Jackson (23 years old), boyfriend of Sydni, shared. He also makes videos of Squishmallow hunts with his girlfriend. In the late 90s, the trend of collecting Beanie Babies teddy bear was popular in the country of flags. Photo: Getty Images. However, not all hunts are successful. During the holidays, Sarah Wicker (17 years old) often spends time searching for Carol the Christmas Tree stuffed animals around stores near her home in Urbandale (Iowa). After a few weeks with no results, she got discouraged and switched to buying online. From the city of Gilbert (Arizona), Sammy Kirchner (32 years old) and his best friend Nikki drove for more than 6 hours to “find” a stuffed animal named Tex the Taco in Anaheim (California). Even though the mission failed, they were happy to go on this amazing trip together. Sammy also shares this hobby with her husband Brett (31 years old) with two children, Lacey (10 years old) and Liam (7 years old). She said her family makes collecting stuffed animals a joint activity that the whole family can do together. At present, the family has amassed nearly 200 Squishmallow. “It’s like hunting for treasure,” Sammy said. Her whole family is still looking for Maggie the Stingray cotton collection despite hunting more than 30 different shops. Magic fever On TikTok, the hashtag #squishmallows has reached 1 billion views, while #squishmallowhunting is 231 million views. Sarah Wicker spends a lot of time and effort getting her Squishmallow stuffed animal from her crane engine. Photo: Sarah Wicker. In early April, Jazwares LLC’s Kellytoy, the maker of Squishmallows, said it had sold 82 million units since its introduction in 2017, in more than 1,000 different versions and sizes. . The price range for each stuffed animal is 2.99-59.99 USD. Some limited editions may be priced when resold on websites. The company also said that the number of orders for spring-summer 2021 tripled compared to the same period in 2020. For mother and daughter Diane Bowser (62) and Amanda Bowser (30), the owner of The Learning Express and The Teaching Room in Morristown (New Jersey), the Squishmallow stuffed toy brought the customer. come back here. Some of them are willing to drive for hours from New York or Pennsylvania to buy them. “Squishmallow has become a commodity we cannot keep in stock. Every time they were on the shelf, people immediately ran in to buy, ”Amanda said.