Technically, NPD counts anyone over 12 as a kidult, since children tend to lose interest in toys in favor of social media and video games at that age. toy division, was in the “kidult” market.
A lot of that uptick, says Juli Lennett, vice president and industry adviser for research firm NPD’s U.S. After decades of single-digit annual growth, sales increased 17% in 2020 and an additional 14% in 2021. The pandemic was a boom time for the toy industry in general as people were stuck at home looking for things to do. Last year they added a “Bear Cave” section to their website that you must be over 18 to enter. Build-a-Bear, whose typical customers are young children looking to customize their snuggly playthings, introduced new “After Dark” stuffed animals-including a bunny named Pawlette who wears a T-shirt that declares “It’s Wine O’Clock Somewhere” and carries a bottle of red wine-in 2019. A Gucci collaboration with Hot Wheels sold out online in less than a minute. Mattel, meanwhile, has added alcohol to the menu at the American Girl store, and in 2020 launched an adult-oriented wing of the company called Mattel Creations that partners with celebrities and fashion designers to create limited-edition toys. In October, McDonald’s started serving Adult Happy Meals, toys included. In 2020, Hasbro introduced an adult version of Play-Doh perfumed with smells like “overpriced latte” and “fresh-cut grass.” In 2021, Fisher-Price brought a Bluetooth-enabled version of the vintage Chatter Phone toy-the one with a face on its dial pad-to the market for grownups. Just a few blocks away, at FAO Schwarz, millennials crowd into the Funko Pop section, where they can buy big-headed figurines of characters like Elaine from Seinfeld and the exercise instructor Richard Simmons. Lego is far from the only toy company catering to a previously neglected sector of the market.
0 kommentar(er)
