Teddy Bear's: The Kit
Jul. 21st, 2004 03:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swestrupAssembly-Line Creativity
New York Times Magazine, 4.7.18
By ROB WALKER
Build-a-Bear
Long ago, people used to make things. Now we buy things --
often things that are made on the other side of the planet
by someone we will never meet, through a process we don't
really understand. As a veteran retail executive, Maxine
Clark has witnessed the reality of this system; she has,
for instance, seen teddy bear factories in China. When she
started her own company, in 1997, it occurred to her that
it might be a good idea to reverse this trend and transport
some part of the manufacturing process to a different
location: the mall.
The teddy bear -- not some breakthrough gizmo or hip
fashion item -- would be the centerpiece for her plan.
Build-a-Bear Workshop now has 154 stores in malls all
across the country and 2003 revenues of $213 million. It
has sold more than 20 million stuffed animals, all through
a process that converts manufacturing into hands-on
entertainment for the kids. In May, the International
Council of Shopping Centers gave the stores one of its
''Hot Retailers'' awards.
The nearest Build-a-Bear store to Manhattan is at the
Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., which I visited
recently. The first step is choosing a style of bear, or
other animal (frog, pig, etc.); their empty pelts are
organized in bins, priced at $10 to $25. For another $3 you
can equip your bear to make a prerecorded sound when
squeezed; for $8 you can make a recording, which the bear
will repeat. Next you make a decision about stuffing -- how
plush do you want your bear to be? A couple of good-size
tanks full of stuffing, blowing around like popcorn in a
popper, chug in the back half of the store. This is where
the pelt is attached to a tube and filled to your
specification. Later your bear gets a ''birth
certificate.''
Then there are the outfits -- a huge array, from military
uniforms to wedding dresses to wet suits, priced at $10 or
$15 each. Among the shoe choices: actual Skechers-brand
bear sneakers. How about a pith helmet? Five bucks. Add an
accessory like a cellphone (which makes a beeping sound
but, you'll be relieved to hear, does not actually make
calls): that's $5. Camping gear? Furniture? All available.
Underwear, too: boxers and briefs. Always wanted a teddy
bear in a cheerleader outfit, hiking boots, a construction
helmet and a baseball mitt, who says ''Stop touching me''
in your voice when squeezed? It's doable, for maybe $54.
Clark, formerly the president of Payless Shoe Source, says
two incidents inspired her. One was a 10-year-old girl of
her acquaintance complaining of being unable to find a
certain Beanie Baby at the height of that craze and
declaring that, really, she could probably make one
herself. This, in turn, reminded Clark of the excitement
she'd witnessed among kids getting a tour of a bakery. And
thus: access to the means of production becomes interactive
retail entertainment.
Build-a-Bear is set apart from other ''retailtainment''
setups -- waterfall-equipped Bass Pro Shops, or REI with
its rock-climbing walls -- by being both hands-on and
mall-based. Clark insisted on that strategy right at the
moment when e-commerce was supposed to make malls
irrelevant. (Of course, the company has chosen its spots
carefully -- a lot of malls really are in trouble these
days.) ''I knew kids were still going to want to go to
stores and touch things,'' she says. Now the chain is
opening stores abroad and spinning off another version that
involves customizing human dolls.
Of course, it's not just the hands-on experience that kids
crave -- it's the idea that they are creating something. At
a time when you can design your own sneakers at Nike.com or
publish your own music playlists on the iTunes store, why
not apply the do-it-yourself aesthetic to a venerable totem
of childhood like the teddy bear? The preadolescent isn't
really building his or her bear completely from scratch --
the outfits and accessories are all premade in foreign
factories. But consumer customization has more to do with
feeling you've bought something unique than about a return
to an artisanal, preindustrial era. It's not really mass
production that shoppers are looking to escape; it's mass
products.
New York Times Magazine, 4.7.18
By ROB WALKER
Build-a-Bear
Long ago, people used to make things. Now we buy things --
often things that are made on the other side of the planet
by someone we will never meet, through a process we don't
really understand. As a veteran retail executive, Maxine
Clark has witnessed the reality of this system; she has,
for instance, seen teddy bear factories in China. When she
started her own company, in 1997, it occurred to her that
it might be a good idea to reverse this trend and transport
some part of the manufacturing process to a different
location: the mall.
The teddy bear -- not some breakthrough gizmo or hip
fashion item -- would be the centerpiece for her plan.
Build-a-Bear Workshop now has 154 stores in malls all
across the country and 2003 revenues of $213 million. It
has sold more than 20 million stuffed animals, all through
a process that converts manufacturing into hands-on
entertainment for the kids. In May, the International
Council of Shopping Centers gave the stores one of its
''Hot Retailers'' awards.
The nearest Build-a-Bear store to Manhattan is at the
Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., which I visited
recently. The first step is choosing a style of bear, or
other animal (frog, pig, etc.); their empty pelts are
organized in bins, priced at $10 to $25. For another $3 you
can equip your bear to make a prerecorded sound when
squeezed; for $8 you can make a recording, which the bear
will repeat. Next you make a decision about stuffing -- how
plush do you want your bear to be? A couple of good-size
tanks full of stuffing, blowing around like popcorn in a
popper, chug in the back half of the store. This is where
the pelt is attached to a tube and filled to your
specification. Later your bear gets a ''birth
certificate.''
Then there are the outfits -- a huge array, from military
uniforms to wedding dresses to wet suits, priced at $10 or
$15 each. Among the shoe choices: actual Skechers-brand
bear sneakers. How about a pith helmet? Five bucks. Add an
accessory like a cellphone (which makes a beeping sound
but, you'll be relieved to hear, does not actually make
calls): that's $5. Camping gear? Furniture? All available.
Underwear, too: boxers and briefs. Always wanted a teddy
bear in a cheerleader outfit, hiking boots, a construction
helmet and a baseball mitt, who says ''Stop touching me''
in your voice when squeezed? It's doable, for maybe $54.
Clark, formerly the president of Payless Shoe Source, says
two incidents inspired her. One was a 10-year-old girl of
her acquaintance complaining of being unable to find a
certain Beanie Baby at the height of that craze and
declaring that, really, she could probably make one
herself. This, in turn, reminded Clark of the excitement
she'd witnessed among kids getting a tour of a bakery. And
thus: access to the means of production becomes interactive
retail entertainment.
Build-a-Bear is set apart from other ''retailtainment''
setups -- waterfall-equipped Bass Pro Shops, or REI with
its rock-climbing walls -- by being both hands-on and
mall-based. Clark insisted on that strategy right at the
moment when e-commerce was supposed to make malls
irrelevant. (Of course, the company has chosen its spots
carefully -- a lot of malls really are in trouble these
days.) ''I knew kids were still going to want to go to
stores and touch things,'' she says. Now the chain is
opening stores abroad and spinning off another version that
involves customizing human dolls.
Of course, it's not just the hands-on experience that kids
crave -- it's the idea that they are creating something. At
a time when you can design your own sneakers at Nike.com or
publish your own music playlists on the iTunes store, why
not apply the do-it-yourself aesthetic to a venerable totem
of childhood like the teddy bear? The preadolescent isn't
really building his or her bear completely from scratch --
the outfits and accessories are all premade in foreign
factories. But consumer customization has more to do with
feeling you've bought something unique than about a return
to an artisanal, preindustrial era. It's not really mass
production that shoppers are looking to escape; it's mass
products.
