Squish My Mallow

I don’t believe in excess, but I do believe in giving into life’s simple pleasures.

Squishmallows first entered the market in 2017. Squishmallows are soft, usually gumdrop-shaped stuffed animals available in sizes as small as two inches and as large as 24 inches.

I first learned about these fluffy delights in spring 2019 when my roommate joined a sorority and her Big gifted her a small, light-pink lamb. The stuffed animal had me and all of our friends enamored — we were obsessed with the soft plush fabric, the uniquely squishy stuffing, and the meek smile on its face. Of course, we had to look into getting Squishmallows for ourselves, and soon enough, we all had at least one of our own.

For a while, it felt like Squishmallows were our best-kept secret, and only we knew how amazingly special the stuffed animals were.

Then, in 2020, corresponding with TikTok’s rise in popularity and COVID-19 quarantines, Squishmallows blew up. It seemed like every high school and college-aged girl had at least one on her bed in the background of her videos, and some users even made Instagram and TikTok accounts dedicated either to their existing Squishmallow collections or to the hunt, which entailed tracking down and purchasing new Squishmallows. Clearly, these toys were not just for the young children to whom they were targeted.

With the growth of Squishmallow notoriety, one question prevails: how does this trend resemble previous stuffed animal collecting trends, such as Beanie Babies?

Beanie Babies were flying off the shelves in the 1990s with consumers convinced that these small stuffed animals would be the answer to their financial woes and even a supplement to their children’s college education funds.

Ty Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies, never intended them to be collectible items; he designed their soft fur and under-stuffed appearance to be perfect for small children to cuddle. However, the manufactured scarcity of some of the stuffed animals, paired with the strategy to release them in generations, built up their value over time.

Selling at about $5 retail, some consumers were reselling them on eBay for up to $5,000. McDonald’s even partnered with Beanie Babies, designating special Beanie Babies as the Happy Meal toy in 1997. 100 million Beanie Babies were commissioned for a five-week promotion. With customers ordering by the hundreds — and often telling cashiers to hold the food — they ran out of Beanie Babies in only two weeks.

However, today Beanie Babies are virtually worthless. Consumers who sold at the right time got to keep their fortune, but most were not so lucky. Thinking the value would continue to rise indefinitely, many were caught off guard by the untimely end of the craze.

In 1999, after a series of Beanie Babies were retired — an action that would typically increase the value of a highly sought-after product — the market saw no change.

Soon after, when new Beanie Babies were released, there was a similar quietness in the market that had not existed previously. The Beanie Babies craze was over, and the ensuing lack of demand made consumers’ investments worthless. The brand still makes stuffed animals, but the days of plastic tag protectors are over.

Is this what Squishmallows are? Will they share the same fate? I don’t think so.

It’s true that Squishmallows are a trend. The brand does have a website, but they sell most of their inventory through retailers such as Hallmark, Target, Costco, and similar stores. At the absolute height of the Squishmallow craze, consumers would line up outside of stores before restocks, call cashiers about their inventory, and trade online sometimes for hundreds of dollars. There are even a few that sell for over $1,000.

However, this behavior seems to be calming down already. Squishmallows seems to be adopting a different business strategy than Beanie Babies. While the rarer Squishmallows are definitely the most valuable ones, the brand is rereleasing some of them to capitalize on consumers who want them, instead of making them impossible to find and get a hold of. I cannot help but wonder if the brand is trying to purposefully stray from the Beanie Babies retirement strategy in order to gain more longevity and avoid such a devastating crash.

Another significant difference lies with the collectors themselves. Just scrolling through social media, it is clear that many people practically hoard Squishmallows. They have shelves or hammocks full of them, often fitting a certain theme, aesthetic, or simply collecting every size and color of a certain animal.

One of the biggest collector losses for Beanie Babies was Chris Robinson, who spent over $100,000 on over 20,000 Beanie Babies. I do not think it would be feasible to own even close to that many Squishmallows due to their larger size and higher retail price (usually ranging from $3 to $60 retail due to the large size variations).

Personally, I have 11 Squishmallows between my home in New Jersey and my dorm room here in Williamsburg, VA, and I don’t know what I’d do with many more.

Ultimately, Squishmallows, like Beanie Babies, were created as cuddly stuffed animals for children and expanded to an older demographic. However, while Beanie Babies’ older market seems to have been mostly extreme collectors, Squishmallows can be appreciated by a wider range of ages — larger sizes are better for adults, serving the function of not only being cute, but also being the perfect pillows and neck rests.

I don’t think Squishmallows will always fill stores’ shelves in the same way that they have for the past couple of years, but I think their business strategy is allowing for a smooth transition from a massive trend to just another stuffed animal, and when that happens, consumers will likely not harbor as much animosity towards the brand as what was seen after the Beanie Babies crash.

If you’re curious about my collection, check out the “Squinsta” that I run with my roommate @squish.squishmallows.

Sources

NY Post: How the Beanie Baby Craze was Concocted — Then Crashed

Squishmallows: About Squishmallows

WBUR: The Beanie Baby Boom And Bust – What Happened?

Rarest.org: 8 of the Rarest and Most Expensive Squishmallows Ever Sold

Money Inc: The Most Expensive Squishmallows Ever Sold

Silive.com: Squishmallow toy craze: What is it? Where do I get one? What is the cost?