Pincushion Doll

Pincushion Doll

When You Buy a Teddy Bear

When you make the choice to buy a teddy bear, you are purchasing what has clearly been identified as the world's most popular toy, loved by both children and adults for more than 100 years. It's hard to imagine that the iconic bear that began as a felt pincushion in 1902, would ever fall out of favor, but even teddy's fell into a slump at one point in history.

From 1965 to 1979, teddy bear manufacturers had a rough go of it. To say it was a disastrous time would not be an understatement. Traditional toymakers by the dozens, went out of business during what was considered the biggest shake-up the industry had ever seen. Just a handful of fine manufacturers were able to hold on, but the future of the teddy bear was beginning to look quite bleak.

The first reason for the 'free fall' of the teddy was that the birth rate began to drop between 1965 and 1979. During the baby boom, companies had expanded to meet the needs of a growing population, but now many of them had to retract – no easy feat when you have already invested heavily in new equipment, new buildings, and people.

The second reason for the decline was that the overall customer base had changed. Toys had usually been bought by parents and grandparents but by 1965, children were starting to become consumers in their own right and what they were buying did not include teddy bears. Their money was spent on the hundreds of new toys they were seeing being advertised on television.

Also by 1965, very few companies were focusing exclusively on just teddy bears or even just soft toys. Many, if not all of them, were producing puzzles, toy cars, dolls, and board games. Every one of these products was vulnerable during a constantly changing market during the 1960s and 1970s – if one line of toys did badly, it would very easily bring down another line.

Multinational toy companies also began to crop up during this period, putting additional pressure on the teddy-bear industry. Up until the mid 1960s, home brands had been the dominant factor in Germany, Britain and the United States. When Hasbro's G.I. Joe was licenced to the British company Palitoy as Action man in 1966, the arrival of the multinational company was born. Soon after, all new toys were being heavily marketed and had high expectations on the international audience. While toy manufacturers where searching desperately for the next G.I. Joe, traditional toys like the teddy bear, were all but forgotten.

The final 'nail in the coffin' for the teddy bear, was the attraction of cheap labor to make 'toys of the moment'. From the 1950s onward, Western companies were under pressure from cheap imports coming out of Japan and Hong Kong. In order to match foreign competitor's prices, US and European manufacturers were left with no choice but to move their productions to Southeast Asia.

It's difficult to believe that at one time, when you bought a teddy bear, it was considered nothing more than a cheap soft toy which was no longer treasured as a friend; instead, for the most part, it was nothing more than a token gift that was often attached to a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates. The companies that were able to survive the horrible period in the teddy bear's history, were the traditional teddy bear manufacturers who had a premium product that most people were quite willing to pay more for. When other lines of toys failed, these same companies did not become vulnerable to their collapse (throughout the 20th century, people continued to buy teddy bear's despite the rise and fall of its popularity).

Panda Teddy Bear

Buy Teddy Bear

Copyright Shelley Vassall, 2010. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

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BARBIE DOLL PIN CUSHION 1