Alexandra Schmauch, who works at a property company in Dallas, Texas, was initially sceptical of the Labubu doll craze. As she watched the commotion build on TikTok and many of her friends became avid collectors, however, curiosity got the better of her.
Eventually, after several attempts, she managed to secure a couple of Labubus, relishing the “blind box” surprise of not knowing which Labubu character was inside.
“A lot of the fun is how hard they are to get,” said Schmauch, aged 28. “I was lucky enough to get two. It’s kind of fun not knowing what you’re going to get.”
The global Labubu hysteria has sparked long queues, online mania, customer fist-fights and explosive revenue growth for the Chinese retailer Pop Mart, which had some US$423 million in global Labubu sales alone on overall revenue of US$1.8 billion last year.
For decades, China has manufactured most of the world’s toys, including such past must-haves as Beanie Babies, Tamagotchi and Fidget Spinners. But this is among its first home-grown global megahits, with 40 per cent of Labubu’s sales coming from outside China.
