I just returned from the New York Toy Show at the Javits Center in Manhattan. My life has been punctuated with over 20 plus years as a buyer, exhibitor, and reporter ot this annual pilgrimage of toy trends. This weeks Javits show is for the coming 2010 trends in the Toy Industry, and gets buyers from all over the world. My 25 thousand foot take away was for the first time negative:
• Badge organization went “Green”, no program book to locate booths ( Some think it was "fake green", I was told to go online or search their website on my Blackberry, it was online this year). I went to the information booth, guess what, they had a “book”, but it was not for the buyers attending. (Green seemed to me to be an excuse to cut overhead and not print a lot of books for the benefit of the show organizers). Exhibitors were furious as they were difficult to find unless they pre booked appointments and emailed buyers where to find them! Buyer's were not happy about this at all.
• A number of previous toy companies were noticeably gone, a sign of the times? Empty booth spaces reminded me of what I now see at partially empty malls around the country, sad. New products?, New ideas? A lot of the Same, Same, & Same............Cobranding with movie licenses, smaller remote controled cars to get the price down, old licensed character art slapped on different but same toys.
• Look for "Green", "Recycled", "Educational", "Eco-Toy" and "Health and Wellness" spins on old time worn toys. Not much trend here, more like "old wine in new bottles". "Safe toys" meet the popular box office kid's movie characters of the day on recycled plastic; this is what I took away.
• The noticeable proliferation of product safety testing companies (exibiting), that have offices in the USA and overseas in Asia etc. This is a good thing, I think, I guess, I’m not sure what it indicates for the future of consumer and manufacturer sales.……..maybe this is a positive....maybe, we shall see.
• Lots of companies looking for reps to “sell” their wares. But the "top" reps I talked to were not interested in picking up many lines. Much of the manufacturing world is pushing back to straight commission reps with few supports, promotions, showrooms, protected territories, or expense reimbursements. Great reps appear to be very picky these days and are hesitant to burn their own time, energy, and money out on the trail for new and "B" product lines. You would think the economy would have folks looking for anything. Many I talked to are hunkering down and only pulling out lines that can be sold from trade shows or over the internet….
• I was shown by a friend a lot of empty, retail street level , Fifth Avenue stores, a shocker! I’ve never seen that many in my lifetime! They are gone and empty.
• Net, Net, I’m not sure what the positive toy trends are for 2010, maybe that will come in a future Blog, Maybe. I need to absorb all that I did or didn’t see for 2010 at the New York Toy Show! Stay tuned, let me sleep on it! I'll have to review my toy show program book and study it.... darn! I don't have one.
Jack:
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your observations. Interesting. Sign of the times? Brick & mortar is dead, no surprise as we witness online sales increasing across a majority of industries. Maybe the consumer base (age groups) of toys is also shrinking since kids are going online to play like the Webkinz phenomenon. Maybe the trade show model is broken and needs to be blown up. So many things to think about.
Great blog. I go back to when Javits was small and was for hungry importers, start-ups and inventors, and the "real"companies were at the Toy Center, or they had their own suites. I recall finding a great item there, made by a small Taiwanese company. Lots of great times, over the years, but things have changed. Consolidation of manufacturers and the distribution (on-line), branding and licensing. I think there is less TV and print advertising of toys today than 30 years ago. Traditional toy market has been steadily shrinking for many years as kids grow up faster and faster.
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