Stuffed animals for dummies.

March 16, 2008 8:18 PM

Help me find a protyper and manufacturer for stuffed animals.

My fiance is designing a line of medium-sized stuffed animals to accompany a series of children's books, and he needs to find a manufacturer. This brings up two issues.

1. He'd like to find find a local (Chicago based) artist or craftmaker to prototype thirty or so products. Can you recommend someone local? Etsy hasn't provided anything particularly helpful. (While those crafters are amazing artists, he's looking for something less artsy and more commercial.)

2. In light of all the current issues related to goods produced in some Chinese factories (trying not to over-generalize there...), he's trying to find a manufacturer to produce the actual stuffed animals. Can you recommend any other sources for producing mass quantities (runs of 5000 of stuffed animals in each of six different styles), preferably domestic?

posted by santojulieta to shopping (4 comments total)

You are looking for OEM manufacturing. I don't know about Chicago area, but perhaps your publisher could be of help? Here is the first link for "OEM toy manufacturing" on Google.
posted by parmanparman at 8:49 PM on March 16, 2008

That's our main choice right now, but unfortunately, they produce their toys in China, and we're hoping for a domestic manufacturer.
posted by santojulieta at 8:54 PM on March 16, 2008

The Toy Industry Association (TIA) are the trade group for toy manufacturers in America. They have listings of manufacturers, safety guidelines, and other information that might be helpful for your fiance's venture.
posted by extrabox at 4:41 AM on March 17, 2008

You could contact Shawnimals; they're local, although I don't know if they produce their plush toys locally anymore.
posted by me3dia at 2:54 PM on March 17, 2008