This gremlin-looking toy from China is proving to be tariff-proof

A Bottega Veneta bag with Labubu bag charms during Paris Fashion Week on March 8. The impish yet cute plushies are a global sensation among Gen Z and even those older. (Edward Berthelot/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

NEW YORK — Naomi Lin’s favorite high-end accessory is wildly popular, an acquired taste, and shockingly resilient in the face of a tariff onslaught.

No, it’s not Manolos or the latest offering from Prada — it’s a gremlin-like plush.

It’s a Labubu, a palm-sized Nordic elf with bright eyes, sharp teeth and puckish grin. Lin, a medical student in Nebraska, owns dozens — and the one attached to her Chanel bag is dressed to the nines in a tweed outfit, matching headband and a mini “Chanel” purse.

And Lin isn’t the only one captivated by Labubus’ ugly charm.

Labubus are cute in the sense that they’re soft, miniature and come in a range of costumes you‘d dress your baby in — a jack-o-lantern for Halloween, or a tiny pair of denim overalls. But they have glowering eyes and a jagged, sharp-toothed smile from ear to ear, an unblinking stare that would terrify anyone who caught its gaze in the middle of the night.

The impish yet cute plushies are a global sensation among Gen Z and even those older, often hanging on handbags, backpacks and belt loops. People are flocking to shopping malls and waiting hours to purchase Labubus and their fellow creatures, who first appeared in “The Monsters” storybooks in 2015, in mystery “blind boxes,” meaning the buyer doesn’t know which one they’re getting in a given collection.

The plushies’ distributor, China-based toy company Pop Mart, is enjoying meteoric growth both in the mainland and abroad in the U.S.: In 2024, Labubus generated 3 billion yuan (US$410 million) of Pop Mart’s 13.04 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) in revenue. Labubus and other figurines distributed by the company have so far proven resistant to the tepid consumer sentiment in the U.S. and the chaotic trade war between Washington and Beijing — and that growth hasn’t slowed.

But it’s not just the size of the company’s sales, it’s their growth rate that’s more impressive. Pop Mart’s revenue outside China skyrocketed 375.2 per cent to 5.07 billion yuan ($703 million) in 2024, and Citigroup research estimated Pop Mart’s revenue in America grew between 895 per cent to 900 per cent last year. Offline, Pop Mart’s brick-and-mortar stores from Los Angeles to Paris to Bangkok have infamously long lines, especially when new products are released.

The growth is also fueled by a plethora of other figurines — there’s Baby Molly, Crybaby, Dimoo, Pucky and at least 30 more on the company’s U.S. website.

If you‘re lucky enough to snag a Labubu, they can cost up to $85. Resellers on StockX are upcharging into the hundreds of dollars.

And their fans are willing to splurge. Lin shelled out hundreds and spent hours on a TikTok Live to secure a Zimomo, a 22-inch creature with a spiked tail.

“It’s in high demand, so it would be on par with a luxury item,” Lin said.

Where does the obsession come from?

Lin is not the only member of her family who is Pop Mart-obsessed. Her father, who bought Lin and her sister their first Labubus while visiting Taiwan, has a Crybaby plush on his suitcase.

The meteoric growth of Pop Mart speaks to a larger history of Americans being attached to cute things from Asia (remember Hello Kitty?), Anne Cheng, an English professor at Princeton University, told CNN. Despite the push toward U.S.-made products and the proliferation of anti-Asian sentiment during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the growth trajectory for these toys just keeps going.

Cheng said there’s always been hypocrisy in the U.S., where Asian people have faced bigoted stereotypes, but when the products they make “come in little boxable, consumable small bits, then they’re accessible.”

The little gremlins, baby and creature keychains also offer a glimpse into luxury that is more attainable for most consumers. Celebrities have played a big role in making them a status symbol. K-pop megastar Lisa told Vanity Fair she got into blind boxes in early 2024 and “spent all my money” while jet-setting to different Pop Mart locations around the world. Oh, and Rihanna has a Labubu too.

Some Labubu collections are certainly reminiscent of past crazes. But compared to luxurious collectibles, like say, designer bags or watches, toys that cost an average of $20 to $40 are not as expensive, and in uncertain times, people are looking for affordable indulgences.

People are “looking for a fix and looking for anything to bring them joy,” said Ali Domrongchai, a food editor in New York City who just received her first Labubu as a gift this past year.

Blind boxes are nothing new. The idea of buying something without knowing precisely what the package contains has driven many a craze, from baseball cards to video games. And the toy collective fanatics echo the Beanie Baby mania of the ’90s, or what it felt like checking which McDonald’s Happy Meal you got.

Consumers who spoke to CNN all compared the immediate joy of opening a blind box to the high of gambling. China was so concerned about addiction that in 2023, it introduced strict regulation banning the sale of mystery boxes to children under 8 years old and requiring guardian consent for children who are older.

“It plays into your desire for collecting things, then you keep buying them,” Cheng said.

Are Labubus recession-proof?

Pop Mart, like the majority of the toy industry, will almost certainly be impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with China. The U.S. and China reached a 90-day truce this month, when the U.S. lowered its 145 per cent tariffs on most Chinese imports to 30 per cent, and China reduced its 125 per cent retaliatory tariffs to 10 per cent.

On its FAQ page, Pop Mart said that it will cover tariff-induced costs and that “customers will not be required to pay any additional customs fees.” But its latest release in April, a tie-dyed line of pastel-colored Labubus, cost $27.99 – $6 more than the previous one.

CNN has reached out to Pop Mart for more details on how it plans to cover those tariff fees.

Citigroup said it expects the company to accelerate diversifying its supply chain and raise prices in the U.S. market, or prioritize expanding in other countries. In the meantime, Pop Mart’s stock, listed in Hong Kong, has been outperforming Tencent and Alibaba since the year began.

Where there’s a trend, there’s a dupe

For those who can’t get their hands on a real Labubu, there are knock-offs — often called lafufus or fauxbubus — but they’ll often have lower-quality fur or a slightly misshapen smile.

And blind boxes aren’t exclusive to Pop Mart. Cute, kitschy items are a staple of East Asian culture, and Asian discount stores like Miniso and Daiso, which combined have hundreds of locations in the U.S., sell highly coveted blind box toys for under $5. And the bigger the market gets, the more likely it is that competitors will arise in China, the Citigroup analysts warned.

And Lin’s Labubu, for the record, is not decked out in real Chanel. The toy’s outfit is from AliExpress, a source of cheap accessories for many Labubu fans.

Domrongchai, the food editor in New York City, has been tuned into the hype: Her octogenarian great aunts have Labubus attached to their Louis Vuitton purses. And on a trip to visit family in Thailand last year, she visited “almost every mall in Bangkok” with her younger cousin to scour for the famous plush.

But it was nowhere to be found, and $40 dollars for a toy is “an ungodly amount” for Thailand.

Even for those who have managed to avoid the pull of the devilish smirk of a Labubu, there’s always a growing fan base attempting to turn them to the dark side.

When a CNN reporter, a self proclaimed Sanrio and Miffy fan, confessed she found the monsters more unsettling than cute, Domrongchai was quick to encourage her: “They’re not that scary. They’re silly guys. Look, you need to spend some time with them.”

Article by Ramishah Maruf.