Eat your plushy heart out, Labubu — there’s a new hot toy in town.
NeeDoh is a line of squishy, brightly colored toys made by Schylling, a toy company based out of Massachusetts, and they’ve gone so viral that parents and kids are having trouble finding them.
The toys are meant to provide a satisfying sensory experience like a fidget toy that’s squeezable and stretchy and comes in a variety of shapes and colors.
The NeeDoh Nice Cube, one of their flagship products, is simply a cube made out of a stretchy material that can be squeezed and pulled, but there are also ones that look like gumdrops, balls or cats.
While the toy has been around for nearly 10 years, NeeDohs are now facing an increased demand, with retailers selling out of their restocks within hours of opening stores.
Now, there’s a “NeeDoh hunting” trend on social media, and videos on TikTok and Instagram show people lining up at shops waiting for them to open to get their hands on one — similar to old school Black Friday or the brawls over Stanley tumblers at Target.
There’s now a shortage due to the toy going viral on social media, and Paul Weingard, CEO of Schylling, told Business Insider that the company has already sold a year’s worth of NeeDoh.
“Literally, within the first nine weeks of the year, we’d sold through the whole year’s inventory,” Weingard said. “No company can plan for that. It’s been fantastic, overwhelming demand that just well outstrips our ability to replenish.”
While the sales of NeeDoh have been steadily rising, Weingard said that it seemed to have really blown up this past holiday season when an advent calendar-style multi-pack went viral on social media.
It’s gotten to the point where some retailers are refusing to stock NeeDoh until the craze comes to a halt due to rude and disrespectful behavior from customers.
Retro Emporium in Kent, WA, put out a statement noting that, as a shop that sold the product for the past few years, they are choosing not to stock it anymore until the trend is over.
“We are a small shop, with a very small staff, and cannot (and frankly, don’t want to) deal with the UNruly and disrespectful behavior that tends to happen with these viral trends. We are instead going to refocus and put our time and energy into keeping the rest of our shop AWESOME,” the shop said.
Both kids and adults have been frustrated with how hard it is to find NeeDoh toys.
“As a parent who’s bought them for YEARS for my autistic daughter…now they’re a damn trend is honestly heartbreaking. They’re being resold at TRIPLE the price I’ve bought them for in the past, and I refuse to support any of that,” one person shared in Instagram comments.
“My son really relies on one of their pieces, and I haven’t been able to replace his for months after it got destroyed,” another wrote.
“It’s really frustrating that this trend has started, and there are so many people who use them for sensory issues. We have been buying them for 4 years, and my kids actually use them for sensory issues. Then there’s [sic] people online cutting them up and blowing them up. It’s wasteful. I am sure people will be onto the next thing soon enough, and needohs all over will end up in the landfill,” someone else commented.
Weindard told BI that Schylling is increasing production as much as possible, and they hope to be able to fully meet the demand by the time summer comes around.
“It’s incomparable to anything else we’ve ever done in terms of the popularity and demand,” Weingard said. “It’s certainly challenging in a respect. We never designed NeeDoh to be a viral craze; it wasn’t intentional. We imagined it more in keeping with the other products in our line. We wanted to create a contemporary classic, something that would be in our line for a generation or more.”
Because the popular toy has become so hard to get, there have been resellers and knock-offs taking advantage of the demand. The official NeeDoh page even put out an official statement regarding counterfeit products.
“Beware of counterfeit products,” the statement warned. “If you’re purchasing from platforms like Temu, Alibaba/AliExpress, or eBay, these are NOT official NeeDoh products.”
The statement continued, “Brick-and-mortar retailers are your safest bet for authentic NeeDoh. If you’re ever unsure, we strongly recommend purchasing in-store or through trusted, authorized retail partners to ensure you’re getting the quality, safety, and sensory experience NeeDoh is known for.
NeeDoh toys are generally very affordable, with the cheapest version being just $1.79, and the NeeDoh Nice Cube is listed for just $5.99 on Schylling’s website.
Meanwhile, on the TikTok shop, the cheapest option is an ice cream-shaped NeeDoh for nearly $16, and the cubes are available starting at $18.99. Over on eBay, there’s a single NeeDoh Nice Cube listed for $500 and a lot of 19 also for $500.
Shoppers looking for NeeDoh toys should be wary of scams and fake products on any website that isn’t the official store or partner retailer, NeeDoh warned.
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