Hello everyone! It’s Anya. As we know, I went to FAN EXPO Canada 2024 and I was lucky enough to interview Daren Brandman of Jazwares, AKA the company that makes one of my favourite toys, Squishmallows! Daren is a Canadian executive with over 20 years of experience in the toy industry, and is leading Jazwares Canada as Managing Director.
Here’s my interview with Daren!
Anya: What’s been going on at the Squishmallows booth? What’s happening here?
Daren Brandman: Oh, it is pandemonium here at Squishmallows in our Fan Expo booth. We have lines going all the way around. We’ve got six claw machines set up. Everybody gets a coin and gets to try their luck at catching one of our Squishmallows. As well, we’ve got a huge Muskoka chair here that people can take their picture in.
Anya: As an avid Squishmallows collector, it is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Squishmallows got really big during the pandemic, and a large amount of the people buying them ended up being like neurodivergent in some way. Do you think that impacted how Squishmallows are marketed, knowing the demographic of them now.
Daren Brandman: I think just in general everybody in the world loves something that’s squishy and cuddly and love to hold; especially Canadians just love them. People love collecting them, people love using them as pillows. Everybody is into them.
Anya: Everyone likes pillows; they’re they’re comfy, they’re cute, and all the stories behind them too are things that can make people get really like interested in them, all the diversity in the Squishmallows bios as well.
Daren Brandman: Yes!
Anya: Do you guys have any goals for upcoming franchises to turn into Squishmallows?
Daren Brandman: Yes, for sure. Squishmallows as a whole has really become this huge lifestyle property; it’s not just about the product anymore. We have over a hundred different consumer products partners. We’re also making like some of the products that you see in our booth here. These inflatables are made by a company called Big Mouth Toys. We’ve done collaborations with Puma. We’ve done collaborations with H&M. I can’t talk about a lot of the stuff that’s coming, but there’s a lot of cool stuff in the works that I think you and all the fans are gonna be really excited about.
Anya: Yeah, you mentioned earlier to me about how there were Stranger Things ones coming.
Daren Brandman: Yes, that has been announced. I can officially talk about it. They are coming later this year so all the Stranger Things fans who didn’t get into Squishmallows before then, now is their time.
Anya: We’re at a convention that’s really dominated by anime, and with the My Hero Academia Squishmallows, a ton of anime fans have been going crazy over those, myself included. How does that feel, knowing another group of fans are getting into Squishmallows?
Daren Brandman: These are what we call our licensed Squishmallows, when we do these collabs with with My Hero Academia. We’ve done some stuff with Peanuts; we even have Hello Kitty Squishmallows. It just adds to the fandom. We really try and pick the right licenses that apply to the product that we feel like the Squishmallows fans will love. My Hero Academia was definitely one of those collabs where we’re like “our fans are gonna love this.” I remember the first time I saw one in stores. I was like, “there’s no way this is real,” and it was!
Anya: What was your favourite collab been?
Daren Brandman: This is going to be the easy one to say because we won I think Collector Plush of the Year when we did it. When we launched our Pikachu and Pokemon in our Wave One of the Pokemon Squishmallows collab, that was just absolutely enormous. That’s one of my top faves. There’s also a Disney character from oh, I can’t remember the movie. I think it was Moana. It’s the rooster.
Anya: Oh, Heihei!
Daren Brandman: Heihei ! So at my office at work I have Hey Hey on my desk and he’s just like looking at me with his eyes, and so I would say that is my second favourite one because I just think he’s so damn cute.
Thanks to Daren Brandman of Jazwares for taking the time to talk to Biff Bam Pop and to our friends at North Strategic for making it happen. You can find everything Squishmallows and Jazwares here.
