'Gateway drug': Labubus are getting U.S. consumers hooked on Pop Mart and driving up business

CNBC

2 days ago

In recent months, Shay Tomi began seeing plush monster dolls attached to purses and strollers around San Francisco. During recent travels, the 28-year-old noticed more hanging from belt loops. Online, she was fed videos of people unboxing creatures of their own.
These objects, as she would come to learn, have a name: Labubu. After years of rising brand awareness in China, they're taking the U.S. by storm as a hot fashion accessory and hard-to-get collectable.
It's caught the attention of shoppers, brands and even politicians who want to ride the trend. One retail analyst christened Labubu as the "it" item globally.
"All of the sudden, everyone has it," said Tomi, who works in finance. "Then, you kind of had to get one."
Indeed, Tomi got in on the craze: She has four Labubus that take turns hanging from her purse, sometimes dressed in a miniature grey sweatsuit that she bought from a third-party seller. She also got her boyfriend hooked. His Labubus often sport a basketball jersey designed to match the Los Angeles Lakers.
Tomi isn't alone. Data and anecdotal evidence shows just how much Labubus are taking off in the U.S. — in turn providing a boon for shares of Pop Mart, its China-based parent, and boosting interest in the collectable company's other products.
Sales of the company's plush toys, a business arm that includes some Labubu products, skyrocketed more than 1,200% between 2023 and 2024. With that growth, plush toys accounted for more than a fifth of total revenue in 2024, up from less than 4% a year prior. Impressive, when one considers most of the products cost about $30, though prices vary.
In North America, Pop Mart said revenue surged more than 550% between 2023 and 2024. What's more, sales in the region climbed about 900% in the first quarter of 2025 compared with the same period a year ago — far outpacing the comparable figure for global growth, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis.
That's prompted a seismic shift in where the company's consumer base lives. In 2021, Bank of America found virtually all revenue came from mainland China. Nearly half of revenue is set to come from outside the Asian country this year, per forecasts from the bank.
Foot traffic has taken off in the nearly one year since Pop Mart opened a store in San Diego, according to estimates from Placer.ai. Searches in the U.S. for the word Labubu are on track to hit their highest level on record this month, Google Trends data shows. An Intuit Credit Karma survey found Labubus and other backpack accessories were among the most-asked for items heading into the new school year.
For fanatics like Jonathan Fierro, Labubus have opened their eyes — and wallets — to a company they might have glossed over before. The 29-year-old's Labubus account for just a handful of the dozens of total products from Pop Mart he owns.
In addition to Labubus, Fierro's discovered Pop Mart's Hirono and Twinkle Twinkle toys as other favorites. He now budgets about three-fourths of his monthly "fun" money to spend on the company's various items.
"It was like the gateway drug to Pop Mart," the digital media manager said of Labubus. "You really enter a whole other world with so many other fun things."
Shares of Pop Mart's stock, which is listed in Hong Kong, have soared more than 500% from 12 months ago. While the stock pulled back earlier this month as investors questioned the sustainability of the company's current growth rate, Pop Mart's market cap dwarfs that of U.S. toymakers such as Hasbro and Mattel.
The company declined to make an executive available for this story. But Emily Brough, Pop Mart's head of intellectual property licensing for the Americas, told CNBC Make It that Labubus have seen "astronomical" sales growth.
To be sure, the doll is starting well behind legacy brands. Labubus accounted for about $423 million of Pop Mart's global revenue in 2024, according to Brough. By comparison, Mattel said its famous Barbie brand raked in around $1.35 billion that year.
Consumers and toy industry followers credit Lisa, a performer in girl group Blackpink and actress in the latest season of "The White Lotus," with raising the toy's profile globally. Rihanna and Simone Biles are also among the other celebrities that have showed off their Labubus, which come in a variety of themes, colors and price points.
Brands jumped in as the product gained notoriety. United Airlines shared a video of the dolls riding a conveyor belt. Olive Garden posted a series of pictures showing a light-blue Labubu with the Italian chain's breadsticks, salad and pasta.
Social media users share content displaying how they wear, decorate and unbox the dolls. A hair stylist filmed a TikTok video adding extensions to a Labubu that has more than 200,000 likes.
The buzz has made its way to the political sphere, with Daniel Lurie, the San Francisco mayor and Levi Strauss heir, sharing the news about Pop Mart bringing a store to the city. "Now, I can see first-hand what my kids have been talking about with these Labubus," he said in a TikTok video set to the sound of Sabrina Carpenter's song "Espresso."
The toy's cultural grip isn't just prevalent on social media platforms. Last month, people strutted through lower Manhattan's Washington Square Park with the dolls attached to bags, belt loops and dog harnesses in a makeshift fashion show. Life-sized Labubu costumes have been spotted everywhere from nightclubs to protests.
"I've been talking about this as the toy fad that wasn't," said Chris Byrne, an independent analyst and consultant known as the "Toy Guy." "What's happened with Labubu is it has become much more of a fashion accessory than a toy."
Byrne pointed to the exclusivity of the dolls — which typically sell out quickly and can be hard to find in stores — as helping drum up interest. Labubus have become a status symbol for adults with a lower price tag than alternatives like Hermes Birkin bags, he said.
The boom in popularity makes sense in this economic moment, he added. When people feel negatively about their financial outlook, Byrne said they shift toy spending to products that they believe to be "collectables."
Labubus, like other items that can be bought in "blind boxes," also give the impression of having a value that outweighs the actual price, Byrne said.
Another driver of online interest is a controversial question: Are Labubus, with their perky ears and pointy teeth, ugly? Owners interviewed by CNBC acknowledged that while the dolls could indeed be seen as hard on the eyes, that is, in a way, what makes them lovable.
"They remind me of my dog," said Jake Alexander, a 25-year-old real estate professional who dresses his dolls up in jewelry from Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels.
"He is so ugly in the face," Alexander said of his Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. "It's the cutest thing ever."
While resellers can fetch a premium, the secondary market hasn't taken off to the same extent it had previously for a doll like Beanie Babies, Bryne said, explaining that the internet's rise has made supply seem less scarce.
Still, enthusiast Josh Brantley Cole said he turned to third-party sellers to avoid the hubbub of trying to buy directly from Pop Mart. When purchasing through unofficial channels, consumers need to do their homework to ensure authenticity, Cole said. Otherwise, they may end up with off-brand dupes known as "lafufus," he said.
First, buyers need an accurate QR code and serial number, he said. Next, he added, the box's colors should match the related color scheme for the doll. A final giveaway has been the number of teeth — an actual Labubu, he said, should have nine.
Being in his 40s, Cole admitted that seeing other adult men walking around with Labubus on their person is a "weird" sight. Still, the Los Angeles-based actor said he'd prefer having an affinity for this product over a more serious dependency like alcohol or gambling.
"It's an addiction that isn't bad for you," Cole said. "Luckily, I can afford this addiction."