Labubu Craze Snares Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff And More Tennis Stars

Forbes

2 days ago

The US Open is less than a week away, yet Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek added a new member to their teams. Sabalenka, Gauff and Swiatek received their first Labubu, the "ugly-cute" collectible toy that is taking tennis by storm.
Sabalenka, Gauff and Swiatek join a growing list of tennis players caught up in the Labubu craze. The WTA Tour posted a series videos on social media with players participating in 'blind box,' reveals in which they find out which Labubu is beneath the sealed packaging.
Swiatek asked, 'What does it mean?," when she unboxed the pink and yellow Loyalty Labubu. 'Hopefully it's gonna bring me luck.'
Gauff unboxed her first Labubu on Instagram, at the Cincinnati Open, a few hours before a scheduled rematch with Dayana Yastremska, the Ukrainian player who upset her at Wimbledon.
Hoping for a purple one, Gauff seemed satisfied with a turquoise Labubu.
"Yeah, they're a little scary. But this is cute too," said Gauff.
To paraphrase Kendrick Lamar, the Labubus trend is "crazy, scary, spooky and hilarious." Tennis players earn millions of dollars, wear luxury watches, and travel around the world. Yet they're getting excited about a Labubus, a puffy toy that retails for about $20.
"It's become the it fashion accessory for this season," said Chris Byrne, an independent toy analyst, researcher, and consultant, also known as The Toy Guy. 'I don't really consider it a toy, primarily because the purchasers tend to be older.'
Byrne calls Labubus, 'toyetic,' a media property or character that can be merchandised as a toy, such as a molded Luigi from Mario Kart.
'There's not a really great way to play with it. I mean, it's sort of the cute kind of thing," Byrne said. "It's different than the Beanie Babies craze. Because Beanie Babies, which was, you know, the early 2000s, that craze kicked off with these average $6.99, stuffed toys. Kids played with them.'
The Origins Of The Labubu Craze
The Labubu began as an art project by Kasing Lung, a Hong Kong-based artist who grew up in the Netherlands and developed an appreciation for Nordic folklore. In a series of illustrated stories, Lung describes the Labubu as an elfin creature.
The Labubu grew in popularity in 2019 when Pop Mart, the Chinese toy collectables giant, gained exclusive distribution rights. The Labubus became a global sensation in 2024, after Lisa, a member of the K-Pop girl-band Blackpink, posted a picture of one of the furry accessories attached to a key chain. She then started attaching Labubus to her bag.
Labubus are such a hot commodity they produced a black market and Lafufus, the name for counterfeit versions of the doll. Earlier this week, masked thieves smashed windows and stole $7,000 worth of Labubus from a Los Angeles store. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported that police in Chino, California recovered $30,000 worth of from a home as part of an investigation into a series of thefts from a local warehouse.
How Labubus Found Their Way Into Tennis
Qinwen Zheng, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist and 2002 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina are credited with starting the Labubu craze in professional tennis. Rybakina had a hard-to-find Halloween-themed pumpkin-bottom Labubu attached to her tennis bag at the French Open and the National Bank Open in Canada. Qinwen gifted a Labubu to Alcaraz at Wimbledon.
'That kind of thing, is what fuels the market,' said Byrne. 'Because people admire all of these tennis players, and want to style themselves after these people, these stars, one way they can do it, you know, for $15 to $40, is to have a Labubu on their backpack or on their tennis bag.'
Alcaraz and Qinwen weren't the only stars at Wimbledon sporting a Labubu. Bollywood actress Urvashi Rautela went viral when she showed up at Wimbledon with four Labubus attached to her Birkin bag.
'When worlds collide,' said Byrne about an inexpensive, trendy toy being attached to a $30,000 Birkin bag. 'I always joke and tell people, if you want to have the hot thing and look like you're on trend, get a Labubu for 20 bucks, you know, as opposed to a Birkin bag. And now the worlds collide when you put the Labubu on the Birkin bag.'
The trend of putting the little monsters on handbags is one reason Byrne believes Labubus are more of a fashion statement than a toy. He notes that most people with Labubus are women between 16 and 30, which might explain the popularity among WTA players, who attach them to tennis bags.
Indeed, the Labubu is a lifestyle more than a play toy and blind box reveals are part of the fun.
'I mean, part of it is the game, and part of it is the gambling,' said Byrne. 'When I was in Shenzhen in April, and I was in a Pop Mart, kids were standing there trying to guess which box is going to be the right one. That part of it becomes a little bit of a social experience too. It really is a sub sector of the toy industry, this whole collectible thing.'
During the DC Open, Naomi Osaka unboxed her first Labubu. She was excited about getting her first Labubu.
But not all players are embracing the furry creatures. Tennis players are notoriously superstitious. Some players think the furry creatures are cursed and refuse to attach them to their tennis bags.
If the Labubus are cursed, it's unclear which way the magic works. Yastremska had a Labubu on her tennis bag when she upset Gauff at Wimbledon. Gauff got her first Labubu the day of the scheduled rematch, but then Yastermska was forced to withdraw due to illness.
Good or bad luck, Byrne believes Labubus are a fad without the staying power of the Beanie Babies or Cabbage Patch doll collectibles. He cautions against people hoarding Labubus as investments.
'A lot of people thought they were going to pay for their kids college education with peanut the blue elephant (Beanie Baby),' said Byrne. 'The thing about a collectible is that it's only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it at a given point in time."
Some industry experts are already reporting on the rise and fall of Labubus.
'They (Labubus) really represent a specific place and time,' said Byrne. 'So, five years or five months from now, when Labubu has passed, people will still remember, the summer of 2025 was the summer of Labubu.'