When I left a 20-year career as a journalist and editor to launch a model of weighted stuffed animals, my pals and colleagues have been shocked. Frankly, I used to be too. But I knew my career shift was the end result of a lifelong mission.
My household arrived in Columbus, Ohio, from Russia within the 80s after I was two. Mental health was not a subject of debate. The prevailing knowledge was: If you are not severely injured, no must complain.
So as a pre-teen grappling with anxiousness and despair, I turned to magazines for data and validation. They helped me really feel much less alone, and it turned my purpose to do the identical for others. I went on to cowl psychological well being as an editor at Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, and Glamour, and as chief content material officer at Thrive Global.
Behind the scenes, my racing thoughts and anxiousness led to fixed sleep issues. I attempted a weighted blanket, which calmed my nerves however was too scorching and ponderous. What I actually wished was one thing smaller, like a weighted stuffed animal.
While there have been a pair available on the market, I could not discover what I used to be in search of: a high-quality, fantastically designed weighted plushie that looks like a hug and is heavy sufficient to work for adults in addition to youngsters. So I made a decision to create it myself.
What started as a quest to discover a product that may calm my swirling ideas turned first a side hustle after which, in 2022, a full-time enterprise.
From concept to our first Hugimal, Sam the Sloth
For practically 4 years, on nights and weekends whereas I held full-time jobs, I labored to develop the product I wished: a plushie that may really feel prefer it’s supplying you with an actual, comforting hug.
I researched the science behind Deep Touch Pressure, learning that the additional weight in your physique works equally to a hug that will help you chill out and tamps down your fight-or-flight response.
I enlisted a crew of occupational therapists, psychologists, and product designers to assist optimize the product’s stress-relieving advantages. For instance, we would make them in calming colours with a candy, impartial facial features slightly than a giant smile, which the therapists advised me could possibly be perceived as judgmental or aggressive.
I commissioned an skilled toy designer I discovered on-line to work with me on my very first prototype.
For practically 4 years, on nights and weekends whereas I held full-time jobs, I labored to develop the product I wished.
My authentic purpose was to license the concept for Hugimals, which I did, with the assistance of an early mentor and licensing agent, in 2020. Just a few totally different designers then helped me iterate on my preliminary prototype. We tweaked the design so the Hugimal may “hug” higher, and made the weighted insert detachable so the plush could possibly be machine-washed.
After a number of rounds of changes to get the look and performance excellent, we finalized the primary Hugimal, Sam the Sloth. Then we have been rolling.
About $1.4 million in gross sales in our first full yr
Pretty quickly, Sam the Sloth had a couple of pals: Darby the Bear, Charlie the Puppy, and Emory the Elephant, each weighing in at 4.5 kilos, greater than double the load of others available on the market.
But there was an issue. The firm I’d licensed to was purchased by a media firm that did not put out any bodily merchandise. I had to make use of financial savings to purchase again, ship, and retailer greater than 10,000 items of Hugimals stock that had already been made whereas I made a decision what to do subsequent.
Around the identical time, I obtained suggestions from a pilot program I’d partnered with a nonprofit to launch. We’d despatched dozens of Hugimals to kids’s hospitals across the nation. The hospital staffers mentioned the Hugimals had helped calm their most burdened sufferers inside minutes, they usually wished to order extra.
Courtesy of Marina Khidekel
I had the validation I wanted, and I knew what to do. I left my full-time job and launched Hugimals World in the summertime of 2022, counting on savings, freelance journalism work, and my current stock.
It was a leap of religion, however I had sufficient knowledge to hypothesize that folks like me — these looking for consolation, grounding, and aid from anxiousness — would embrace this product. And I used to be proper.
The firm noticed about $1.4 million in gross sales in our first full yr and we’re on observe to develop. Sam the Sloth and different Hugimals retail for $64, whereas our newer merchandise vary from Hug Babies wrist wraps that price $11 to Super Sized Hug Pillows that run $88. Two and a half years in, we have expanded into Canada, the U.Ok., France, Sweden, and Denmark.
Over 22 million views on TikTok
For a few years, I’d been an editor fielding dozens of PR pitches a day, so I knew how one can — and the way to not — pitch my very own model to get media consideration. I did my very own launch PR, writing a private be aware to all my contacts in addition to editors at shops the place I did not know anybody in any respect. On my social media, I introduced to everybody I knew that I used to be launching this enterprise, and requested them to share.
Hugimals shortly gained traction. During our first vacation present information season, I used to be thrilled to see Hugimals featured as a TIME Best Invention of 2022 and chosen for greatest toy and different lists compiled by Parents.com, Good Housekeeping, and Buzzfeed. Our TikTok videos of individuals reacting as they held Hugimals for the primary time have gone viral, amassing over 22 million views thus far.
My fractional gross sales supervisor, who I’d employed at launch, helped develop our presence past our own website onto Amazon and into specialty toy and present outlets, hospital present shops, The MoMA Design Store, QVC, and Uncommon Goods.
We offered most of our stock that first vacation season on the power of our natural press, some restricted Amazon adverts, and social virality. We have been worthwhile from the beginning, and with our gross sales, and ultimately some loans, I used to be in a position to purchase extra stock and preserve the corporate going.
‘I’m nonetheless doing what I got down to do’
My personal Quinn the Koala is all the time able to hug at any time when I want to alleviate stress or really feel grounded. I’ve seen an enormous enchancment in my nighttime anxiousness and insomnia. Hearing many comparable tales from prospects has been extremely rewarding.
This yr, we teamed up with “SVU” actress and activist Mariska Hargitay and her Joyful Heart Foundation to launch our Heart to Hug Pillow for Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
This partnership and our work with different nonprofits — which provide Hugimals to youngster and teenage victims of traumatic crimes and to siblings separated in foster care — make my work all of the extra meaningful. Our product line is rising and extra partnerships are within the works.
Looking again, I understand that I’m nonetheless doing what I got down to do as a child: serving to individuals discover consolation and help for his or her psychological well being. Only now, I’m doing it by bodily merchandise slightly than phrases.
Marina Khidekel is the founding father of Hugimals World, a TIME Best Inventions-recognized wellness model that makes design-forward, anxiety-relieving plushies and pillows for adults and youngsters. Prior to launching Hugimals World, Marina was a well being and wellness journalist and editor at Women’s Health, Glamour and Cosmopolitan, and chief content material officer at Thrive Global. All of her work facilities round serving to individuals take actionable steps to stay with much less stress and extra pleasure.
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