We are Live! Hello everybody and welcome to a very exciting afternoon. I Am here with the handsome and cool and smart Jeremy P I'll let him say what's up in a second but uh I Want to say what's up to everybody on Instagram because you're outside of the comments I see I see the comments coming in from YouTube LinkedIn and Facebook over here on my right side um and everybody on Instagram the link to the full stream um is on my YouTube on my Twitter or if you want to leave this live stream and go to my regular Instagram and just hit uh the Link Card porn. What's good? It was nice meeting all of you. uh Scotty Good to see you.

Like the sauce, great to so much happiness. You're here Modern hippie. great to see you at Pecan I'm Excuse me at the National. The National felt like Vcon Jeremy We had a great event.

We'll get into that in a minute, but we are here to announce something that I think is one of the most significant days in. uh In In V Friends IP History Can you help me with this in be friends IP History I Would argue that there have been very few sustained phenomenons to the level of squishmallows. I I Believe that is because of the quality of the product Personally, not just the pop culture hit uh and for us to be able to be officially announcing um, this partnership in this format Um is a huge huge deal. Instagram There's the squishmallows I Know that you can see them up here.

uh I the camera's a little far away from me. it's not on my screen as you can see. Um, we'll get that towards the end. but um I'm humbled I Would I would tell all of you that are watching One of my great dreams when I started this? IP was the licensing deals that we would make and where would I take this brand and what would I do with these characters? and obviously the trading cards thing is hot and heavy.

Off of the national we launched an Nft form. We continue to be overly invested in the digital landscape Jeremy right? The concept of and not or com. You can collect comic books and training cards. You can collect watches and wine I Think the world loves or in Collectibles I Think people think they're fighting for share of wallet too much.

but I think it's a blended you know path when you're an intellectual property and I would argue that it is every current intellectual property's dream to do a collab with squishmallows. So I am humbled I am honored I Know that this is going to be the entry for a lot of people. There's a ton of people who've already. I Mean here's the story.

actually. you know what before I get I'm already too excited Jeremy Why are you saying hello? Why don't you tell everybody who you are and we will get into this? But I've got a good story right off the bat. All right. Well, first of all, you survived Nationals Well, well done.

We look like we might be in the same room in fact. I I would love to spend a few minutes staring at what you got behind you a little. ADHD is uh, my middle name so uh, very awesome to see all that stuff. Yeah so I'm Jeremy Padour I'm Chief brand officer at Jazz Wares and we are the number four toy company.

It's uh, we. we're just uh acquired Believe It or Not by Berkshire Hathaway last October Um, it's been amazing to see something grow up like this. and and we did it based on Trend. We focused on gaming.

We focused on social media based stuff so Pokemon and Halo and fortnite and Roblox and and then uh, you know, from a social media side things like Coco melon. We were very first there and we had to rely on areas where the big toy companies were not playing because it's nearly impossible to compete in a very mature category unless you try to do something new and interesting. and uh, but we're very passionate toy people. and as passionate toy people I see it as passionate toy people.

I'll tell you this. um, it's all about the love so we squish Mellows is a phenomenon you you very you were right on when you said sustained and how unusual that is and maybe we can talk about that and and look I'm gonna pan out I'll show you a little bit of my squish Milos at the top there too I bet some I've got some Warren and Charlie and I've got some limited editions up there but uh no no. Bottom line: uh you know for me, started a toy company we got acquired by Jazz Wares combined our efforts uh bought Kelly toy which was squishmallows early. got there really early we just had really good Vision in this organization Judd Zaberski is our CEO Laura Zaberski is our president and myself the chief real quick.

I'm sorry to interrupt you because this is a fun one right off the top and you know how I like the Royal germ uh cor said new Beanie Babies and I was saying to somebody at the national they're like why do you you know a lot of people discovered Be friends at the National Yeah! went home the first night Googled it the first thing that came up was the squishmallows announcement because we just announced came back the next day and said oh my god I didn't even know about be friends yesterday I saw your crazy Booth I got a pack or a sticker. We did a lot of smart things at the National I Googled last night I'm gonna buy all of them for my son or daughter because they're crazy about squishmallows. That happened like two or three times. I Was talking to the team over dinner one night and the Beanie Babies thing got brought up and I said the difference was eighty percent of the people that were buying beanie babies at that era were buying it for the purpose of flipping it or its value.

95 of the people that buy squishmallows buy it to use it. Yes, there's Bushmelo's community that collects and flips, but it is a minuscule percentage of that market. It's It is a functional toy that people that grown-ups are addicted to from a comfort standpoint and so I don't even see them remotely the same. I See this more like Cabbage Patch Kids and Power Rangers and Tickle Me Elmo where there's an element of the collectibility in it.

it's the sizzle. The stake is the product and actually more than even the three toys that I just named the form factor and the utility of the form factor is like a is like like there's a 25 pillow business in this and I think you I think what you have is remarkable So that was the answer to the gentleman who said it's you know I think you can't even compare the two. They're totally different and that's why. Oh by the way, they acted different.

This has now been around for quite a long time. Sustained well. Your intuition is so strong. Um, and that comes from a lot of places.

Uh, but but yes, I mean Squishmallows has been built on something very organic and not on a false premise. There's no false premise, it just is what it is. It's a it's a huggable, lovable collectible world of over 2 000 characters. We've almost sold 300 million units and it's getting it's gotten bigger every single year.

It was actually launched in 2017 at Walgreens believe it or not and it was launched as a form factor. just something that was, uh, very much was exciting to our design team, the design team now at Jazz Wares And you know, sometimes when you're dealing with Brands and you launch Brands you have to have an enormous investment behind them. You know, maybe there's a license, maybe there's a movie, maybe there's a deal with Disney or some other major IP holder. But sometimes and especially in the plush category, you can try things.

and this was really a form factor that from the very first day hit just based on what it looked like and the easy easy translation to practically everything. And it was protectable because there really wasn't a lot like it out there at the time. Everything had arms and legs and but yeah, this, this is a this is it's It's truly a remarkable story and it's an unusual one. But you're right and and you know for me I Have to be careful about disparaging.

but I will say that there are other brands that have existed that have been existing on a false premise. It was all about value or collectible. or you buy these in your kids college is going to be taken care of. We've never made any claim whatsoever that there's a secondary Market collectibility, but part of our strategy is certainly to develop some more limited edition product and and have things that that will Delight Collectors kids, adults on their various levels.

But yeah, your your spot on in terms of the way you were intuitively thinking about that. What's uh, just real quick for everybody on Instagram and for everybody on YouTube LinkedIn and Facebook Watching this right now, please answer really quick. Who here has squishmallows in their home? Simple yes, no in both chats please. real quick because we're gonna get you know.

usually I'm rushed in these. We got a little bit time here which is nice I always love to be with you Jeremy because I think you have a great give me a yes or no I see an I do Josh that was not right. Yes or no? Simple yes or no? um, most staggering staggering amount I would say quick hot take the team will probably do this, but I would say at least 70, 30, 60, 40 and I have a lot of I have an audience that's not the perfect pocket for you. a lot of 23 to 32 year olds which I know a lot of them get into.

But as you can imagine, if this audience was predominantly 10 and under or 45 and older or 38 and older as the parents demo. so like the high percentage of yes I think mine's probably the most challenging demo because if there's any middle pocket, there's that in between of Parenthood and childhood. Even though I'm aware because I'm paying attention to everything, How many teenagers in your early 20s love the crap out of this? Obviously the hot steam is parents and and children. so look, this is really penetrated, you know I guess my question since I wanted to ask that question because I wanted to get a chance to understand where to take these questions.

So now that I see, it's a 70 30 kind of split. What's the most exciting thing going on in squishmallow land for the 30 percent that don't know or to give a little Alpha to the 70 that you know you know I Have to say that's what we thought too. We thought that the older age consumer was going to be the secondary market for squishmallows like it like traditional plush. Brands because if you look at the history of Collectibles and secondary Market valuation.

most of that's been driven by things that are plastic dolls, action figures. Those types of things have created secondary market and Beanie Babies was a great example of a plush item that did have secondary. Um, you can see it in in other brands like Gunned and and Stife and brands that have been out there for a very long time. But we did our study in 2020 right before the Pandemic hit and we were shocked to find that our primary purchaser was older than 12.

And that at the time at the time. By the way, Switchmost is around one-tenth the size as it is right now. Right now, it's the number one toy or collectible property in the world, which is shocking to all of us. but uh, number two right now from a from a toy perspective from a toy and card perspective is Pokemon which we also have, which has been the blessing of our lives.

But the bottom line is so the things that are exciting uh, we have 60 licensing Partners Um, and growing it could be a hundred by the end of the year. And those licensing Partners cover things like you know. Footwear And we have some amazing timepiece collaboration coming out. Um, we have East Side Games which is launching a gaming in the mobile space.

um, some content that will be coming out from from a streaming standpoint. And we have to be very careful with content because it can't be kid-like it can't just be kid. It has to be innocent. But it can't just be for little kids because that's just one part of our overall market.

And I imagine that you're sort of feeling similarly as you're developing V Friends as a brand A Very similar characteristics yeah I mean I think I'm sorry, Yeah, you know I'm trying to make this as valuable for a lot I have a feeling actually before I go there which for everybody's watching Pretty entrepreneurs who are debating to build their own IP or collectible business I'm actually going to go in a different place. Something hit me about a year ago and it's been really, uh, manifesting and um, kind of fermenting in the the lab. this I call this the lab um, much like music Sports movies TV and fashion, these have those categories are now essential parts of life. Jeremy Wright you and I get to meet.

We go out with our plus ones, we go over dinner and we, um, we get to know each other. It's a couple's dinner very quickly after family. What do you do for a living? You know you're now 35 minutes into the dinner, we're going into what shows are you watching? You know what do you guys like to do on vacation? Obviously you wore close to it and I'm going to show up to that dinner as a 47 year old and a T-shirt and a hat and sneakers. I'm projecting that I'm chill like I'm casual I'm not wearing like which is fine because I am.

Other people may wear a great suit and everything with a great watch and they're presenting what they're into, which is the craftsmanship some people blast Brands and their brand life like everyone's allowed to do their thing. I've realized oh my. God Collecting the whole genre is on the Press business within the next decade or two of being a genre. I Believe in 15 to 20 years it is a cultural genre that you will go out to dinner or you meet something.

Literally you meet somebody at a business meeting and you go out for drinks afterwards. And like you know, even if you know them like a lot of people know me and they're like how do you feel about Aaron Rodgers like that's they want, you know that's the question right? I Believe people are going to ask people, hey, what are you collecting you know how's your collection going Between art and watches and sneakers and handbags, trading cards nfts I'm aware of where that market is but the reality is to your point Beanie Babies Didn't work out but stuff that plush toys are forever stipend Germany gunned the teddy bear Raggedy Ann Like you know you know, digital Collectibles Will be here for the rest of our lives. Um, trading cards at the show Everyone's like, where do you see the future of the Hobby in five years? Do you think it'll be around them like it's been around for since the 1860s. there's been trading cards.

they were presidents and animals back then. Now they're athletes in pop culture. but you know I think where do you sit as someone who I really respect on this in the genre of like are you a buyer and I know we're both enthusiasts. but because we're how old are you my friend? um I'm gonna be 50 in a couple months.

Happy birthday on a big one. We've watched this for the last 30 years, do you what? and I saw you kind of react when I said that. Do you sense that I'm right about that and what and and then expand on it like why, what are you seeing because I really I'm like oh my God this is happening. Everyone is going to recognize that everybody collects.

your aunt might collect magnets, somebody else might be collecting marbles, somebody's got a grandma that's got little elephant statues. Trading cards are now mainstream you know, like Pokemon Yu-Gi-Oh Obviously with with the friends we we announced you know the TCG and now people understand why there were numbers at the bottom of these cards. You know, like that whole world is real, That's a game changer that really is. Trading card games are enormous, But get me to the punch line, yeah to answer your question I mean like absolutely Number One Fandom has become so much more acceptable over the years.

I mean keep in mind when I entered the toy industry, a toy executive or founder or entrepreneur would rarely have all this stuff behind them. It would even if they're in the two industry. even if how many times you remember 20 years ago you talked to somebody who was in the entertainment business they'd say I don't really watch TV and you're like what you know what you don't watch TV this is what you do like get room dude I just think what's happened you know I'll give you a related Story 2 000 Year 2000 went to Comic-Con and it felt very alt culture and people talked about it as Fanboys Fangirls nerds like Nerdum To your point I'm starting to jump in I'm just so excited I Apologize everybody but like in the same way that hippie culture was so old culture. So many things of the hippie year in the 60s are today normalized around the food, the you know mindset, the music right it your point.

In 2000 it felt really like super nerd culture and today it just like the biggest mainstream pop stars are wearing a Dragon Ball Z t-shirt or a Bert and Ernie like hat or what have you? Yes yeah I mean like So basically it went from 40 year old virgin which was considered weird and yeah Steve Carroll was hilarious but he was basing his character on that alt culture. So today every mainstream stream content distributor or Creator All Actors Writers everyone wants to be at these big shows to where they can show off all of their fandom. And you saw that at the national. So whether it's San Diego Comic-Con or whether it's a big card show, whatever it may be what you're seeing out there is our desire as humans to connect with one another over something that we have in common.

Fandom is a great thing to connect on. We have fandom in common. We might have a brand in common, maybe we'll have sports in common, but it is all about commonality. And Breaking Free of the old restraints that people used to have.

So you know if you think about the old restraints, they were ridiculous. They were based on genetics. But guess what? We have a lot more in common than that. Personality types are way closer than a genetic pool.

and I think what's going on is today. We're connecting over things that really make us feel good about ourselves and make us feel good about where we are in a very complicated world. So I'm noticing more and more fun stuff behind people when I'm talking to them. Yeah, it's actually one of the very first things that I end up talking about.

It may be because of my unusual position in the world of being a toy maker or a collector, but the bottom line is everything that you're saying is coming to fruition in real time. So the last 20 years has had this huge sea change in terms of what is considered acceptable and how you represent yourself. I Believe that the next 20 years is going to be even very very interesting. You know people are discounting and I'm I make physical product okay and I've made fiscal product my whole career.

But people are discounting the concept of digital as well. because let's let's just I'm gonna grab something off my shelf. Okay, while you do that I Want to answer Jonathan T's question: why did it benefit squishmallows to collaborate with VF Big fan of this. Just the incense incentive.

If you could explain, it might be a little bit of a hard hitting question for you Jeremy but I'd love to get your answer. Oh I Mean it. Just it. Listen, it's a meaningful community of people that care about each other.

And the basis of V friends is you guys even say it's a physical manifestation of metaphysical traits that improve your lives. Uh, personal growth? It's a great message. So yeah, of course you know. And in addition to that, the characters are very much fitting into the squish.

Mellows Universe I mean if you look at the characters that are behind Gary right now, whether it's adventurous, astronaut or humble Hedgehog or intuitive iguana or Karma kiwi, these characters are really easily adaptable into a squishmallows form. So while that's you know, I watched Gary create V friends and I watched him draw those characters and it was really inspiring to me. I Thought it was very, very impressive. the way you iterate and the way your brain works and and you were entering into the digital space.

But to create a franchise that was native to the digital space at the time and you know from my perspective what you guys did with us is you said look, make it a squish Mallow and make it a V friend based on so so we weren't given constraints. If you had come to us and said it's got to look exactly like RV friends, it would have been too constraining. I Mean look, by the way, that's what we do. That's what we do with some of our other major brands so you can see whether it's Pokemon or whether it's something like the friends.

It really is squishmallowized and it all makes sense. Another beautiful community that where we can touch and we can associate and we can expand our message and expand yours. That's a beautiful thing. This astronaut is gonna I'm predicting because uh, real quick.

for some info. The Law: We launched the collaboration in a week or so on the seventh in the U.S It's going to be on your website, right? Yes, Yes. Is that on the Squishmallows website? Yes. Yep.

and internationally it's going to be on Shop.vfriends.com But I'm making some predictions just knowing the Be Friends Community This astronaut is going to be tough to keep in stock. We've also doing a little wink wink if uh, when are they, what are they do and you may not know this Jeremy and we'll have the team do it. Um, yeah they Blondie You're absolutely right by the way. Big shout out to your team.

We knew we were walking into one of the most important you know IPS and collaborations. so we wanted you to be able to do what you needed to do. but you converted our characters into something. Just absolutely remarkable.

We're just so happy with the way they look. I Mean here is my original drawing with the lighting right? right? There's the original drawing here for Instagram Like it's like it's pretty darn neat how good of a job you were able to do to convert it into something. and so, but you know I think what? uh what? I'm excited about is we've got a little bit of a wink wink too. We are.

We are going to Comic-Con with be friends in New York City So that's a big announcement for everybody's watching. We will be at the Javits Center which is a hop and a skip from my office. And and do you Jeremy Do you know when these are shipping? Uh um, my team know because that wouldn't be online. Jeremy's full detail I believe we have them in our domestic stock I I Need to triple check but I don't think they're shipping very far after the orders are being taken.

but I don't want to mislead anybody because I don't have it look at Clarity on that. The team will let us know, but we're hoping that if these are being delivered in time and you're going to New York Comic-Con to bring your squishmallow to us. we got a little bit of a fun thing so we'll make sure those are work. Uh, but methong, What happened to the Nfts? We work on them every single day.

This is back to that digital world. We know that the Nfts. it's kind of like Transformers had a Saturday morning cartoon and a toy in Toys R Us in the 80s. But then there were stickers and gift cards like building an IP you do them in many forms.

The Nft is the Alpha Series 1B Friends is the punch line. um of like our collectible universe. but we build. You know from our standpoint, why Squish Mode As you can imagine, this is gonna be Discovery for so many people.

So many people are so infatuated with this product that this is going to be discovery of these characters and that's a very very very big deal for us. Yeah and and I First of all, thank you! Uh, you know Swishmallows has been a dream because it's a platform. It's It's a blank canvas for us to apply a lot of different brands on it. You know who else has done a great job with that? I'll call out.

another company is Funko and Pops. So they have a beautiful platform. In terms of the way that they can do plastic, we have a beautiful platform The way you can do plush. Um, but yeah.

I mean I think I think that really covers the reason why we wanted to do business with you. But another thing that I just like to say I just address is the idea of a physical versus a digital asset and and how much they actually have in common because I think a lot of people go. Oh, it's a physical collectible. Okay, and maybe it's got.

Maybe it's valid because of that, and this is a digital collectible. and maybe there's some something that they feel invalid because of that. Well, let me give you a quick tutorial. It'll take 10 seconds to explain the difference between a physical and a digital good.

Okay, so this is a replica. This is not real. It's a replica of an illustrator. PSA 10 Okay, my buddy dub Z I Went to Dubai and it was part of that transaction.

the five Million Dollar card. But let's just say for a moment, this is real. Okay and let's just say this is a five million dollar. Real Deal Which is not.

But let's just say it is. It is nothing more than a piece of paper. So over here you have a digital good with the intrinsic value being zero. Okay, outside of hard work that was put into it, there's no physical intrinsic value.

Over here you have something that is a physical good with an intrinsic value that may just be a couple pennies. So at the end of the day, what makes a digital property valuable over time is the continuity of the license or whether the person who's managing the IP actually is managing and developing a long-term franchise plan. And number two, it really comes down to whether the there is a um, too much other conflict oriented stuff happening in the market. Imagine for a moment, if Pokemon had issued 300 000 different card sets, none other stuff would have the value that it has.

Right now, you had Nfts going from a scenario where you had a hundred programs that were viable to a thousand to a million to tens of millions. That's right, a very short period of time you set it from day one, 99.9 of them are going to go to zero I happen to agree with you I Actually that's the case. That's the case with everything I was at the National Sports Bar 99 of sports cards are zero. It's well, it's true.

It's just. 99 of Art is around. 99 of watches are zero. 99 of sneakers is zero.

You know every people always get confused about that. Now with new things like Nfts like sports cards sports cards. Jeremy From the 1920s to the 1970s 50 years people didn't see the collectible value in them. People were putting Mickey Mantle rookie cards in their bike spokes.

Yeah people you know like like things be sneakers if I knew what Jordan Ones were worth in 1985 would have bought them for 40 bucks and kept them or 100 bucks or whatever they were you know, and so like. Things always ebb and flow. But let's go back to um, a couple of functional things because we've got a lot of people and I haven't been able to jump in and that's the the Friends team to jump into all the comments so they'll be helping you with Logistics Um, we are launching a just a reset for everybody who's joined us. Squish Bellows NV Friends are coming August 7th Uh 2023.

We're so excited! um and what we need right now. I'm gonna need you to change the copy here. Dustin is A lot of people are pounding us right now. Even my admin said your inbox is full of questions on how they get this couple things.

Um, we are going to give everybody the first announcement. First lead from the V friends account. So go to Befriends.com and create an account. Defriends.com Create an account.

Um, even if you don't own an Nft because that will get you When you sign up for the email newsletter and text, you'll get the info first. So if you can make the copy, go to Befriends.com to get and sign up for an account to get the info up first. Fold that on the bottom. Um, it's coming out next week in the U.S It's going to be on Squishmallow's website exclusively in in International buys.

It's going to be on V-france website on Shop.b Friends: We're really excited about this. We apologize in advance for sellouts we're not reprinting. We've got 260 plus characters. hopefully if this goes well for Jeremy and team and goes well for us, these aren't the only four characters we ever do.

uh, we are going to be at. Comic Con in New York City in October Hopefully if Logistics get this to you in time and we'll update you um about this. If we know that they're in people's hands, we do want you to bring your squishmallow to the booth. We've got a plan.

um, and a little surprise if that all works. So there's some exciting stuff going on here as we continue to build this intellectual property. V Friends was just at the National Sports Card Convention where we dropped the new TCG game. We had our first tournament.

It was super excited we had thousands of people discovered the brand. Jeremy I Know you're paying attention always. Oh, is it on Jazwares.com Is that true germ? I'll I'll double check I Imagine that it would be on either, but uh, it could be. It could be either on Jazzware's vault program um or Squishmallows.com but I'll triple check.

Go to Go To Befriends.com Create an account. Make sure you get the news letter if you really want to move fast because you're you've got a crazy, uh, squishmallows family or your crazy V friends person. You might want to get on the tech stuff uh and get the text because that's even faster. but we're really excited about this.

Got the Astronaut The Adventurous Astronaut the humbled Hedgehog The Karma Kiwi and the intuitive Iguana will be the first launch with uh with squish fellows. Um, were you paying attention from home on the national sports card convention? Any observations from the social content or anybody on the street or is that is that a world that you guys are further away from? You know what? I'm I'm very connected to it just as a collector. um but I so I I what I what I picked up on was just the the scale of it. You know, like I said I've seen Comic-Con grow to a couple hundred thousand people.

Watching the Nationals grow to over a hundred thousand was, uh, eye-opening um and seeing people after the Nationals close trading on the floor and continuing expanding the the footprint of a giant show because of their love and fandom and desire to be part of that Community was pretty awesome. Um I Also heard that things were pretty expensive and that a lot of the deals weren't really being done until some of the last days. Which also makes sense because a lot of people are being uh, they realize how hot that that physical space is. You know what? Gary I'd like to address one additional thing that you mentioned and that is you know, talking about V Friends and what happens when you develop a franchise.

So yes, the native component of V Friends was V Friends series one Nft program. But when you become a franchise, you're not native to any particular category of content. You are everything you're You're your consumer products program. You're your partners.

You are the TV or the streaming that you put out. Just because you were native to one area doesn't mean that that's your only area. It may just be that is the originator. And so I I Do think that that's something that people in this interpret.

if something's born on Tick Tock it doesn't mean it's always going to be just a tick tock. I mean are you kidding me? Harry Potter was just a book, right? You know I mean like like Looney Tunes was a Saturday morning cartoon Raggedy Ann I don't remember its first form factor. You know, like you know James Bond was a movie like like Star Wars was a movie like you know Pokemon was. You know you know this actually was Pokemon originally TCG Then video game is like that was a starting point right? Yeah, it it was really rapid fire.

I mean Strawberry Shortcake was a was a was a greeting card. Yeah, yeah. so Strawberry Shortcake came from a little character on a greeting card to say like happy birthday or like I'm thinking of you and became an iconic IP So people don't get caught up over an origin story or or otherwise. I'm just a kid from Memphis that doesn't have any connections people always ask me Jeremy I'm like hey, Gary you're building out this brand and all these other places.

What's that gonna do for my Nft? I'm like if if if there wasn't Marvel movies, people wouldn't be buying Deadpool Comic Book number One. That's right. That's exactly right. So it's just part of the story.

It's part of a bigger story. When you're creating a franchise, you're creating something that you want to be in a lot of places big respect to. George That's exactly right. James Bond was originally a a book, then it became a movie.

But everything's starts in a singular place. That's right, right? Uh, a lot of the current IPS started as video game form doc. Super Mario was a dude in a Donkey Kong game in 82. Yeah, Oh, by the way.

Gary I'll tell you again. The way we built our business was on video game properties. No other major toy company was touching them. We were up and coming.

We were new, We were fresh, we got fortnite. Roblox Pokemon we got all the big ones. Why? Because people are so myopic. Uh Karma Kiwi? Oh real quick.

My team is Farther Along on our plan than I thought for the hardcore V-friends Community this is specifically for you. Uh, the Thursday of Comic-Con is a very good day to be there. I'm gonna leave it at that, that's the alpha. Spread it to all the other hardcore.

Um, we don't want to make it too big, but I feel like this is the appropriate place to put the first seed of of uh of Alpha and I know that the community will share that and I want to make sure you plan your travel schedules as you make it. So the Thursday of Comic-Con is going to be the day you want to be there minimally. Um, so that is really smart. so that's that's borrowing from the page book of Magic, the Gathering Pokemon and many others before you with your first edition.

or Alpha Series is that what I'm hearing? Well, well, we're we're We're doing like we need a super sticker which I don't think I have here. but I was very affected by the 1980s vending machine stickers. you know, the jewel, you know? So we unveiled our super stickers at the National. Got it? If you go to eBay right now and type MD friend super sticker.

We really did it right. They only they weren't even available at our booth. They were only given to the 6 000 VIP bags for the people that ordered the VIP package from the national itself. So a lot of friction to get them.

So you know because I've been doing this for 35 years and I've seen the stuff that's been overpopulated, under, populated the junk wax era. What worked, What's working for you that didn't work? Maybe for other things? Uh, why Valiant and spawn and Image Comics worked for a little while but then didn't work. You know what happened organically with X Y and Z that didn't for you know a B, You know I think as we enter these places like Comic-Con What's unique about V Friends is I The human have a very large platform and community and the IP is Young and obviously some of it's transferring. But you know to me, you know what I loved about the sports car National that will be replicated the Comic-Con except I think I have to leave for one day of Comic-Con and come back.

but I mean Jeremy peop. There's people that got to spend five minutes with me at the National who've emailed me 337 times 400 PMS have gone to seven different conferences with the hope of getting a minute to me. What's great about I Said to my team last night on the flight home I said man. I'm gonna love building this brand because this is blocking and tackling.

This is being in the trenches I was handing out these. You know we're doing this incredible thing with a vending machine. Um I might look this up. uh Dustin get over here because I'm gonna definitely this up I Need you to reset it but you can see the top of it It's right here.

this vending machine right? So we have vending machines coming. but these 50 Cent toys which I I did this smart thing and I wait a minute. just lose it. here we go.

I paid more Jim You're gonna like this because you nerd out on this stuff. look how detailed my little 50 Cent you can do with those like my little alpaca here. I like the tooling? Yeah yeah, the tooling I Like you know I paid more so it actually looks like it. Yeah, I guess so you could tell, right? Yeah, it's hard to get those undercuts in something unless you put quality into it.

and it's this one. smells like bubble gum. Oh that's good. it's called the scent.

there's Rarities you know it's a pencil topper and like I'm really thinking about building this IP and so you know but I said to the team I said man, this is hand-to-hand combat. this is I was standing by the vending machine and handing out little toys to kids walking by giving them free cards like I'm really serious about the hand-to-hand combat of this game. This is a hand-to-hand combat game and this is not an overnight thing. The Nft thing went so high, so fat like it got a little crazy there.

Yeah and it confused a lot of things. but like I said early on, this is a 20, 30, 40 year play for me and uh I'm like really excited about it. It's like really really really really really like I Can't believe I got to pull off I Always thought that I would start a marketing company and buy an IP flat out I thought our building and I was gonna buy Smurfs or Gumby or Popeye and that's what I wanted to do. But you know, Nfts much like Saturday morning cartoons much like video games much like iPhone Like the the iPhone came out and created a format that allowed Angry Birds IP to exist.

Yeah, absolutely. Origin The Origin. That's right, Nfts allowed me to launch be Friends but now I have to do everything including Nfts and Web 3 and Metaverse. And and it's just really exciting and like I'm so up for the challenge because I was happier the last four days sitting on the floor, pricing cards, talking to people like in the dirt, you know, in the like I Literally told the team yesterday I Want to go to the Meadowlands flea market and just set up a table for hand-to-hand combat of like here's how the game's played.

Here's a little toy kid. here's you know, some of the squish Bellows anyway real quick. I I Don't think we're gonna put out the numbers, but I can tell you if you love the karma kiwi, make sure you buy that one first when the gates open next week. Um, because it's gonna be a little harder than the others.

They're definitely limited. and it's It's definitely a scenario. It's it's if you look at the Hang tag it's under our select Series So we have um, several series of uh of hang tags. one is um, are common and then we have rare, ultra rare and special edition.

and then we have select series which is uh the black hang tag. So I want people to learn the select series means excuse me? So I came back from um our sales meetings with a little bit of a cold which everyone is mistaking is covet. So I'm like running around. keep going.

Excuse me I'm back. Go ahead my friend I was saying tell us about the different Series So people who don't know get educated. Okay, thank you? Yeah, no. So the everyday series is the common series and that is you'll find that on our non.

I would say our everyday highest volume items rare is lower quantity, ultra rare is as a gold bottom and it's significantly lower quantities. By the time you get to special edition and select you're in pretty rare air. So you guys you know that this is a very This is a very challenging and awesome product to get your hands on. I mean what? Uh, what's been the most surprising thing for you in the last year with squishmallows? Um I would say that The most surprising thing? hey my voice is back.

Awesome! The most surprising thing? um about squishmallows in the last year for me has been every time we think we've hit the plateau in terms of where this where this is going to be in the Zeitgeist, it continues to smash through it. Um, and we want longevity. We don't want a phenomenon that is here and gone. so we're constantly under shipping and that's by the way.

A piece of advice that I have to anybody that's launching a brand. Um, someone told me a long time ago a mentor of mine. He said you know if you undership something by a unit, you're a jerk. He said if you overship it by a unit, you're a jerk He said so be comfortable if you're manufacturing products with being a jerk but don't over ship because then you'll just be out of business so don't capture every dollar And and we didn't Um, but it's amazing to me how things continue to grow and evolve.

Um I Do believe that what we have here is an evergreen program, much the way that you've seen with Brands like Barbie and much the way you've seen with Brands like Hot Wheels or some of the wonderful brands that Hasbro has. We've just created something with extra extraordinary longevity and and I think we've come to terms with that and our partners have as well. And so 20 years from now, hopefully we can you know, celebrate some Milestones together for V friends and for squishmallows and And uh, toast to longevity because at the end of the day, that's the only thing that matters. Um, what do you think about this? There's a question I'm asked a lot and now I'm asking you not as a J you know a Swiss a squishmallows exact I'm asking you as a collector you the hero people ask me a lot.

there's 268 characters and be friends I did that because I want to do this forever I think of it as Marvel that way which is like it took years before they really focused on Black Panther. right? right? People are asking me how did I pick these characters right A I Thought about which characters would translate to squishmallows well in squishmelo's form. like the humbled Hedgehog is just cute as hell in this form. like like I think people are going to land on your site or like people that are fans of my business content are going to show this to their son or daughter and they're like I need that So there was a little bit of like this is the form factor we're going in and the humble Hedgehog matters.

but then also I think about things like thought, you know six-year-old asking their mom what this or dad, what does what does humble mean and I actually think humility is like one of the scariest things in the world. Meaning if you were lucky enough to develop it, your life gets 73 000 times better. Yeah, Oh absolutely. That's one of our core pillars at Jazz.

Wares Collaboration, Passion and humility. Um, humility is so underrated. I Will tell you. um, and the purpose of V-friends is be competitive, but do it in a nice way, right? And so I think humility is hidden sometimes from people that are loud or aggressive or you know strong like people that a lot of people on my team used to watch my content and then they work for me and without a Shadow of Doubt The most common theme is a year later they're like if they bring it up or if I'm like hey, what did you learn this year they're like man from the outside in your content.

It's hard to see the humility from the day-to-day operations. It's the most obvious thing and so a lot of like. what I think about is like how do I put to fall in love with traits that I know are universally powerful, right? Yeah, and that's why Humble Hedgehog was chosen on a 268 because I thought it would look amazing and I think it I mean this is like stunningly cute to me personally, subjectively like astronaut's cool but this is like ridiculously cute. But where are my questions going? So here? Oh I'm sorry no I'll just add one thing to that and say some of the greatest brands in the world have extreme breath of line but then they also have Focus So even if you're talking about like WWE they have their top of the card Talent They have their main card talent and then they have their you know off TV Talent you know Star Wars um Pokemon Well my favorite Star Wars character was because I Entered this this week at the National during a Star Wars Patrick My favorite Star Wars character by a country mile is Greedo Yeah, that's awesome I mean literally I Don't know what's his screen time in all nine movies like 18 seconds? Yeah, like I but when I was five, he was green on green.

I was already a Jets fan. like like or like. green was already my favorite color which probably led to Jetson or whatever I Don't believe it's a little blurry, but like Greedo is my guy. that's who you connected with.

and by the way, that's part of when again at Comic-Con this year I'm walking around and what I notice is that the the costumes and the fandom is getting more and more obscure and more and more specific to people. So yeah, having a brand that has less Superman more fourth tier A lot you know more Rhino from Spider-Man and then less General Spider-Man more Spider-Man from this specific comic that was viral Yes, Is that what you're saying? Yes. And starting with that many characters just means that it gives you the leeway to do a lot of very cool things over a long period of time. And that's you.

You were right with. Marvel That's what you're saying. You've seen it in, you've seen it in all kinds of great. Brands uh if you limit yourself then then you, uh then you set up a whole new set of problems.

Back to the supply thing. Like one thing I'm scared about with this drop is the quick sellout. We we made a good we. We felt confident with how many uh National exclusive pins we made.

By the way, this is going to get the whole view friends pin community like actually let's go into that. Jeremy I Don't think I understood what goes on in pen life. Isn't it great? No, no it's beyond we did at the Nash Our Vicon We like it is taking on a life. well it's not released yet which is like the pin thing in V friends if you go to be friends pin on eBay right now like the pin thing I don't think I had a sense of how insane like it's a multi-generational uh, collectible category and you can think about it.

think about it. Of all the Collectibles you can remember that maybe a grandparent had Coins Stamps and pens pens on people's hats or they'd go to Disney and they'd come back with a whole are you the Disney thing I knew the Olympics thing I crushed on Flipping Olympic Pins at garage sales Olympic Fields to garage sales to was like some of my best flips. Oh awesome! So you realize how contemporary the pins thing was? It's like banana. So anyway we like first day, half day with a limit on it done with pins.

Wow you know I think with this we we put real numbers into our production in the scheme of where I think our communities demand is so I feel confident that people won't sell out I'm a little worried about the Kiwi but like in general and I think the astronaut's popularity is going to be a beast and I think then this, the Iguana and the and the humble Hedgehog are so cute. like literally somebody's landing on your website that has never heard of me. the friends, it's just gonna be like I want that. So we had a real strategy.

Now we think about it. but how do how do in the collector's world, how do you think Brands handle it best I'm even taking away your world I'm talking to Jeremy The Collector Now when they do have sellouts, you know, how do they. How do they? How do Brands handle that well for the people that might be doing limited edition merch or things in their world I think when you're I think when you're a brand whole I think when you when you're controlling a brand, when you're the ipu owner I Think being very transparent with the community is the best way to go. And for me, what I often say is that exactly what I said to you before.

if you overship a brand, if you overship something, it is the fastest way to the end of that brand. Either retail hates you because they're stuck with stuff that they can't even sell at a discount. Yep, or you were in a scenario where the secondary Market of anything that people has purchased has collapsed because the supply was too great for something that you're putting out there. So I think just being very transparent, communicating to the community that you're never going to overship that you're going to assess and that each time you drop, maybe you'll extend the supply a little bit in order to find where that equilibrium equilibrium is.

But the best brands in the world make themselves The word's not exclusive because the objective is not to be exclusive. The objective is longevity. The objective is longevity and Longevity means that you can't overship. So yes, limit Supply until you have an absolute definitive understanding of where your equilibrium is.

And I think being very open about that is the key. Um, as we wrap up here, just how where can people find you? Because I think you're bigger executive that you are and you're a great executive. but you're a great collector voice, where can people find you? Um, Well, personally. I I guess on uh on Instagram or what was formally named is Twitter Uh, you can find me I think do we have to call it X Now like is the like do we call it X I don't know I don't know.

but I'll tell you. this guy. this guy talking about a disrupter. This is a disrupter right here this gentleman.

I've never seen anybody go into a brand um and wipe it clean of its former uh branding. especially when it's one of the key brands in a space. It would be like Disney changing their name to one letter word. it who knows what's gonna happen.

This is actually a little Alpha you know I'll put it as an Easter egg. What do you think about fictional characters or non-athlete trading cards because that is a Vibe I Got from this show like that there's a little more room for the it's that. it's start. We're starting to see a little something like you just threw up a entrepreneur's rookie card.

Yeah, I think you got to be careful. I mean I think I think the bandwidth is only so broad. Okay, and if you start creating the same systems of collectibility for absolutely everything that you do for traditional trading cards, there is a Tipping Point and even with Rarity there's a giving point and so I I do think that and I'm kind of hopeful that you know now that there's a little bit more concentrated management and development in that card space and you can I'll just call it a spade Fanatics is jumping in and doing a lot there. My Hope Is that they do exactly what we've talked about which is slow controlled growth over time and trying things that allows them to have longevity because at the end of the day, remember that deal with Tops Baseball is 70 years old.

You know it was 1952. 71 years old. So be in it for the long game. Be in it for Legacy.

And my hope is that know that they don't try to turn absolutely every possible category into the next way to have a one-of-one parallel. Yeah, of course you do that. You know there's only so much to go around. And what about TCG games I know you're so deep Pokemon Like you know I I Cannot believe what happened on our tournament.

One of the you know I made a really smart decision and hired Consultants from the outside to develop really smart I'm really glad I did a dream like honestly like they came back with something I couldn't even comprehend. like did you know and the poker. So our game has this poker Dynamic to it. that is literally the semi-final round of our first Alpha tournament at the National.

Both guys had sunglasses on it, literally was like World Series of Poker They're literally World Series of Poker and they're looking at this card in their deck. Awesome! And they're like looking at the numbers down here, you know, as you can see here and I'm like watching this and I understand we've got like 50 people surrounding them, the live streams are going crazy, the tension was super real and I looked at my best friend Brandon who I grew up with since I was 14 and my buddy Moose from college who used to go with me to Toys R Us at like 7 A.M wait for the stock guys to get there to get the hard to get action figures and I just had this moment of like my God I'm always blessed and I've been on gratitude gorilla my whole life but like am I really at the Forefront of this thing like I can like this is insane like I can't wait to go to Every hobby shop every gaming shop and one by one get kids to plays because I think we got something here. What do you know about TC that's magic Yu-Gi-Oh Dragon Ball Z What What do they do? Well, what the what? What do you have to watch out for? What's your take on? TCG TCG is one of the most powerful areas that you can possibly get into if you create the right platform of gaming. and it is really smart to work with people that have done it before when you're developing your own plan and and I got to tell you beyond anything else as as someone who's been around a company from day one being a day one founder in the toy space myself, um, it's hard to look outside when you've got so much talent yourself.

Okay, that's about. that's about humility and being humble to say just because I know something about this. just because I was at the Inception of something yes doesn't mean that I don't need help in order to make something great. So the number one thing you said just then that hit me was that is very smart that you worked with people that have probably been in trading card gaming for decades because they live and breathe the underlying platform you know real way and then attaching that platform to the right brand and doing it in a way allows you to have longevity.

which I think is again key to everything. And so yeah, trading card games in my opinion. pound for pound if you look at Native Trading Card Game Properties they have longevity, They have enormity. They have Community They have all of these things that make for something to last.

and uh, I think that uh, if you're establishing a system where people can play a thousand times and have sort of different exciting things happen each time and then have something at stake. Um, and then have something attached to the fandom. Um, you're doing the right things there to develop something that will last for a long time. Couple things Thomas says Be Friends Card game is so boring.

Two things on that front. It's not the basic war that we came out with. we actually launched the Alpha Rules of the actual game this Saturday but if you're referring to that because you watch the stream for an hour, that's the beauty of the whole thing. Some people find this game boring, but they love.

Yu-Gi-Oh Some people fight Pokemon Most amazing thing and they don't like magic. Magic is like a culture that I admire so much like some other people. play poker. some play chess like.

That's what's awesome about the world, right? like and it's on multiple levels and I think that's what the person writes like. Some people just collect it to look at it and they look at it as art. Some people collect it because they want to play casually and then some people want to collect it because they play at a level that is so deep because they know how all the hundreds of characters interact and the strengths and the weaknesses and how these things happen. So it's only as boring as the amount of time that you put into it and how compelled you are to learn about it or the game wasn't developed well like I Could tell you that was the biggest thing I took away from the reason I pinned that guy's comment on Instagram is I respect that.

like chess might be boring to me, it's not. but let's just uh, poor cheesy might not be the game for me, but like but anything that a lot of people do like the crossword puzzle on Sunday I don't want to do that, but I recognize that people do and thus I respect it to no end. Classical music might not be my jam I have friends in their 20s who can't wait to get home and have a nice bottle of bourbon or Japanese whiskey or a glass of wine and listen to it I Want to listen to an emerging hip-hop artist I mentioned Greedo Greedo the rapper O3 like people have different tastes and I'll leave with that one of the I'll leave with this and I'll give you the last word Jimmy we need to get into and culture I Heard a lot of people at the National and I'm gonna see the Comic-Con as well. Just how people do it.

You fall in love with something so much you decide that you think you're on other things because of your thing. Oh, why are people buying magic cards? They should just be buying basketball. Football cards are the best. Vintage versus new.

Let people collect what they want, love your thing, and don't tear down other things, right? That's the collecting genre I might not. Maybe I'm surprised by you know, pins because it wasn't my jam. but the sneakers thing that we're doing with Reebok I understand because I understand sneakers right? Like and so I think that letting it be a and game as a final part like like cheer for other I don't collect marbles, many do I'm You know, like let people collect what they want to collect and be happy for them because there's room for all of it just because you're not just because they're not collecting your thing. Don't be selfish and want them to so your thing goes up.

Understand that there's a million ways to collect and be and be into and versus or yeah, and on that same Vein on the and vein, the next big thing is still coming and that's always going to be the case. Whether it's the next way to enjoy content or the next way to play or the next way to collect and it could be you that actually develops it once. When I say you I mean anybody that's actually well, that's why I did this for an hour Jeremy Thank you for being on Deal real quick he said Super Stickers for Europe International people Not only is that because we have 268 characters and there will be a super sticker for all, some of these super stickers are only going to be available internationally, so we have a lot of fun ways we're going to distribute. We're going to push the boundaries of distribution and how uh, everybody will see you next week.

Go To Befriends.com Create an account You don't need to own an Nft to have an account on Befriends.com You want to do that? if you want to get the squish mellow collab Jeremy Thank you for being on. We'll have more info for all of you. Love you have the best day See ya.