Sourcing Success Stories

As toy manufacturers ramp up for the start of another busy year filled with trade shows and new product launches, specialty retailers across the country are making their own sorts of preparations—by organizing their stores in the aftermath of the holidays, taking stock of sales in 2006 and, most of all, psyching themselves up again for the never-ending quest to source the most exciting and innovative new products for their loyal customers.

For many buyers, that means attending the American International Toy Fair since so many key industry players make this show a priority. But others rely on a combination of shows, personal sourcing trips, reps' recommendations, online research and word of mouth to find the best of the best.

"I've gone ever since we've been in business," says specialty retailer Jane Nesbitt of Toy Fair. Nesbitt has owned Thinker Things in Del Mar, Calif., near San Diego for more than 30 years. Although the trip to New York can be onerous, she notes, "It sure is fun to see somebody come out with a new product.That's worth the price of going, actually."

She adds, "You're trying to find the unique and the different before the mass gets a hold of it." Nesbitt has sourced a number of hot items at the show; in 2006, one of her favorite finds was Khet: The Laser Game, Innovation Toys' Toy of the Year Awards-nominated strategy game, a recent top seller in her shop that has become quite popular with dads and sons, she says. "If you can find a few gems like that, it's just great." In recent years, Rokenbok's R/C construction toys, Ravensburger's Infrared R/C Robot and Thunder Electronics' R/C toys were all Toy Fair scores, she adds. "We're always looking for boy things. We want boys off the computer, and off the Game Boys."

Nesbitt also uses the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association's (ASTRA) convention and the Western States Toy & Hobby Show in Pomona, Calif., as resources. "It's a long trip [to Toy Fair] from California, and you're so pressured for time, you just can't do what you need to do, so we go to Pomona, and [that] is where we get a wealth of information about product and we can take our time." Recommendations from reps, other ASTRA members and from the Good Toy Group also play a role in her sourcing, she says.

For Ray Derouin, co-owner of Ouray Toys in Ouray, Colo., "Toy Fair is our main place" for sourcing product. "We had tried the Denver toy show at one time, but it just wasn't as appropriate to us. There's nothing like Toy Fair!" Derouin says he's discovered many eventual hot sellers at the show, including Wild Republic's Magna Morphs, Educational Insights' Blokus, games from ThinkFun and Pywacket's Keesdrow game.

"The product mix is certainly why we go [to New York]," he says. "We went to Pomona one year, and after the first day we said, 'Okay, what's next?' To me, it just didn't hold a candle to New York."

Derouin enhances his Toy Fair experience with reps, especially those on the West Coast. "We respect their judgment, and they don't do us wrong," he says. "They'll come up with new toys every once in a while."

"What I try to find mostly in New York are companies that you don't see everyday," says Anna Walker, owner of Curious Kidstuff, Seattle. "I think the show is wonderful." However, the distance to New York from Washington and the show's blizzard-prone February time frame means Walker doesn't get to attend every year. Instead, she supplements her sourcing with "a little bit of everything," she says, including local events like the Seattle Gift Show, relying on her reps, and this year, a trip to Pomona for the first time. "I've just heard it gets better and better every year," Walker says.

For Sara Scott, owner of The Perfect Toy in Avon, Conn., "Toy Fair is great for me, for seeing new lines and new companies all together." Scott attends Toy Fair exclusively every year hoping to find companies and product lines that her customers have never seen before. "I'm always looking for a bigger something—a brand new [line], not just a single item that ends up getting lost on the shelf, because there's a lot of those little items that are great, but...I remember a couple of years ago when Rokenbok came out, and it was brand new and it was huge and you gave it its own section. That's what you kind of look for. In specialty, it's a little different, because to go big is tough...you don't see it very often, but it's always fun when you do."

Scott also tasks a game expert to visit Toy Fair solely to play games and source the standouts. "Afterwards, we sit down with her and she goes through the ones that she loved," she says. Hot games found in 2006 include Blokus, MindTwister USA's Pentago and Khet.

At Fat Brain Toys in Elkhorn, Neb., which is both a store and a distributor of specialty toys through its Web site, "We attend both the spring and fall Toy Fairs in addition to one or two gift shows," says owner Mark Carson. "I strongly believe in attending these shows. It takes time and money, but the ability to interact face to face with suppliers, in addition to the opportunity for finding new products, is extremely valuable."

He also reads trade publications to find new products, and welcomes the input of a few reps as to what's hot in their lines. "Our products are hard to categorize, as they range from baby toys to desk toys, plants to gadgets," he says. "Most times, it's a gut feeling if a product is suitable for our customer base."

For Sarah Green, owner of Kids at Heart in Portland, Ore., Toy Fair is key for her sourcing, though she also occasionally attends the nearby Seattle Gift Show and is considering a trip to Pomona this year. Green also closely tracks customer requests. "[If] someone comes in and tells me they saw something really cool, I'll try to find it on the Internet. I've gotten a lot of new things that way."

This year, Green is looking for quality construction, wooden and organic toys, and products from fair-trade producers like the hand-knit plush from Blabla that she now carries. "Things like that—how things were made, where things were made—are very important to us."

For a some specialty retailers, Toy Fair is just a blip on the radar compared with the massive Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany.

"We go every year," says Rob Wilson, owner of Challenge and Fun, an Ashland, Mass., retailer and wholesaler of natural and organic toys, mostly from Europe. Wilson also exhibits in New York, but mainly to show products sourced in Nuremberg. "That is where we find the interesting products...if we didn't exhibit [in New York], I am not sure we would attend."

Nuremberg is also considered the cream of the trade show crop by Milanie Cleere, owner of the Los Angeles-based Oompa.com, which sells European toys on its retail site and is also a distributor for several product lines in the U.S. "I've sourced more products at [Nuremberg] than at Toy Fair New York or the ASTRA show combined," she says. "I'm constantly on the lookout for products not available in the states."

Cleere often looks for new products during personal vacations and whenever she's visiting a new city, she says. "In London this past summer on vacation, I dragged my husband through Notting Hill in search of toy stores and found a few lines I thought could do well in the states. In San Francisco, I found an organic plush line from Israel at a store off Union Square. The search for new or unique products is always fun."