Why Do Anine Cons Sell Stuffed Animals?

Comic Con

New York Comic Con is an annual convention for fans of anime, comics, video games, and toys. Information technology'due south held at the Javits Center and sells out with over 75,000 people in attendance. There are other comic cons in the Usa, including a huge 1 in San Diego, but New York is a pretty big deal.

New York Comic Con started in 2006 and is an incredibly popular and well-attended consequence cartoon devoted fans from all over the U.s. and the world. All kinds of comics and literary stars and well-known entertainers come to encounter their fans and talk about their work. It'southward a pretty major result.

Pre-Show

What caught my attending almost Comic Con was the focus on toys, and especially on plush and indie plush makers. This isn't a costly show per se, and information technology isn't a craft off-white either. It's a gathering of like-minded people who love comic books and cosplay. But many of these same people as well love vinyl toys like these by Pete Fowler and creative, creepy, and interesting plush.

There were a few plush makers at New York Comic Con this twelvemonth, including Phil Barbato. Phil makes wonderfully furry, fleecy monsters. I've followed Phil's work for a long while now and I was excited when I saw on Twitter that he was heading to the show.

Infant Ape past Phil Barbato

I got in bear upon with Phil the day earlier he left for New York to ask him what he was hoping to get out of the weekend. This was his first Comic Con and I wondered what motivated him to sign up. As an indie costly designer, what can you get out of going to Comic Con?

Here is what Phil shared with me about his hopes for the testify (huge props to Phil, by the way, for talking to me from the machine on his manner from Virginia to New York):

It's hard to say what nosotros're expecting out of New York Comic Con. We've never sold at a con (pregnant a comic book convention) and have only ever been to one earlier this one. Prior to this, the largest show we've vended at was Crafty Bastards or Renegade Brooklyn. Our rough guess (having visited NYCC last year) is that it volition exist like three days of Crafty Bastards plus a day of merchandise show. In other words, crazy boondocks.

Baby Viking Octopus by Phil Barbato

Our determination to pursue cons was easy to make. After doing the indie arts and crafts show rounds for well-nigh five years, we experience like we yet aren't finding our market place at that place. No thing how big the evidence, we commonly break even at best. My wife and business partner is business concern-school trained and keen at doing all the soberingly accurate and detailed analyses of our business organization. It's painful and usually unpleasant to see the numbers. Simply you lot take to be honest with yourself. Costly is labor-intensive and information technology's hard to brand it assisting.

I only have to break in here to say how awesome it is that Phil and his wife closely analyze exactly how much coin they cyberspace from doing big indie craft shows. I think it's easy to believe a evidence was profitable, without actually looking at the costs involved.

Last year, Wendy from iheartguts asked usa to be on a panel at New York Comic Con and we got to walk effectually and check out the testify. We decided, with encouragement from Wendy and Marcy of Moons Creations, that Cons would exist a place where we would detect more of the people who get our stuff.

Breaking in once more to say that finding people who get your stuff is THE Fundamental to making it in any business, and certainly in an indie plush business. You've got to actively seek out and connect with those people, wherever they may be, and once you do you'll accept a fan base that appreciates your work and is willing to spend coin on your product.

Baby Viking Octopus by Phil Barbato

As far as preparation, nosotros've printed up some mini catalogs and club forms for the first twenty-four hour period, which is manufacture only. Nosotros promise to snag some wholesale orders. Nosotros had no idea how much stock to bring, so we arbitrarily decided on four times our regular stock level. With a month of belatedly nights and friends and interns helping we got a little over halfway there. Hopefully that will be plenty.

Anyway, I'1000 running on an hour of sleep and rambling on way too long. Basically we're hoping for a big fun nerd party and we're hoping to sell out.

Then then Phil went to Comic Con and I followed forth on Twitter, reading updates on the bear witness. And when he got back, I checked in with him to detect out how it went. Was information technology like an indie craft show? Did he connect with his right people? Were there wholesale accounts to be had?

Big props to a tired Phil for sharing his show feel with me just a few days subsequently he returned from New York.

Phil's Booth

New York Comic Con was a mixed bag for us this twelvemonth. We went in with high expectations and those were not met. The floor layout at the con this year were unusual. The Javits Center is currently nether structure and our section was completely separate from the master Dealers' Room.

Phil with his plush at New York Comic Con. Photo by Andrew Cothern, used with permission.

We heard from at least one customer who could non even find us until the last twenty-four hours. Another consequence was the name of our section. This twelvemonth our section was chosen "The Block", which I recall is a too-clever championship for "independent toy companies". Last twelvemonth it was "The Cultyard", again also clever for its own good. Then I think the bad location, brought near by site structure, and the vague name hurt our sales.

Plush by Phil Barbato

This disappointment aside, we still did well. We made far more than money than we usually do at craft shows, only non quite plenty to cover all of our expenses. The bottom line is that it'southward an expensive gamble. It'south easily 3-ten times the price of a craft fair, especially if you have to travel. If yous've done wholesale shows or the New York Gift Show, the cost won't exist shocking, only if you're doing local and regional fairs, New York Comic Con looks very expensive. Smaller, closer cons are a safer place to kickoff.

Phil'south booth. I beloved the sewing machine. Information technology sends a dandy bulletin here.

I think a con is like whatsoever other show or market place: y'all accept to go two or three times before y'all're implanted in people'southward brains. Nosotros had a slap-up fourth dimension, though. Nosotros met tons of new people and a lot more people with whom our monsters resonated. Our core audience (geeks, nerds, low-brows, street-artists and street-art lovers, beardos, weirdos, etc.) was there in much higher numbers and showed the states love.

I dearest the discussion "beardos."

Phil also got some bully press about his work on Tomopop, a site most collectible toy culture and in a local alternative paper in his hometown of Richmond.

We also got to see and hang out with other makers nosotros met last year, people we knew from the craft-bear witness circuit, and make new new artists friends. We will definitely get back and we're going to try other cons as well. We still believe information technology'southward a ameliorate fit for usa demographically than most craft shows

I asked Phil if he thought other costly makers should take the leap and nourish a comic con.

If y'all regularly encounter geeks at your booth and connect with them, yous'll probably practice well. I can't say exactly what it is about my creatures that resonates with the con crowd. If yous are the kind of person who goes to comic cons, or wants to go, and if you feel that your creations are an honest expression of yourself, you will probably exercise well at a con.

Phil will be at Crafty Bastards on November x in Washington, D.C. if you'd like to say hello and check out his monsters in person. Yous can connect with him online on his website, on Twitter, and on his Facebook folio.

Thanks so much for sharing your Comic Con experience then honestly, Phil!

—

Accept yous ever been to a comic con? What kind of plush exercise you think would do well in that location? Does hearing from Phil help you in your thinking near doing shows like this?

Source: https://whileshenaps.com/2012/10/finding-your-right-people-indie-plush-makers-at-comic-con-new-york.html

Posted by: mcelroywitaysen.blogspot.com

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