The Need
From our research using our international kids panel, we found that there is a high level of stress and concern in many children about the environmental issues we are facing.
The Challenge
To create a new Collection that captures attention (as we often do at Children's IKEA) and features Textiles, Accessories, and Toys that take a big step forward in sustainability. We aim to innovate our products and practices to reduce our environmental impact and promote social responsibility.
The Collection should also engage children in a playful and approachable way, while promoting awareness and empathy for the diverse marine life and their habitats. Ultimately, we aim to inspire children worldwide to value and protect the ocean and its inhabitants.
Our Solution
For this Collection, we developed 10 toys in total: 6 soft toys and 4 hard toys.
We asked children in our international kids panel, which are their favorite ocean creatures, and with this info we started briefing the designers to start creating the main characters in the collection and also to start building a world around them.
Soft toys: Sustainability was a top priority for us. All the filling inside the soft toys is made of recycled material rPET OBP, which stands for "Ocean Bound Plastic" (plastic that was or was going to end up in the ocean). The skins of the soft toys are also made of rPET. This marks the first time we've used recycled material for the skin of soft toys in IKEA's history. It was challenging to find rPET material that behaves the same way as virgin materials, with the same pleasant feel and strength, while also meeting our requirements for durability and resilience to multiple washing cycles. We created a range of fun, adorable, and affordable characters, including a Blue Whale, Octopus, Turtle, Dolphin, Orca, and a miniature set of all of them together.
Hard toys: Sustainability was equally important for us, and we made a conscious effort to avoid any plastic in the toys, both in the product and packaging. Our hard toys include a wooden submarine with plywood waste from the production of our DUKTIG play kitchen used for the characters. We also designed a coloring roll for kids to color, featuring illustrations of our submarine and boats cleaning up plastic in the ocean. In addition, we developed a set of dough cutters with ocean animal shapes, to be used with our MÅLA Dough. Lastly, we created a fishing game that encourages kids to fish out trash from the ocean to recycle, and if they catch a fish, they release it back into the ocean.
We won the internal IKEA Product Development award "Democratic Design Awards" in the category "New Materials and Innovation", for the discovery of the rPET in the skins of the soft toys.
Collection started selling worldwide in October 2022.
As today, collection has sold way above all the expectation forecasts and attracting a lot of media attention.
Designers: S Edholm/L Ullenius/G Carlberg
*As Product Developer, I started the exploration and lead the whole development team (Designer, Engineers, Sales, Sourcing, Project Controller) through the whole development and business process from identifying needs at the start, prototyping, testing, development on factory floor, creating the business case, and until reaching the sales floor worldwide.
SOFT TOYS
HARD TOYS
