Squishmallows may be the product most people associate with Jazwares today, but the company had been building for more than two decades before the brand became a cultural phenomenon. Judd Zebersky, who founded Jazwares in the late 1990s after leaving a law career, set the operational groundwork that made it possible to scale Squishmallows when the timing was right.
The acquisition of Kellytoy in 2020 brought Squishmallows into the Jazwares portfolio. The plush toys, known for their ultrasoft texture, rounded shapes, and individually named characters with bios and backstories, were already popular among collectors. What happened next was harder to predict. The brand exploded on TikTok, drawing in fans across age groups and attracting celebrity attention from the likes of Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian. More than 100 million units sold in a single year, with prices ranging from $5 to $30 per figure.
A Brand Built on More Than Licensing
Judd Zebersky’s approach to building Jazwares was never limited to riding existing intellectual property. The company did establish itself through licensed products tied to Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, Fortnite, and Pokémon, but the Squishmallows success proved that Jazwares could also own a brand outright and build it into something with real cultural weight.
That success did not happen by accident. Judd Zebersky had spent the first years of his company learning toy manufacturing from the factory floor up. In 1997, he traveled to remote areas of southern China and spent months in factories, studying injection molding, blow molding, rotocasting, hair rooting, and product engineering. The technical knowledge he gained shaped how Jazwares recruited and structured operations for years.
“I went to remote places in China on dirt roads where entire families get around on a single motorcycle,” Zebersky said in a 2014 interview with Miami Law. Jazwares now employs approximately 1,400 people and distributes products in more than 100 countries. Zebersky departed as CEO in March 2026 after nearly 30 years leading the company. Check out this page for related information.
Find more information about Judd Zebersky on https://www.linkedin.com/posts/university-of-miami-school-of-law_judd-and-laura-zebersky-jd-93-toymakers-activity-7249433715506843648-E0Af