Toy company founded by Ty Warner
This article is about the Illinois toy company. For the now defunct New York based toy company, see
Tyco Toys
. For other uses, see
Ty (disambiguation)
.
Ty
The Ty Logo
|
Industry
| Soft toys
|
---|
Founded
| 1986
; 38 years ago
(
1986
)
|
---|
Founder
| Ty Warner
|
---|
Headquarters
| ,
|
---|
Number of locations
| Worldwide
|
---|
Products
| Beanie Babies
, Beanie Boos, Frizzys,
Disney
,
My Little Pony
,
Hello Kitty
,
TMNT
,
SpongeBob SquarePants
,
MLB
,
NBA
,
NHL
,
NFL
,
Rush Zone
,
PAW Patrol
,
Despicable Me
, Beanie Ballz, Beanie Bellies
|
---|
Owner
| Ty Warner
|
---|
Website
| ty
.com
|
---|
Ty
(styled
ty
) is an American
multinational corporation
headquartered in
Oak Brook, Illinois
, a suburb of Chicago. It was founded by
Ty Warner
in 1986. It designs, develops and sells products, most notably
Beanie Babies
, exclusively to specialty markets
[
clarification needed
]
worldwide.
Internet
[
edit
]
First "business-to-consumer" website
[
edit
]
Lina Trivedi
was a college student when she worked at Ty Inc.
[
when?
]
She approached Warner to talk about a new development that existed on college campuses called the
Internet
. She indicated that, while the Internet was primarily a research tool, college students were starting to make personal
websites
. She thought that creating a website for Beanie Babies could present an unprecedented opportunity to engage the market. She brought to Ty's office a
14.4k modem
and demonstrated how the Internet works. Warner was intrigued and gave Trivedi a free license to create a website using her judgment and skills.
[1]
By the time the first iteration of the Ty website
[2]
was published in late 1995, only 1.4% of Americans were using the Internet.
[3]
The population of people using the Internet grew exponentially in the following years, along with the popularity of Beanie Babies.
Ty was the first business to produce a
direct-to-consumer
website. This was a major contributing factor to the early and rapidly growing popularity of
Beanie Babies
. All Beanie Baby hangtags had the website
URL
and a
call to action
printed underneath the poems and birthdays that commanded audiences to visit the company website with text that read "Visit our web page!!!" This effort evolved into the world's first
Internet sensation
.
[4]
Fundraising
[
edit
]
Ty has been involved in a large amount of fundraising, with the proceeds donated to various causes. Some of this has been raised from the sale of certain Beanie Babies. It has also been raised through other means, such as voting for a fee.
[5]
One such fundraising Beanie Baby was Ariel, made to raise funds for the
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
. Its sales raised a total of $3.4 million for the foundation.
[6]
Others include Aware and Awareness, sold to raise funds for
breast cancer
research and awareness; and Barbaro, created in memory of
Barbaro the Horse
, to raise funds for the
University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine
, which tried to save the horse.
[
citation needed
]
Ty has also raised money for the 2004
PGA Tour
with a beanie called ChariTee; one, signed by
Jack Nicklaus
, was auctioned for $455.
[7]
Ty was the shirt sponsor of
Portsmouth FC
from 2002 to 2005, in which the club was promoted to the
Premier League
.
[
citation needed
]
A Beanie Baby named "Cito" was given out to school children in
Montecito, California
, to welcome them back to school after the area was affected by the
2018 Southern California mudflows
.
[8]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
During the wake of Beanie Babies' success, Beanie Baby-centric publications were issued. One of the largest was
Mary Beth's Bean Bag World
, a monthly magazine dedicated to Beanie Babies and competing plush toys. It ran from 1997 to 2001.
[9]
In August 2021, Beanie Babies was the season 1, episode 4 feature on
Vice Media
's
Dark Side of the 90s
entitled "Beanie Babies Go Bust".
[10]
A documentary film about Beanie Babies, titled
Beanie Mania
, was released on December 23, 2021, on
HBO Max
.
[11]
The story of Ty has also been covered by two films, both named
The Beanie Bubble
, one a 2022 documentary directed by Ben Kitnick and a
2023 comedy-drama
directed by
Kristin Gore
and
Damian Kulash
and written by Gore, based on the 2015 book
The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute
by Zac Bissonnette about the
Beanie Babies bubble
. It stars
Zach Galifianakis
,
Elizabeth Banks
,
Sarah Snook
and
Geraldine Viswanathan
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Wolkoff, Melanie (December 2000). "The Girl With The Midas Touch, What Lina Trivedi Touches Turns to Gold ? Just Ask Ty Warner".
Mary Beth's Bean Bag World
.
4
(#3). H&S Media Incorporated: 56?59.
ISSN
1520-7005
.
- ^
"Welcome to the OFFICIAL website of: Ty Inc"
.
ty.com
. 18 December 1996. Archived from
the original
on 1996-12-18
. Retrieved
28 July
2023
.
- ^
Pew Research Center (February 27, 2014).
"How the Internet Has Woven Itself Into American Life"
. Retrieved
June 16,
2018
.
- ^
Bissonnette, Zac (March 2015). "The $12-per-hour Sociology Major Who Made Ty Warner a Billionaire in 1999".
The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute
. Penguin Books. pp. 107?121.
ISBN
978-1591846024
.
- ^
Ty Puts Beanie Babies' Fate Into the Hands of Consumers
. New York Times
- ^
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Achievements and Milestones
- ^
Ty Beanie Baby Beanies News
Ty
- ^
Palminteri, John (23 February 2018).
"Ty Warner provides mud zone kids with comforting 'Cito' beanie baby dolls"
.
KEYT
. Retrieved
3 July
2018
.
- ^
"Mary Beth"
.
Beanielad Trading Cards
. 10 November 2012
. Retrieved
30 March
2020
.
- ^
Topel, Fred (August 5, 2021).
"Beanie Babies Landed Some People in Jail According to 'Dark Side of the '90s' Episode"
. Shwobiz Cheat Sheet
. Retrieved
September 27,
2021
.
- ^
Squires, Bethy (2021-12-16).
"LuLaRich Meets PEN15 in HBO Max's Beanie Mania Trailer"
.
Vulture
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Manufacturers
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Types
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Museums
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Fictional
teddies
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Film and
television
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Books
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Music
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Video games
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Snacks
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Related
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