#295: How Sticki Rolls Went From 1 Billion Views To Toy of the Year Finalist with Lev Nelson
What started as an inventor's pitch, evolved into a collectible phenomenon. Sky Castle Toys is showing us what happens when you combine viral content with collectibility… and it’s Sticki Rolls.
Sticki Rolls is nominated for Collectible Toy Of The Year, and if you ask me, they should be the ones taking home the TOTY. (sorry Lego!) Sky Castle built a brand, demand, and a community from scratch, and they’re only continuing to grow. Driven by viral content and partnerships with niche artists, the Sticki rolls brand is one of the few toys that can get kids excited about putting down their phones…even if it’s just to cover them with stickers. 😏
In this episode of Making It In The Toy Industry, co-founder of Sticki rolls, Lev Nelson, reveals how this TOTY-nominated toy went from concept to category disrupter in under two years. Sticki Rolls may look simple: “just stickers on a bracelet” but behind this viral collectible is a smart design, strategic marketing, and a product kids can’t stop sharing and sticking to everything and with everyone.
Lev shares how Sticki Rolls launched during the pandemic, innovated manufacturing, survived the shipping crisis, built a global fan base, and YouTube-first marketing engine from scratch. (That now has over a million subscribers, by the way!)
If you were considering giving another company your TOTY vote…you might want to think again after hearing this episode.
Featured in this episode:
The top-secret rarity system built into every Sticki Rolls bracelet
The manufacturing challenge that nearly derailed the product
How Sticki Rolls are designed with parents in mind
And what I think about this new brand going head-to-head with collectible giants like LEGO, Pokémon, and Magic: The Gathering for their TOTY nomination.
Sticki Rolls earned their spot among the greats and now they need your vote to seal the deal. If this episode inspired you, if this product wowed you, cast your vote for Sticki Rolls in the Collectible Toy of the Year category!
Voting is open to Toy Association members AND members of the media. So if you're in the media and you aren’t registered to vote, contact the toy association at info@toyassociation.org for details.
Listen For These Important Moments
[00:02:52] - Lev shares how launching Sticki Rolls during COVID meant facing extreme challenges: skyrocketing freight costs, trade tariffs, and the toy industry’s narrow 6-week sales window.
[00:07:01] - Sticki Rolls blended sticker play, fashion accessories, and kawaii art to carve out a fresh niche between categories.
[00:24:30] - Lev explains how they used short-form, unscripted content on YouTube to build a kid-powered fanbase with zero traditional media.
[00:30:44] - If your idea involves a new material or format, you’ll learn what to expect (and avoid) when pushing the limits of manufacturing and how to work with factories to get there.
[00:36:04] - You’ll get a packaging tip you can steal today: how to design packaging that teaches the play pattern without needing a rep to explain it.
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
Are you a 2026 TOTY finalist? Now’s your chance to turn that nomination into a win! Lock in your exclusive promo spot on the podcast, YouTube channel, and more! (only one finalist per category allowed)
Thinking Sticki Rolls might be your next obsession? Head to stickirolls.com to shop, explore the collection, and find your rarest rolls.
Follow @stickirolls on IG for sticker drops, collector tips, and seriously cute inspo.
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Azhelle Wade: You are listening to Making It in the Toy Industry. Episode number 295.
Azhelle Wade: Hey there toy people. It's Azhelle Wade here. Welcome back to another episode of Making It in the Toy Industry. This week's episode is sponsored by Sticky Rolls. I'm excited. We've got Lev Nelson, one of the co-creators of Sticky Rolls by Sky Castle Toys. Sky Castle is the toy company behind Sticky Rolls. Sticky Rolls, which is the breakout collectible that's generated over 1.3 million YouTube subscribers and over 1 billion organic views in under two years.
Azhelle Wade: At Sky Castle, they create wildly innovative, visually addictive products that kids can't stop sharing, collecting and trading. Their brands are built hand in hand with digital content, entertainment, allowing them to launch products with built in demand and zero reliance on traditional advertising from rapid fire content creation to fast product development. Sky Castle specializes in turning simple ideas into global franchises rooted in creativity, community, and unstoppable momentum.
Azhelle Wade: While I was recording this review of this Sticky Rolls product, I did see a lot of people mentioning some viral TikTok videos, so hopefully we'll get into that today. So I'd like to welcome to the show Lev Nelson, co-creator of Sticky Rolls. Welcome to the show, Lev.
Lev Nelson: Hi, Azhelle. Thanks for having me. Really happy to be here.
Azhelle Wade: You know, actually, I realize I never asked you how to pronounce your name. I just assumed, I know.
Lev Nelson: It's just Lev.
Azhelle Wade: Okay, just checking.
Lev Nelson: Just wanted to make sure to ask you the same thing, as Azhelle. Not Azhel, right?
Azhelle Wade: Azhelle. Perfect. Yeah, you had it perfect.
Lev Nelson: Cool. Just making sure.
Azhelle Wade: Awesome. Yeah. So I'd love to start off these episodes with you finishing the sentence for me. The thing that surprised me most about the toy industry was.
Lev Nelson: How hard it is. A little bit about my background. I'm a second gen toy boy, so my dad, Webb, he started a toy company when I was two years old in 1991 called Play Visions with his buddy Mark Chernick.
Azhelle Wade: And I did not know this.
Lev Nelson: Yeah, I was always his guinea pig for all of his weird toy ideas. I was on all the packaging throughout my entire childhood. Never saw a royalty check, but I was on all the packaging.
Azhelle Wade: He's not salty at all.
Lev Nelson: No, no. But, growing up and seeing my dad go through that process and build that company, it always seemed so lighthearted and fun. And so after I got into the toy industry, and, you know, I've been in the industry for 5 or 6 years, Josh and I decided to start Sky Castle and we thought, okay, it's the middle of Covid. Yes, there's going to be some hiccups, but we're going to crawl out of the pandemic and it's going to be smooth sailing.
Lev Nelson: But the toy industry in and of itself is already playing the entrepreneur game on hard mode. I mean, it's very difficult from a testing perspective. You're selling products to kids, but you can't advertise directly to them. You have to appease the moms and appease the kids at the same time. And not to mention manufacturing goods that are safe, able to ship across the world. And then getting them in stores in time for major holidays when 50% of toy sales happen in a six week window. Right now, between November 1st and December 15th. So it's just it's a hard industry to be in already.
Lev Nelson: And then you add in Covid, then you add in the shipping crisis. When our first product we shipped, container prices went from three K to 25 grand overnight, practically. Unchanged in my day. I remember. Yeah. Wow. Yeah that one was brutal. And then then you have tariffs this year. Yeah. Tariffs, you know, a 145% tariff on on all goods coming out of China, which is like just basically grinds the entire industry to a halt.
Azhelle Wade: Did you get hit with any of that or were you able to avoid it? Like, did you actually get affected with the 145%? Because I had people that stopped shipments from moving so that they wouldn't have to pay. But what happened to you?
Lev Nelson: We definitely got affected. Everybody got affected. We had to find ways to make it work. Now, we were super lucky as well because we had a very hot product, Sticky Rolls at the time that had amazing traction. So there's already demand. And two, it was this retails at $4.99. So when you think about how tariffs affect the retail price, because there's so many people in between a factory and a consumer, all those different layers. After that, you add that tariff and it gets exponentially more expensive for the end consumer. And so when you go from a $5 bracelet to a $6 bracelet, it's more palatable for the consumer. It doesn't really affect them versus if you have a $50 product and it goes to $80, it's rough. Yes.
Azhelle Wade: And I do remember during the shipping container crisis, it's funny because what people were saying was that what was going to gain popularity were smaller packages at a higher price point, because that you were trying to make the most of the space. So it was like high tech small box. But then the next year being tariffs and actually the higher price getting more affected because it's like a percentage increase like what you're saying.
Lev Nelson: Correct. Yeah. It was going to be a high tech gadget. And then it was bad to be a high tech gadget. Yeah.
Azhelle Wade: Yeah. But Sticky Rolls was like that perfect in-between, that collectible, that small footprint. Lightweight. Yep. For a ship to survive the shipping container crisis. Lightweight. So you could airfreight things in and be like, that's fine.
Lev Nelson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Airfreight everything on the table. That's that's a it's always a tough pill to swallow. But it was always on the table. Yeah.
Azhelle Wade: Oh man. Okay. So the first thing we've got to talk about, congratulations on your TOTY nomination for Collector Toy of the Year. Huge, huge achievement. So tell us in a 20 second pitch why Sticky Rolls for Collectible Toy of the Year?
Lev Nelson: Well, when I was thinking about this question in this collectible category, you have some just major juggernauts from Magic The Gathering to Pokémon to Lego. I mean, these are just such quintessential collectible juggernauts that have been around since I was a kid. You know, I was playing with all those things when I was a kid. And so when I think about this category and, you know, this nomination, it really comes back to how we've been able to pioneer a new way for kids to collect and play with stickers.
Lev Nelson: You know, stickers. It's just an evergreen category. And so these are all stickers, if you saw them on a sticker sheet. Despite how cool the art may be, it would still just be stickers on a sheet. But the fact that they come off of a bracelet that you can wear in a really cool way, it completely changes it. And then how we added in the layers of rarity and collectability, and a huge amount of depth of characters and a whole universe to explore. And then a really cute kawaii book to build your collection within. I love the book.
Lev Nelson: Yeah, yeah, the book is the book. So that's a it's the top seller. So all those things combined together with the fact that, you know, we've kind of established a new category of sorts. You look at past TOTY winners like Wow! Stuff's animatronics that they did with, the Real Stitch effects. Right. That was a new category. It kind of split between. Yeah. And animatronics. Yeah. Robotics. We've kind of done the same between sticker play, sticker collecting and bracelet DIY and found this really cool. We put that in a new collectible format, where you can still build your collection and search for the characters in the styles that define you.
Azhelle Wade: Interesting. So what you're describing is actually what I teach my students in toy math, where it's like when you're coming up with new ideas, think about two different categories. You can combine and what ideas come from that. But it's funny that that's what you bring up, because when I saw Sticky Rolls and I was like, why is this working so well? What came to mind for me was Silly Bandz and how kids would wear them, and it was almost like no one knew which characters they had because of how it was stretched around their wrist. They wouldn't even know until they opened the the bag and then they put it down.
Azhelle Wade: So for me, the surprise and wow factor that worked so well in this is that it's that like you're wearing it on your wrist, you have no idea what you could have the most rare stickers of all. You've no idea. But that's kind of the fun of it. And then how you unwrap it is like the experience of putting your your Silly Bandz down and seeing what shape animal it is.
Lev Nelson: Yeah, it's that mystery reveal you're doing right. That was a really key component. You know, when we originally designed them, we were thinking, should every sticker on the roll be the exact same one? Because we knew that it would be way easier to do that from an art perspective. But we said, no, let's make them all unique. And then every time you pull off a new one, you'll see something new and different. And so yeah, I think that's been certainly a big factor for why they're so addictive, to keep peeling off and discovering new stickers.
Azhelle Wade: I just got a great idea for my YouTube cover photo. So that thing. Yeah, it's going to be Sticky Rolled.
Lev Nelson: See?
Azhelle Wade: Yeah, it's going to be great. Imagine the pop star who had like the stickers all over her face. Olivia Rodrigo. Yes. Oh yeah. You know, cover album. That's what we're going to do.
Lev Nelson: That's cool. So we're going to do that. I'm excited to see it, too. Okay.
Azhelle Wade: So okay. Tell us how it works. What are the three key play features? What's the age range of Sticky Rolls?
Lev Nelson: Sure. So Sticky Rolls are wearable, shareable sticker bracelets. You can see I have one here. I know you do, too. I sure do. The way it works is they have 50 stickers on every bracelet. And so you have to just find this little branded edge, just like that. And then you can peel, west and stick the stickers wherever you want.
Lev Nelson: And every single bead has ten unique foil holographic kawaii design stickers on it. And so you have 50 stickers on your total bracelet. And after you use up one of the stickers, you can take out the recyclable core. And then we created a new system where you know, when you make most friendship bracelets, you make them and they're done. But we knew that as a collectible, we wanted a way that kids could refill them.
Lev Nelson: So we have extra rolls in the pack, and so you can easily just pop off the clasp like this, and then you can take off the empty cores and put on new ones and rebuild your bracelet every day. So when a kid goes to school, they can go around, decorate their water bottle, trade stickers, come home with an empty bracelet, of course, and then take it out and rebuild it for the next day. Yeah. It's so good.
Azhelle Wade: It's.
Lev Nelson: Thank you. Yeah. So when you think about when you said three features, wearable, you have a fashionable element. Kids love to express themselves in in different ways, particularly with bracelets. Bracelets are really, you know, ubiquitous from a from a fashion standpoint for kids. Yeah. It's shareable and you can decorate, so you can give stickers away. You know, we see so often kids sharing and trading stickers because it's just such an easy thing to give away in a nice kind of way.
Lev Nelson: And then they're collectible. We picked the hard road again, and we designed over a thousand stickers in series one for kids to design, or it's defined and collect. And then in the book you have 50 interactive pages to build out your collections. And the way that we designed it is similar to the strategy that the McDonald's Monopoly Chase program had, where you got the properties and you got to fill them in the spots.
Lev Nelson: And so we tapped into that same collectible psychology where you peel off a sticker, you search through the book to find the one of.
Azhelle Wade: Sorry, Lev, which part?
Lev Nelson: Yes. When you fill it, you get that rush, that like completionist moment. And then when you fill out the whole page, you get an even bigger rush. And so that's that repeatable play pattern that we were able to tap into that made this such a hit.
Azhelle Wade: Agreed, agreed. And you know what's funny? Actually, Monopoly went fully digital this year. Lame. Oh, so I'm so sad about it.
Lev Nelson: You need to touch it.
Azhelle Wade: You need it. It's so fun. Like, that's the only reason I played. I didn't think I was going to really win. I just wanted to collect all the pieces and put them on the board.
Lev Nelson: Right, exactly. No, I got it up on the fridge. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Azhelle Wade: So. Okay, I have an opinion. So crafts and activities was my focus in the toy industry when I worked corporate. So this aesthetic of like, this artwork is my aesthetic 100%. But I almost feel like the illustrations before you put the, the stickers in are too nice. Like, I was like, I don't even need to finish this book. I'm like, this is done.
Lev Nelson: Right. We have a cool story behind the art. We knew that we wanted to go into like the kawaii genre of artwork because there's so many different aspects of the kawaii genre. So yeah, Josh La Salle, my business partner, and I, we scoured Instagram and searching for the top kawaii artists, and we commissioned 12 different artists from around the world to create the collection. The first collection of Sticky Rolls.
Lev Nelson: And so all these amazing artists from Japan to Chile to Australia to the UK, everybody contributed to this awesome collection that you see, which is why a lot of the styles, they all look similar in that kawaii genre, but they're all just a little different. We're able to build out really unique families and styles because of that diversity.
Azhelle Wade: So I have to say, I can't remember the name. The name is going to escape me. But as I was researching the brand I found you have like a very strong Reddit thread of like UK people trying to swap bracelets on Reddit, which is so cool. That one of them, it's wild. But one of them? Oh, here it is. One of them mentioned that one of your series was illustrated by Misne Wada.
Lev Nelson: Wada? And he's Misne Wada? She is awesome.
Azhelle Wade: And they're collecting it because they love her and they were excited about her artwork. So I mean, the brilliance of, I don't know how big of an influencer or an illustrator Misne is, but I'm assuming she's not world renowned. Maybe she's known in her small community, is that correct?
Lev Nelson: Yeah, she's actually done multiple galleries. She's a wow, a very popular artist within the genre, certainly within like she's really popular in that, like that spooky goth cartoonish format. That, that, you know, all the toy people. Now, spooky cute is just red hot right now. And I. Hey, yeah, same. When we saw her artwork, it was like a no brainer. We reached out to her and she was totally on board.
Azhelle Wade: But it's brilliant because now you've built this brand based on a great play pattern, great product design, good margins, good pricing and great margins. But now you're layering in like these niche influencers who people just want to follow those influencers. So they're going to experience your product just to get a hold of what these influencers have to offer. What I did see, though, is people who are following those influencers aren't necessarily using this book. So I do wonder if you want to like, have those influencers illustrate like a cover, a special edition cover, like for your book so that they'll actually want to use the book. They're just putting it in like their own white paper books instead of using the book, because I think they're just literally there for the influencer, which is just.
Lev Nelson: Yeah, that's right.
Azhelle Wade: It's so interesting. Okay, so tell me a feature that was almost cut but made it.
Lev Nelson: This is a good one. So when we worked with, Jim McCafferty, JMP creative, he's one of the top inventor houses. And he brought this concept to us originally in a kind of an original form, which I'll get to later. But, when we were talking to him and we were showing him like the first round prototypes that we were creating, we were going to just make them all kind of random. And he was like, guys, you have to do rarity tiers. You have to, you have to make them collectible. He's like, are you sure, Jim, are you positive? He's like, you have to do it, just trust me.
Lev Nelson: So we went back to the drawing board. We sequenced all 1200 stickers into different rarity tiers and, like, built out this robust matrix of all these different rarity tiers. And then each rarity tier corresponded to this different foil holographic pattern on the sticker. So you can see like, yeah, on the back of every sticker. And that kind of shines through. They all have different foil styles. And so those all indicate the rarity level. So commons are just like a simple foil holographic. But then as it goes from rare to super rare to ultra rare, it gets to more complex and cool foil holographic patterns.
Azhelle Wade: Wait, so then what was this in the book? It said something about like the rarity colors being teal and purple and pink. What was that?
Lev Nelson: That actually corresponds to the core. So if you look at the inside of these. Cores are all have different colors that correspond to the different rarity levels.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, that's so cool. So I can get an idea of how rare my bracelet is without taking away the stickers right away.
Lev Nelson: That's right.
Azhelle Wade: I did not use that.
Lev Nelson: That we don't advertise. That's an Easter egg that we want kids to find and share on. Places like Reddit. So it's like an insider intel.
Azhelle Wade: I need to add to my video, right?
Lev Nelson: Okay. Awesome. So good.
Azhelle Wade: So I like I didn't understand, I was like, what are they talking about? I was like, where is this purple? I Okay, great.
Lev Nelson: Another element about, another one of our advisors. He said, you guys have to put codes on these. You have.
Azhelle Wade: To make I see that.
Lev Nelson: So that so in series one we didn't have any codes. So that is the unnumbered series. But for series two, we started adding codes so that kids could look in the book. See the code that they need, and then find the sticker that corresponds to that. And then we created a system on the website Sticky Rolls.com where you can go and you can search and find the sticker that you're looking for, find out all about it and find out where you might be able to find it. Like, like which skill or style you should search for in order to help complete your collection.
Azhelle Wade: I did have a really hard time finding the stickers that I was unrolling. Like, I don't know, are they all in this book?
Lev Nelson: No, they can't be. Oh, you're familiar with Panini, right? The Panini sticker books. Have you ever heard of those? They're really popular in Europe. It's an old company, but they kind of started and really created the find the sticker with the code, find a spot in the book that corresponds to it, and they'd release these magazines. But it was all very sports centric, you know, for soccer teams in Europe or football, however you want to say it. And they really crushed it with that play pattern. But it was all really geared towards boys. And so we knew that that code element was actually really important for this collectible play pattern, so that kids could be able to find the the stickers that correspond to that code and help them to navigate. They're building out their collection.
Azhelle Wade: Yeah. I said in my review, I was like, you know, I could be here all day. I feel like if I didn't have a job, this is what we do here as a kid. And it.
Lev Nelson: Oh, okay. I'm happy to hear that. Yeah.
Azhelle Wade: I had them, like all laid out on this table and I was like, hunty. It was a whole thing.
Lev Nelson: Out of all 1200 stickers in each series, there's 240 spots in the book for those stickers that predetermined on every roll that you take out two of the stickers on every roll have a spot in the book?
Azhelle Wade: Oh my God, I should be told to me. I was going crazy. I started putting them. I started filling them into the birthday section because that's life. That's a blank section. So I was like, all right, I'll put them there. Okay.
Lev Nelson: Yeah, there's a lot of layers. There's a lot of layers to this one. But but that's good because it's like it's almost about the discovery. We don't want to say it all up front. You know, when kids found out about like the core colors and how it corresponds to the rarity, we witnessed it firsthand at, trade show VidCon, where it was it's a consumer show for a YouTube brand, and we witnessed kids actually discovering that. And like, the amazement and wonder it, like, live when they realized that was so validating that we chose that route because it was almost cooler that they discovered it versus being told.
Azhelle Wade: Tell me, tell me the story. Tell me the story.
Lev Nelson: What happened at the first VidCon when we launched the brand? Yeah, we had like a little DIY station where these two girls were building the bracelets, and Josh and I, we were talking to other people, but we kind of were talking to each other for a second. Then we overheard the girls behind us saying, oh my God, look, look, the pink ones, the look. These are actually common stickers. Oh, and the green ones. Oh, these are the rares. Wait, wait, find find the ultra rare. They were a hunting. As soon as they realized which ones were the ultra rare, it was like, oh, that's all they wanted. And they were just searching and searching through all. I'm just saying. Yeah, to find the ultra rares. And like, that was such a validating moment where we were like, thanks, Jim. So glad that we made that shift to add the rarity element, because it truly does drive that repeat purchasing and collectibility.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, I love that. You know what I have a client doing. It's not a collectible product, but it should be. And maybe they need to add some rarity. They're like these little like toys. They do these like custom versions of the yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the little inspo. All right. You're back in my butt. So what does Sticky Rolls do that your competitors do not at this price point?
Lev Nelson: That's one thing. The stickers at this price point are made on sheets. And bracelets at this price point are only made with beads. And we have a fashionable bracelet for five bucks. That does both. Love that.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, but okay, let's bring it back to the TOTYs. What about your competitors for this award? What do you do better that they that they don't?
Lev Nelson: Oh, I think, you know, I'm not going to knock on the Legos and the Pokémons and the and the the Magic: The Gathering. I mean, those are the brands we all aspire to build in this industry. And I just I have to come back to the fact that what we've designed is just a different platform. The same way that they built their platforms from scratch. We feel like we've done one of our own.
Azhelle Wade: What I will say not to talk too much, but what I will say is.
Lev Nelson: Now we hear it.
Azhelle Wade: Of course. I mean, like, of course the legacy brands would make a great Collectible Toy of the Year. But the fact that a new brand could come and make such waves, I think in itself speaks volumes that this truly is the Collectible Toy of the Year. Because if you took the IP away from the other products, would they be in the same space that they're in right now? Would they make would they have made it to this category? Would they have made this nomination? And maybe so. But the fact that without that IP backing, this product could connect with so many kids and, and sell so well and go viral and get the billions of views, I think speaks for itself that it should be the winner.
Lev Nelson: Thank you. And my bias, I guess. I guess it's a I guess it's up to, all the people that vote and the judges.
Azhelle Wade: So 100%. And yeah, and for voting, if you don't have the link, head over to The Toy Coach.com/TOTY. I'm going to gather all the links for you to vote for all your favorite toys, hopefully Sticky Rolls. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about safety. So in regards to safety or durability, what choice did you make in the development process that you are really proud of? One that you think that buyers should care about?
Lev Nelson: So what do parents hate most about stickers? They hate when kids stick them all over the house, and then they're impossible to get off, right? Because most stickers are made of paper. And so we made an intentional decision to make ours out of foil holographic. So they're not made of paper so they don't tear off. Then you need glue off or Goo Gone to to get them off the surfaces. They're repositionable so that you can stick them onto multiple spots. Or if you put them in an inquiry. I noticed that in your book. Yeah, you can take them off and then stick them later.
Lev Nelson: And so that was a primary pain point that we knew would be a barrier for a lot of parents to get behind. But when we could build the platform with a base material that we knew would kind of overcome that obstacle, we knew that, it would be much better received. And thus the, the reviews and the later feedback that, you know, when parents realized that, oh my, I can just take this right off the wall and there's nothing to clean up. Oh, great. Yes, you can get more of those stickers, but less of the paper one. Right.
Azhelle Wade: What were some early signs you were seeing that you had a hit on your hands?
Lev Nelson: That first VidCon was a really big one. But I think the biggest indicator was when we went live on YouTube and we started posting content daily, and we went viral immediately.
Azhelle Wade: Really?
Lev Nelson: Yeah, we started getting tens of millions of views within the first two weeks of launch, and the channel just went from zero to nuclear. And that happened like right before VidCon. And we were still, you know, crossing our fingers because it wasn't out of retail. We didn't we hadn't seen kids, you know, in bulk, actually playing with it and experiencing it. But at that show, we saw a line wrap around our booth for kids waiting for their free giveaway of Sticky Rolls, especially in a place where they had just seen it for the first time. And so those are really the moments where we thought we had something special.
Azhelle Wade: I did not realize you were so viral on YouTube. Everybody online kept mentioning TikTok. Wow.
Lev Nelson: Oh, and, YouTube is YouTube is our main focus.
Azhelle Wade: What did you do when you were going live? Was it you and Jim? Or was it like influencers with your product like? Well, what's happening?
Lev Nelson: We got a team of creators that that developed a short form content that we posted on YouTube every day, and we had consistent frequency with cool ways where, you know, the creators were interacting with Sticky Rolls in ways that didn't feel like salesy or promotional. It was more like day in the life. And so from that or creative direction, we were able to build a really strong following of kids that love to watch the content and then thus fell in love with the product.
Azhelle Wade: Wow. And what about the lives? Was what was the lives?
Lev Nelson: Oh, we don't do lives. Oh, what kind of live sharing? No, that was just, the the live experience that I had.
Azhelle Wade: When you went when you went live on YouTube? You mean when you were an active?
Lev Nelson: Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we when the channel started posting content. Yes.
Azhelle Wade: Sorry. I was like, wait, you went live on YouTube? Tell me everything. Okay. No.
Lev Nelson: That's great. No, that is coming, though. That is a big wave of the future that I think is going to be prominent in future content marketing for toy companies. Why do you say that now? Well, just because live shopping is catching on, like, oh, yes, wildfire. And I think it's going to become more and more accessible to not only parents, but eventually to kids with the right red tape in place to keep kids safe and have a way that parents are okay with live shopping as long as it's monitored. But yeah, I think we're a ways out from that. But I still think that that's prepping for child to to be aware of it, of the space, how it's affecting CPG brands with adults and their purchasing patterns and how that might transition down to teens, tweens and kids in the near future.
Azhelle Wade: Interesting. I want to talk about like the human side of the design. Was there a particular moment that started Sticky Rolls, or the moment when Jim pitched it to you that you said, oh my gosh, that's the next big thing?
Lev Nelson: Yeah, it's a funny story. When Jim originally pitched us the concept, it was more of a craft play. There. There was less of a collectibility element, which is so ironic because he's the one who pushed us in that direction after we ended up working together. But when we saw it, it was, you know, more of like a glitter tape crafting type of experience. But right after we saw it, me and Josh and our other partner, we immediately all three of us agreed on the spot. Like this could be huge. And we just saw we saw it for what it could be from a collectibility standpoint. And to Josh's credit, he really zeroed in on the artwork and that importance and the depth and the diversity of the artwork that would be needed for this to be a really strong collectible brand. And so, yeah, that's the way that we started to build it out and and think of it more of a collectible, less of a craft activity, even though it really does live in its craft.
Azhelle Wade: Yeah, it does. Yeah, I saw it as a craft activity from my perspective. But yeah, 1,000%. This is a collectible, right?
Lev Nelson: Well, it's it's funny because we have some SKUs that are like DIY accessory kits, right? Where none of the bracelets come assembled, you have to build them from scratch. But most of the core opening price points, like just the single bracelet in a capsule, it all comes pre-assembled. So there is no traditional DIY element to it other than sticker play, where you peel and stick and decorate things. But that was really that bridge that we were able to walk between those two strong categories, which has its pros and cons in the toy industry.
Azhelle Wade: Honestly, right? People understand what it is and then they don't know how to price it. And then where do you put it in there? Like, I can't I can't cross that line. I'm going to get in trouble. Like, yeah, that's yeah. Interesting. So what was a constraint that you had in making this that actually ended up helping you into making it more of a creative thought?
Lev Nelson: So like I said, most stickers have a paper backer or like a sheet that they, that you peel off of, right? But we knew that because we were starting to think about this, like, okay, most stickers come on sheets, but if we put ten stickers on a bracelet or on a bead on a paper backer, it would be over twice as thick. It would be so big and bulky it wouldn't be cute anymore. Or you'd have to have like two stickers on every bead. And so we knew we had to design a sticker that could stick to itself. Yeah, be wound super tight. And then when you peel it off, it would stay sticky. It would be recyclable, the ink wouldn't come off and it wouldn't unravel under high heat during transit.
Lev Nelson: So, Azhelle, I will tell you this is seems like a simple product, but this is the hardest thing I've ever had to manufacture in my career in the toy business, and how difficult it was and how many different suppliers we had to go through. But this experience was so crazy because we were shipping in like three months, and we were doing the final test with the supplier and they when you test every product in the toy business, you have to put it in an oven that simulates being at the top container of a vessel as it goes across the Pacific or the Atlantic in the middle of summer.
Lev Nelson: And those those containers can sometimes get up to 120, 130 degrees Fahrenheit. So you have to subject all of your products to that high heat for those periods of time. And so we were just praying and praying and sure enough, when they all came out, either they were unraveling on their own or the foil might come off or the or the glue wouldn't work. And so finally, in the 11th hour, we had the 10th sticker factory that we ended up working with, who we still work with today. They finally figured it out. Wow.
Azhelle Wade: I've only worked on a handful of products, like where you're figuring out a new method of manufacturing. It is really rewarding, but it is terrifying.
Lev Nelson: Terribly.
Azhelle Wade: Because terrifyingly. You're like, probably your list. I mean, I was literally with an inventor prototype of like a mini machine on a call of the factory like, and you build this exact.
Lev Nelson: Yeah. And in most cases, you've already sold it. You've already sold it. You've sold the dream. People are ready to buy it. Sometimes you have purchase orders and you still don't know exactly how to make it.
Azhelle Wade: And you're like hand making samples to prove concept to the buyer. Meanwhile, you're like, I have no idea if it's going to work.
Lev Nelson: I know. Praying, I know. Jesus, I go, oh my God, that toy industry is playing the entrepreneur game on hard mode. It's just the perfect example.
Azhelle Wade: There are very few items, as I said in my career that I like, I'm so proud of, and they're the simplest ones, and this would have been something I'd be so proud to work on, because it's like it's just a simple solution to a complex problem and like, that's just the best. That's like it uses less material, it can cost less, it can have a higher margin. It was more intelligently designed. It was thoughtful. It's like this is the holy grail of design, in my opinion, because it's just it's simple yet complex. I love it.
Lev Nelson: Thank you.
Azhelle Wade: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's good. Okay. Do you have anything that you're personally most proud of with this project?
Lev Nelson: Like? Kudos to my team over in Asia for grinding and grinding to figure this out because like I just told you, it was so down to the wire and so many late nights and searching and seeking to find the right supplier. I mean, we had to go totally outside of traditional toy manufacturers and traditional printers. Yeah. And so that that creativity from a sourcing perspective, I got to give kudos to my team over there in a major way.
Lev Nelson: And then secondly, to my marketing team for building this amazing engine on YouTube of these super compelling, binge worthy pieces of content that kids just fell in love with. And so, like, I can't think of another toy company. I mean, most brands would pay so much money to be able to get to over a million subscribers in just over a year. Yeah, hundreds of millions of views. But you can't really pay for that. You know, you have to earn it. And so I'm just so proud of our team for developing that strategy and executing it, and then following through with it, with that consistency of of posting unique content every day. I love it now.
Azhelle Wade: Yeah, they both did amazing. It's easy for a supplier, especially an overseas supplier, when you bring up a complex problem for them to be like, do you really need that? We don't we don't want to figure this out. If you're not going to buy it, like.
Lev Nelson: Right.
Azhelle Wade: We don't want to spend our time. Okay. Going back to your packaging, which is going back to your toy. I want to talk about your packaging, which is beautiful, by the way.
Lev Nelson: Thank you.
Azhelle Wade: How does the packaging teach the play pattern? Do you think it does?
Lev Nelson: Oh man. I'll tell you another good story. So like when we originally had our first pass at the packaging, the biggest concern was again, nobody's ever seen a sticker bracelet, a bracelet that distributes stickers. So it's such a new concept that if you just put the name, the logo, the call out, yes, you aren't going to understand what that is.
Lev Nelson: And so we knew we needed a a demo window both on the product, like showing a hand, pulling out a sticker from the bracelet. Right. And next to it that says wearable, shareable sticker bracelets and then pull, share it to try and share. Try and make that connection. But even then, even then you, you'd have difficulty with people being able to understand the product, which is why in a lot of our displays we picked an actual bracelet that we put in the display so that people could three dimensionally see exactly what the product looks like and then how it works.
Azhelle Wade: So oh my gosh, if you're listening to this.
Lev Nelson: Go to.
Azhelle Wade: YouTube immediately because Lev is showing the best PDQ I think I've seen.
Lev Nelson: Wow. Yeah. It's beautiful. Yeah. That's really been thank you. Yeah. I mean, we got a lot of inspiration from what, a collectible brands because they would show off what you could get in the display itself. And so we knew that we had to replicate that in a way that could show people what a sticker bracelet is and how it works.
Azhelle Wade: That is so cool. And you do that on your packaging. This is a similar, yeah, a similar model on your package.
Lev Nelson: And I discovered that because I camped out in my local indie toy store, because they let me put my first like mark up package in there and see if I watched consumers to see if they would come up and pick it off the shelves. And then I'd actually go and corner them and then ask them like, hey, you know, I saw you look at that. Is there a reason why you didn't buy it? And I and I asked them, do you know what it is? And they said, we, I don't know, is it some kind of bracelet, some DIY kit? And so that's why we knew we had to put some type of demo window on the PDQ to convey what the product is and how it works, because the just call outs and logos and texts wasn't enough.
Azhelle Wade: I love that you're getting on the ground and talking to people. That was that's great that people still do.
Lev Nelson: Yeah. For for all the all the aspiring toy people out there, it is so important just to get into your local toy store and ask questions because those people, the staff and the owners of those local toy stores have a better finger on the pulse than the majority of people in the industry because they're talking with consumers. They have moms and kids coming in, asking them what they want to buy and what they should buy. And so there's just boots on the ground, as has is so valuable. And so every time we have a new toy or a product, I always try to go to my my favorite indie toy owners and talk to them in their staff about what they think about the product, the main competitors, how it kind of fits in its niche, and and, and see get any feedback to make it successful before we finish the product design and development.
Azhelle Wade: And I also I love your little inside the package, this detail on the back, the foil print of your stickers. Like it's just such a nice detail work.
Lev Nelson: I, you know, that was like, yeah, it's an expensive extra touch. Yeah. We felt it was really necessary because it totally stands out. Yeah.
Azhelle Wade: Was this toy a higher margin toy that gave you room to do these things, or did you invest in those things because you believed it was going to help the toy, regardless of the fact that it might hurt the margin and make it more, maybe not on par with your other products?
Lev Nelson: Well, I'd say that we knew in this industry as a young toy company, you need to go the extra mile to stand out. Everybody has to say they did. As a young emerging toy company, you have to go the extra mile to stand out. We've all walked toy aisles. It's so loud. There's so much noise. If you can just have an every toy, every every package, whether you're in the cleaning aisle or the toy aisle, the consumer will give you maybe two second glance to understand what it is, what it does, and how it works. And if you're going to have a chance to get anything more than a two second glance, maybe be lucky enough for them to pick it up and read the back of the package. Then you have a much better chance, and by making a little bit of a better investment on your packaging, your design, even special foil stamps or movie colors, stuff like that, that can make you a little different from your competitor right next to you. It can make the world of difference.
Azhelle Wade: Oh so great. Okay, I think that that the unboxing experience, the wonderment of every roll you pull is probably what brings kids back to this toy again and again. But I'm curious, from your sales perspective, what do you think drew retailers and buyers to take a chance on this product?
Lev Nelson: Well, I think one, the innovation of the product is awesome. It's kind of hard to fight against the fact that stickers are evergreen, bracelets are evergreen. This is a perfect blend of both of those true evergreen categories in a completely new and innovative way. But honestly, the buyers these days, they they used to ask you what your TV plan is and now they ask you what your social plan is. How are you going to get awareness with kids? And our plan that was YouTube first is really what set us apart. And early on in our sales cycle, we already had demo videos. We were going to. We were able to show how we were going to utilize creators to fuel the growth of the brand and launch it, using YouTube as the primary driver of awareness. Did you have only in the US but around the world? Did you have.
Azhelle Wade: Proof of concept for that, or did the buyers trust you to prove that you would be using?
Lev Nelson: You know, we knew we needed proof of concept, and so we had demo videos about how creators would be using this product as an entertainment tool on YouTube that kids could get behind.
Azhelle Wade: Did you already have followers in some capacity that the buyers?
Lev Nelson: Oh no.
Azhelle Wade: No.
Lev Nelson: Oh no, oh no way. No, no. We we we we launched, we launched the YouTube channel I think in May and product was finally available in July. Wow.
Azhelle Wade: So but it was just the fact that you had a plan that it was unique enough, probably against what they're used to seeing because most of the industry isn't quite there yet.
Lev Nelson: So we had sample videos. So we had sample pieces of content. We worked with creators. We knew who we were going to have on the team and brought them on the team. And then we had sample pieces of content filmed in advance that we could use in our pitch meetings to show how we were going to promote the product.
Azhelle Wade: I mean, this alone, I'm like for Collectible Toy of the Year. To me, this says we built a collectible brand like in a year. Like, of course this is the Collectible Toy of the Year. But remember to buy to vote. If you're a part of the Toy Association, you can vote for the Collectible Toy of the Year category. If you're a consumer and you love Sticky Rolls, you can also vote, the People's Choice Award to vote Sticky Rolls for that. So where can voters, buyers, retailers, media go to learn more about Sticky Rolls to order some to get some for themselves?
Lev Nelson: So there's multiple places where Sticky Rolls is available. In the US, you can go to Walmart, Target, Amazon, Five Below. Those are all really popular places to find. Not every SKU is available in every retailer. So yeah, there it is. You kind of have to search and find, for for what you want. In the UK it's available at Smyths and in Australia, Kmart, Big W. But all of this information is available on our website. Sticky Rolls.com where you can click the where to buy button and at all you can click which country you're in and I'll tell you which retailers you can go to to find it. All right.
Azhelle Wade: One more question. Before I get to my closing question. Are you guys planning the next Sticky Rolls or are you just focusing on expanding Sticky Rolls?
Lev Nelson: We are definitely planning the next Sticky Rolls. But we are not taking our eye off the ball for Sticky Rolls because of the, you know, the momentum and the traction is just so strong that we're making it a priority for sure. But my dad always used to say, in the industry, you're only as good as your next best idea in the toy business. Yeah. So yeah, we take that to heart and we know that we have to keep innovating and keep thinking of new ways to build awesome communities and entertainment channels that can support new toy brands. And so we're actively working on that. But Sticky Rolls still remains our top priority. Is Sticky Rolls patented? Yep. Or patent pending? Yeah. Should be published here in the next 60 days or so. We and takes forever for patents to get published. Yeah, but that's another reason. Another reason, another hard part, another hard part of the toy industry.
Azhelle Wade: Another reason you are deserving of this award is what I'm.
Lev Nelson: Going to say. All right. Thank you. Yeah.
Azhelle Wade: So my closing question for you is one of my favorites. What toy or game blew your mind as a kid?
Lev Nelson: Razor Scooter. Easy. When I when I got my first Razor Scooter, I think I paid like, half of my life savings at seven years old to split it because my mom wouldn't buy it for me, but said if you if you buy, half of it we'll get it. And so I took all my life savings at seven years old, which, you know, was like, it's 60 bucks. And, and I got a Razor Scooter. And I played with that thing constantly. Every day after school building jumps in the driveway. That was that was my jam. Wow.
Azhelle Wade: Very cool, very cool. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Lev, it has been such a pleasure to chat with you about my class. I want to just highlight to everyone listening or watching here on YouTube. I believe Sticky Rolls is nominated because it's a disruptor in this category. And as we've said, we're combining sticker play, bracelet play, creating a whole new category. And in the history of the TOTYs, which is all about innovation in the toy industry, that's what typically wins. So, you know, my weight is behind Sticky Rolls. And I hope if you are listening to this, you will consider voting for them, for the TOTY Awards as well. If you are a buyer, consumer or media person, you can get the link to vote if you don't already have it at The Toy Coach.com/TOTY. We're going to put up a page, featuring some of the brands who are nominated for a TOTY Award, and you've got to go there to vote for Sticky Rolls. If you already have your email from the Toys Association, just vote right there. This spotlight does include a paid promotion with Sticky Rolls, and I'm so, so proud to be a partner as you are going for this TOTY win. Let's go.
Lev Nelson: Thank you very much, Azhelle.
Azhelle Wade: If you love this podcast and you haven't yet left a review, what are you waiting for? Your reviews are what keep me coming back week after week, and it also keeps guests like Lev, sharing all of their insights that help you grow your toy business. I get notified whenever new reviews come in and it puts a huge smile on my face. So please, if you're listening to this podcast, wherever you're listening, leave us a like and a review. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with us today. We know your time is valuable and there are other podcasts out there, so it means the world to me that you tuned in to this one. Until next week. We'll see you later, toy people.
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