#299: How Swift Clicks Heishi Bracelet Maker Became A Creative Toy Of The Year Finalist with Gena Lavallee
Before Swift Clicks ever hit the shelves, the team at Make It Real was staring down the brutal math of the craft aisle: rising costs, shrinking margins, and kids who expect faster, cooler results than ever. So how did her team turn that pressure into a Creative Toy of the Year finalist bracelet maker that Swifties can’t stop talking about?
In this episode of Making It in the Toy Industry, I sit down with Gena Lavallee, VP of Global Brands at Make It Real, to reveal the story behind Swift Clicks, the Make It Real Heishi Bracelet Maker. From the “clicky pen” inspiration to the clever refill system, hidden funnel, built-in storage, lefty/righty-friendly design, and even how to actually tie a jeweler’s knot, you’ll hear how Gena’s team transformed a slow, fiddly craft into a fast, inclusive, and insanely satisfying play experience.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How Make It Real reinvented a classic bracelet-making play pattern to prioritize speed, ease, and fashion-forward results
Why the team designed Swift Clicks to work for both right-handed and left-handed makers
The “razor and razor blade” strategy behind refills and how Make It Real solved the refill placement problem at retail
The smart hidden features inside the product funnel, aligning tool, built-in storage, and more—that most consumers never notice
How Swiftie culture, influencer content, and viral videos helped turn Swift Clicks into a breakout hit
What today’s craft brands can learn about pricing, margins, and marketing in a tough category
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Vote Swift Clicks for Toy of the Year: https://toyawards.secure-platform.com/apply/gallery?roundId=82009
Get Your Own Make It Real: Swift Clicks - Heishi Bracelet Maker – https://amzn.to/4beAORx
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Gena Lavallee: [00:00:00] because that's when the buyers look at you and they go how do you, what are you gonna do for refills on this?
Funny. You're already buying it. You already this.
Azhelle Wade: It's so brilliant. I got chills. That's so good.
You are listening to Making it in the Toy Industry, episode number 299.
Welcome to Making It In The Toy Industry, a podcast for inventors and entrepreneurs like you. And now your host, Agel Wade.
Azhelle Wade: There, toy people. Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of Making It In The Toy Industry. This week's episode is sponsored by Make It Real. We've been focusing on Toy of the Year Award nominees all month because it's toy award season and Make it Real has created the Hesi bracelet maker. This, oh, we'll get into amazing DIY speed bracelet making kit does, but nominated Creative Toy of the Year.
Congratulations. With us today [00:01:00] Jenna Laval. Vice president of Global Brands At Make It Real. So Isaac Wman and Sarah Gibber created Make It Real to empower children through imaginative hands on creative play.
Make it real has partnered with incredible licenses, including Nickelodeon, juicy Couture, Disney, and along the way, they just innovate products in all different ways.
They innovate for different age demographics, different functions like you'll see today. And they believe that nothing fosters development, like hands-on experimentation and fun. They're proud to offer innovative, high quality products that spark creativity. Fuel, imagination and build confidence in the leaders and makers of tomorrow. So we are spotlighting this creative toy of the year finalist that turns bead making into a fast, satisfying, click, and create moment. This is Swift Clicks Hesi Bead bracelet Maker, and Swifties. If you're listening, this one is for you. Jenna, welcome to the show.
Gena Lavallee: Elle, it's super fun to be here. I'm very, very happy to be here and, and to reconnect from back in our toys, US [00:02:00] days.
Gena Lavallee: yes. For back in the day.
Yes.
Azhelle Wade: for you to finish the sentence for me, Jenna. The thing that surprised me most about the toy industry was.
Gena Lavallee: How many, how broad it is and like how far it extends. The definition of a toy has changed so much. Just I've now spent over 20 years, in the toy industry and. In those 20 years, we've really seen electronics come into the fold. we, while they're still extremely popular when COVID hit, we saw the shift back towards analog and non-digital toys.
But it really is what qualifies as a toy. And now the, whether you wanna call it adult collector or kiddo, that folks have not wanted to give up their toys. to me that's been one of the, the really fun evolutions of the toy industry. And I have to say it is a little bit surprising. It's not just that like preschool to to eighth grade anymore.
There's, everybody loves toys.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, thank you for saying that. I have so many people that hesitate to contacting me 'cause they're like, Elle, I don't know if what I [00:03:00] have is a toy. And I'm like, if it sparks play and joy in adults or kids, it, it likely is a toy. Let's talk.
Gena Lavallee: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Azhelle Wade: give us your 22nd finalist pitch. Why Swift Clicks for standout in Creative Toy of the Year.
Gena Lavallee: Absolutely. Swift Clicks is an innovation on a classic play pattern. I'll say bracelet making and, and friendship Bracelet making has been a play pattern for years and years. We have taken something that was tedious, hand beating and really innovated, made it very quick and easy to do. And we also the tool that we developed works equally as well for righties and lefties.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, I didn't even think about that. That's why the button's on both sides.
Gena Lavallee: You only need to push one side. You don't need to push both sides, but you can do it if you are ready or lefty. And it works just the same. That's why there's two buttons, like our pottery wheel. We, we really like to where we can think about accommodating as many folks as we can and be inclusive.
Azhelle Wade: Yeah, that's really thoughtful. How many people actually think about that in, in creating craft toys? Honestly,
I didn't, I'm not [00:04:00] That's you. Point for you. I did not do that. Thank
Gena Lavallee: thank you. I will say we do have a thoughtful and inclusive team as, as well as a very creative and talented team.
Azhelle Wade: yeah. That's, that's amazing. All right, so show us how it works. I, I already know, I'm already wearing my hashi bracelets,
Gena Lavallee: Yes.
Azhelle Wade: show us how it works so that maybe we can have a bracelet making party through this interview.
Gena Lavallee: Absolutely. You got it. So what you have is this bead carousel on the top. And this was actually inspired by, remember the clicky pens that you had where you could change the color by click. So if you think about this, but for beads so the carousel turns. In a circle. So you can line up the color of bead that you want over what we call the threading bar.
So here's your threading bar, which comes out, and it's, it is a a metal stem. And then there's a little loop on the bottom, just like you would thread a, a, a needle and thread, if you will, where it has a little loop on the end, your elastic cord. There's a spool in the base of the machine, that your elastic cord is, is wound on you.
Pull it out through the base. [00:05:00] And you put it through the little blue loop on the bottom, there's a little metal piece so you can lock it in place so your beads don't go flying off the other end. And then when you are ready to select your color, you make sure you're lined up. So if I wanna go, I won't do something that shows up.
It was like a pink one here. And then I just click and literally the bead drops down. If I click again, it'll go another bead, and the that one will drop. The second one you see here. So if I wanted to do like a series of three, I wanna switch color, I just go to the next. Click again, and I just keep going.
Azhelle Wade: Let's have a quiet moment for that. For the Hess. Click. Love it. Love it. Thank you. Yeah, a little A SMR. Love it. It, it, it's, it's brilliant. You said it was inspired by the click pens, the color chain of click pens. Tell me more about that. When you say it was inspired, was it, was the problem first? How do we innovate in the friendship bracelet making aisle, which is, always something we're asking in the craft, [00:06:00] craft
Gena Lavallee: Yeah.
Azhelle Wade: industry.
Or was it, you saw those clicky pens and you thought this was huge with girls back in the eighties, nineties. How can we bring this back? Which one came first?
Gena Lavallee: I will say we're actually trying to solve a problem. This item right here which is actually a bead case with tons of beads in it. This was an item first for us. So this, this is, it's a ha, it's just hashi beads comes with elastic cord and some charms. This was an item first in, I think 2021 or 2022 that we started shipping this item.
It was hand threading Hashi beads were popular. Actually right before COVID, they had started to get very popular, like places like Michael's had like tables where you could get like literally like scoops full of colored beads. Think about like in Petco when you have the dog treat bar or a salad bar.
It was literally like that. But like for beads. Then COVID hit and all of that went away. They didn't have like open stock. Stuff. So we made a kit like this. The clay is an interesting thing when it comes to testing. So we went with a polymer plastic bead. So this has been a very popular [00:07:00] item. We've been selling thousands of these at retail for years.
We just thought this is hard to do. It's, it really takes a lot of time and patience. When I say hard to do, meaning you have to, it takes a while to one of these bracelets takes 180 to. 220 beads, depending on how big your wrist is, if you're doing a child or an adult, it takes a long time to hand thread that.
So effectively, we were already selling the refill kit into retail, and if anyone knows the relationship between refills and makers, it's a very hard dynamic for retailers to actually get the payback on that. Because generally the attachment rate isn't that high, I would say with the exception in my toy career of like baby Alive and easy Bake Oven and Nerf Darts, which actually those are all Hasbro products.
Somehow Hasbro has, has, has cracked the refill game. But retailers don't necessarily wanna carry the refills because they don't have the productivity on shelf. So we thought we're already making the razor blades, now we need to make the razor.
Azhelle Wade: Hmm
Gena Lavallee: So we said, how do we make this process [00:08:00] more efficient and not tedious?
So we thought about how do we do a quick thread? And then thinking through that process, that pen and the, Hey, what if we could click to change the bead color? The clicking wasn't necessarily the, the way that you could change the color, but it actually became the way you could dispense the beat.
Azhelle Wade: Mm
Gena Lavallee: If you got a jam, it might be best to take the carousel off and then it'll fly out.
Azhelle Wade: the carousel off. Oh,
Gena Lavallee: Yep, yep,
Azhelle Wade: I did not know that.
Gena Lavallee: yep. And in the base, you also on top of the spool you, did you see your little aligning tool? No, in the base, like the gold part on the bottom? Yeah. If you take that off yeah, if you take it off, there's a little aligning tool on the top of the threader.
So if your bead gets like sideways or something and you wanna poke it down, this little aligning tool fits in that space and will help you like readjust your beats.
Azhelle Wade: Thought of everything. Look at you.
Gena Lavallee: We, we tried, and the, the base also functions as a funnel [00:09:00] to, to refill the the item as well, because we,
Azhelle Wade: know, that was my first jam. And I think it happened because I was literally like clicking it like this. I'm like, and, and it makes me realize there were a couple people on Amazon who said they had the, they got a jam, their 5-year-old got a jam. And I'm
Gena Lavallee: yeah.
Azhelle Wade: 5-year-old is definitely clicking the bracelets like in the air, a hundred percent.
She's probably walking around clicking it and then she's oh, it's not working. Why? Because I.
Gena Lavallee: Yes. Like sometimes when I'm demoing in a toy fair and I'll be like, click and then all of a sudden like a bead, like ejects. I'm like, oops. Yeah. Gravity is your friend with this.
Azhelle Wade: yeah,
Gena Lavallee: yeah. It does rely on gravity to feed the beads.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, no, I didn't close my bracelet. Ah,
Gena Lavallee: Oh, no.
So there's on your little blue loop, there should be like a little metal do hickey.
Azhelle Wade: yeah, yeah. Here.
Gena Lavallee: If you pull that down towards the end of the blue, it will hold your cord in place so that way when you bring the beads down, it will, it won't go beyond where that is. It'll always hold that piece of cord. So make sure you're pulling enough lead out of the base to give yourself [00:10:00] some, some leeway.
Azhelle Wade: So thank you for walking us through how it works. I also recorded a toy review of this. So after you listen to this episode, or watch this episode, if you're watching it on YouTube, the episode will air the same day as the podcast episode, but at 6:00 PM Eastern. So if you're watching this and you're like, oh, I want more, has she bracelet, amazingness, look for the toy review of this product on my channel. Okay. Now, what are some three key features that you think kids care about the most? With this toy?
Gena Lavallee: I think the speed at which you can make bracelets is definitely one of them. The ease of switching colors where Yeah, exactly. And I, I would say just in general, like this is a fashion piece right now, like friendship, like this is, you can, you can buy these pre-made in stores. You can go in off the rack and grab a bracelet that looks like this.
So you're, [00:11:00] you're making something that you could. Spend a lot more money on for somebody else to make, and you get the enjoyment out of it.
Azhelle Wade: what is a Hess bracelet? A a Hesi bead? Because you said something about clay. I had never, I hadn't heard of Hess beads before. So what is a Hess bead?
Gena Lavallee: it's, it's the style and size of the bead. There's a little bit of ambiguity of exactly where they originated. I've heard that they've come out of Columbia. I've heard that they've come out of different places, so I'm not a hundred percent on what their original origin is.
But it is the, they were originally little Clay. That went on like clay beads that were flat disks. And those had been growing in popularity. But again, with kids like the, when dried clay and you're banging it around on a bracelet, it's not the most friendly material. if we wanna see it through a maker, we don't want the dust and the potential breaking of clay if somebody jams a bead.
So we went with plastic,
Azhelle Wade: that makes a lot of sense. And it, does it have a same feel or look as the clay ones in your opinion?
Gena Lavallee: From the side. It definitely does. The feel is different. These are lighter. The clay be, the clay beads are a little [00:12:00] heavier. So when you have 180 of them, there's definitely a, a difference in weight. Yeah, exactly. And these are more resilient to bang around, like when you're a kid.
Azhelle Wade: did you intentionally design this with Swifty in mind?
Gena Lavallee: Absolutely.
Azhelle Wade: Tell me a little bit about that.
Gena Lavallee: bracelet making, which is an evergreen has been around, but you could really see the trend start to spike when Taylor Swift announced on her tour that she wanted her fans, her swifties to exchange bracelets. And that really pushed this into the forefront. So we were, we were seeing an uptick in bead kits, in and in
Azhelle Wade: You did see it?
Gena Lavallee: absolutely a hundred percent.
In fact we were even thinking about doing like kind of some, before thing. We saw things start to take off as they were. But thinking about some gorilla marketing and going like to the parking, lots of the concerts and like giving out little bracelet kits and things like that.
But it was the thing, things took off even faster. I mean, you had the people that were in the arenas, but then you had an additional like 10 to 20,000 fans that were showing up [00:13:00] just to be, I'm just gonna stop myself 'cause I'm watching you tie this and do you know how to tie a jeweler's? Not.
Azhelle Wade: I tried to, I tried to follow your instructions on the video, but I didn't understand
Gena Lavallee: Okay. Because if you tie, if you tie a regular knot, your, your potential to lose it is going to be a lot faster. Yeah. Okay. So when, whenever you're using elastic cord. go like your tying a regular knot like a double knot.
Azhelle Wade: So do a double knot.
Gena Lavallee: Yep. Do a double knot. Okay. When you're doing the second loop, don't pull it all the way tight. You're going to feed one of the sides through twice in one direction,
Azhelle Wade: Okay.
Gena Lavallee: so feed it through the whole twice,
Azhelle Wade: Okay. Okay.
Gena Lavallee: and then take the other side and feed it through the whole, the opposite direction Twice.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, Jenna, you should be doing the instruction videos.
Gena Lavallee: we just relaunched our website a few weeks ago and now we have the how do I section and it's like the, how do I make a jeweler's not
Azhelle Wade: Oh wait, is there any next step? Do I pull now?
Gena Lavallee: now you should be able to [00:14:00] pull.
Azhelle Wade: ooh, I wish I did that with these other ones. They're nice. Oh when they fall off, I'll just look at, wait, I don't have to do another knot. That's it.
Gena Lavallee: Just gently pull on the two sides of the brace on the, like where the beads are, just to make sure you're, yeah, like that way.
Azhelle Wade: wow.
Gena Lavallee: Yeah, if you wanna put a little dab of like a clear nail polish on there that that'd give it an extra but yeah. We have also come with like striped beads which gives like this super cool, unique look. And then we have now been able to incorporate, letter beads. So where you can take your threading bar off and then feed your letter, your letters on and then just put it back in.
So yeah, it made it super easy. So yeah, I have this cute little one that says sunshine.
Azhelle Wade: A lime green, pink alternate.
Sorry. Sorry,
Gena Lavallee: Oh like a wicked.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, I didn't even think about Ed. Yeah. Yeah, like
Gena Lavallee: That was actually like our first, I'll say almost like viral video on swift clicks was that we had done a a Glinda alphabet, like a, which is which. And we used the the trending audio on that, and [00:15:00] that was like boom and things went, yeah, that was like our first like millions of views on, on swift clicks.
Azhelle Wade: How is it selling?
Gena Lavallee: It, it's doing fantastically. I will I'm gonna take the, the moment to brag. I actually was just looking at the latest CNA data and while we have the three different sizes which I have behind me, so like this one, the the smaller one and the big one, if I add the sales together, of the three of those, it seems circumstantially that we might be the best selling Hashi bracelet maker out there.
Azhelle Wade: What? Whoa, that is
Gena Lavallee: yeah. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I, our, I will say the team that has worked on this at Make it real deserves huge kudos for this. It works so well. It was a, a collaborative effort through a couple of our designers and also obviously the, the packaging team and graphics team. But it, it has been, just fantastic and.
Also kudos to all the folks that got the orders out because definitely retailers didn't order enough at first. And started reading the sales and came back [00:16:00] and, and we were, we were ready. And the team moved mountains to get more product out there. Like it is, you could still walk while in. Stocks are breaking.
Like you can still walk into target right now and find one. So it, it it's the like kudos to, to everybody for trying to fill those late orders and, and be the best Santa's helpers we could be.
Azhelle Wade: How big is your team at? Make it real.
Gena Lavallee: We are, the entire company is just over 80 people. I was employee number, I think 32 in yeah, in, in 2020.
Azhelle Wade: I remember when Make it Real First came out with the Juicy Couture collaboration. Year, years and years ago. But I just remember thinking they're really trying to do something different in this arts and craft space.
And I thought that was really special. So it's just, it's great to see you're still thriving.
You have solved the problem of speed mess. There are storage happening here string for, I mean, instead of having a huge tray filled with beads on my desk that I'm probably gonna knock over and have to clean up, I just have this little tower and my little refill packs in a drawer safely tucked away until I need them. Just fantastic [00:17:00] job.
HESI bracelet maker version. What comes in the box?
Gena Lavallee: So in this one, you have, ooh. Here you go. So your carousel comes full of beads, you get an additional eight colors of refills. Your refills, when I say additional, it's, it's the same colors that are in here. It's a total of 2040 beads that are in there.
Azhelle Wade: beads, and I wonder how many bracelets I could make
Gena Lavallee: you can make about 23 if you are, if you are judicious with your your elastic cord.
Azhelle Wade: Because it's so hard to get that refill placement at retail, and also you probably don't really want it if it's not gonna sell through.
Gena Lavallee: It's, yeah, it's the when does it sell and they never go at the exact same moment. It's also hard for stores to allocate them in that way too.
Azhelle Wade: So then what is the solve and how do you make sure you hold onto your customers? Is it that stores are just ordering more of the base unit and people are just rebuying the whole kit when they wanna refill as a, as a shortcut, or they go into your website or Amazon to reorder the refills instead of [00:18:00] looking in store?
Gena Lavallee: So I was gonna say this kit, which existed before the the Swift clicks already has placement at retail. So we knew we were already selling in the refill kit before we made the maker. So this,
it wasn't a refill kit. It
it wasn't,
Azhelle Wade: core product.
Gena Lavallee: no,
Gena Lavallee: because that's when the buyers look at you and they go how do you, what are you gonna do for refills on this?
Funny. You're already buying it. You already this.
Azhelle Wade: It's so brilliant. I got chills. That's so good.
Gena Lavallee: oh yeah. It's already earning its space on yourself.
Azhelle Wade: for the super lazy people, is there a plan to sell the top piece with the colors already?
Gena Lavallee: Not currently, but we are working on a, I'll say a more lazy person's way to refill the tube. We do include the funnel and it is, and it works and it's a, and it's an efficient way. Okay. Alright, so the base here,
Azhelle Wade: oh, Uhhuh.
Gena Lavallee: This piece. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna hear, I'll, I'm gonna demo I'm gonna [00:19:00] take this off and then this, these little pegs.
So if I want to say refill this lavender, which is all the way down here I'm gonna align the hole. I'm gonna have to say, yeah, but over the lavender and the pegs will fit into this is hard to do while I'm not looking at it face forward.
Azhelle Wade: You focus.
Gena Lavallee: There and there, and then I'm gonna put the pegs into, come on.
Oh,
Azhelle Wade: need to talk about, we need to talk to your packaging team. Why is there not an inset that says easy refill with a picture of what you're showing me?
Gena Lavallee: it, it, it's not on the package, but it is' in the instructions. There's a lot to commun.
Azhelle Wade: a QR code, I believe, or at least
Gena Lavallee: There should be a, a in the box. There should be a.
Azhelle Wade: I might have missed it. I was too
Gena Lavallee: Okay,
Azhelle Wade: That
Gena Lavallee: we go. So see now like here it's aligns directly over the hole. So then if I want to take
Azhelle Wade: you were telling me earlier, before the [00:20:00] call, you're working on other beads, but this won't work for them.
Gena Lavallee: Correct, correct.
Azhelle Wade: I was like, what funnel is she talking about
Gena Lavallee: Yeah. So it's like a little yeah. So then I, I.
Azhelle Wade: up. There was one post on Amazon where somebody gave it a low rating and said it's impossible to refill.
And so I immediately in my video, opened up the top and I was like, what are they talking about? It's not impossible to refill, but I didn't even use the funnel. I didn't know there was a funnel. So I'm like, I wanna reply to that person and be like, you need to read instructions, because it is intentionally designed to be easy to refill.
Gena Lavallee: Yes. Yes.
Azhelle Wade: I know you said you had that original item that turned into your refill kit, but was there someone that said something that made you guys say, we should solve for this?
Or made you believe there was a solve for this? Because, I mean, in the craft of business, it's so easy to think if it could have been done, it would've been done.
Gena Lavallee: I would agree with that. Although we have, I, I will say we have a, a very. Innovative, like advanced design team who they always blow my [00:21:00] mind with the how they make, how they take classic play patterns and, and innovate on them. But not only that, how do you, they come up with completely and totally new things.
But this was one where we are always looking to, to take something and say, what are the pain points of this? And how do we solve for them?
Azhelle Wade: This is, I, I am so impressed. I am. I am impressed.
Gena Lavallee: I, I'm, I'm tickled that we could impress you because I know what your, I know what your knowledge in the craft industry is,
Azhelle Wade: thank you. I miss it. This is a tough business. People always tell me, I'm sure they tell you too, that crafts is such a tough business.
Gena Lavallee: It absolutely is. It's, it's margin challenged because the retailers expect time margins on there. But in order to innovate, to, to put things that are, are not just beads in a box but crafts are tough above $20. It, it's it's, it's tough.
Azhelle Wade: So do you think that your, that social media has, is like a saving grace for crafts
Gena Lavallee: Yes.
Azhelle Wade: like, oh, we might have a little bit of power here because we can get people to want this and maybe spend a [00:22:00] bit more.
Gena Lavallee: I won't even say that it's to spend a bit more, but it's more that what we don't have to spend to get the awareness to drive the awareness of it. So where. not that we were, we could afford tv, but a lot, we were competing with brands that could afford to do tv. And when you've got a TV load in a product, you've got to include that when you are pricing out to retailers.
Azhelle Wade: Oh,
Gena Lavallee: We don't have $2 million to spend on, on a TV campaign or 5 million to spend on a TV campaign.
Azhelle Wade: Nope.
Gena Lavallee: but that, that's the, what you didn't spend on that. But you can do it and you can put it in the hands of influencers and you can do digital marketing for less.
I still think there's value in linear tv, but, or in, in actual TV commercials. But it's, the dynamic has changed as to, Where viewers are viewing and how they're consuming content. So this definitely, I'll even say I learned during this project of even how I was evaluating influencers.
Azhelle Wade: You learn?
Gena Lavallee: so there was somebody who did their own video, it was totally organic.
They acquired their [00:23:00] own product, they did their own video. They would never have met any of the metrics that I was looking for to send somebody a free product. This woman did a video and this, it had 3 million views. It was at, she had 1800 followers. Michelle,
Azhelle Wade: Why is that
Gena Lavallee: I, she just hid it, right? The video was engaging.
She had the right hashtags, she had the right, like everything, and all of a sudden it just ballooned. It was so like, it, it really made me think differently about how we evaluate influencers. Not that like we can afford to send out to everyone who has 1800 followers, but it, it did make me look at let me just dig in and, and look at something that they have made and if their, her niche was actually bracelet making, not necessarily mine and not traditional toy either.
But. Within her follower group, she did have great engagement with her followers and that kind of took off and started hitting other [00:24:00] people's algorithms and, and it just went. We had, actually one of the most successful videos, again, that wasn't ours. It was a, a, a team of two moms and they again, also, they got their own product, made.
The video, I think it now has over 67 million views, like 400,000 shares.
Azhelle Wade: look up these videos. What, what, what, what are they doing?
Gena Lavallee: Yeah, exactly, exactly. It was,
Azhelle Wade: i'm wondering if some of those videos have some ASMR element to it.
Gena Lavallee: I will tell you the one that has 67 million views it's the, the music that plays along with it is wannabe from the spice scrubs. So there, there's no ASMR in that one. I,
Azhelle Wade: Tell me why did you decide to apply for a toy of the Year award?
Gena Lavallee: For us, I, I'll say last year was the first time that we had, I didn't see that.
Azhelle Wade: my bracelet. I did not [00:25:00] do a jewelers not well. Oh man. man. That was so great. It's what my Glenda won.
Gena Lavallee: Oh, I'll make you another Glenda one.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, thanks. It's the best friendship bracelet making party ever.
Gena Lavallee: So last year was the first time that we applied with our mini pottery studio, which is actually very, it's a ton of innovation in pottery. And we actually, we were a finalist last year, which was super cool. That was like the, some of the biggest recognition we have. We've done Good Housekeeping awards and Mom's Choice and, and we've been successful in those arenas.
So we did it last year and we made it to the finals and I was like, this I think really, has legs and bracelet making is still fantastic. So it was the, this, this is our product for this year and it was new for, for this year.
This launched in spring of 25. So we were, I would've loved to have been able to get it out a little earlier, earlier on the Taylor Swift Eras tour. But we were doing we were sponsoring bracelet, making parties with Swifties and
Azhelle Wade: I'm, but I'm wondering if now that her errors tours over, [00:26:00] it's like, this could be like, reconnect with the eras or something.
Gena Lavallee: oh, well now, now we're gonna have life of a showgirl, so it's just, you're gonna change your,
Azhelle Wade: she start another one?
Gena Lavallee: she hasn't started the tour yet, but she dropped another album. So I assume that maybe there will be a tour with that one.
Azhelle Wade: As she doesn't go into her baby making era, because
Gena Lavallee: Which God bless if she does.
Azhelle Wade: happen. And then, I mean,
Gena Lavallee: Absolutely.
Azhelle Wade: Taylor, so she'd probably bring the baby with her. She's she like, we can do it all.
Gena Lavallee: Hey.
Azhelle Wade: She who knows, you
Gena Lavallee: Absolutely no. But
Azhelle Wade: a feature that you kept what's a feature that you almost cut but you kept.
Gena Lavallee: the storage that's on the inside initially that wasn't planned to be storage. So yeah, you can, those little plastic bags of beads that you have, they all fit in there.
Azhelle Wade: We need to talk about the communication of all of the design, because I we're, you know what? I
Gena Lavallee: I gotta get an instruction sheet out
Azhelle Wade: yeah. Who [00:27:00] reads instructions anymore?
Gena Lavallee: We definitely have started more with QR codes because the kids like to do online instruction. They like video instructions. We also have all of our instructions are also available through our website in a swipeable format.
Azhelle Wade: Oh, I just realized there's like a opening on the side
Gena Lavallee: Yes.
Azhelle Wade: easily fit, know what? I'm done with all of your great design. That is like a secret. It's, it's, oh my God, like this is so brilliant. It's like everything, everything was thought of.
Gena Lavallee: Yeah, but like all of our products are well thought out. Like in the, but I'm hearing you saying you need to do a better job of, of allowing people.
Azhelle Wade: So I review a lot of products where I'm thinking, why didn't they just add this?
Or why didn't they just add that? And every time I say that here, you're like, oh yeah, the tool is like on the bottom. Oh yeah. The funnel is and I'm like, what? What? This is like a fourth generation product. There's so much, so many questions and issues have been answered already.
Gena Lavallee: I would say that that's the, our, our [00:28:00] advanced design team is, is super thorough. And, and like wildly creative. So yeah, the major hats off, but yes.
Azhelle Wade: Applause. Well done. Well done. I think this has, you should make a version of this in Black and make it like a professional tool version. just like you could make, I don't know, like a thicker material professional for adults version, like
Gena Lavallee: I was gonna say it, it, it is rewarding when you show an item to a buyer and they go, I wish this existed when I was a kid.
Azhelle Wade: Yes. Wow. I wish I designed this. That's how I feel is great,
Gena Lavallee: I will say major hats off to Tanya, Jonathan, and Dom on this one. They, they were really the, the lead team on this and, and, fantastic. Fantastic.
Azhelle Wade: Love it. I, I What, if a buyer is watching? What's the simplest two line? If a buyer who is not carrying has she swift clicks bracelet is watching, and maybe they haven't carried bracelets before, what's the [00:29:00] simplest reason you might say this wins some placement on their shelf.
Gena Lavallee: Proven play pattern, excellent design, ease of use.
Azhelle Wade: Love and built in audience. Okay. All right. Let me get you my closing questions to get you out of here do you have exciting things coming for 26?
Gena Lavallee: We do, we do. There, there, there's gonna be another swift item.
Azhelle Wade: Oh yay. Can't wait to see.
Gena Lavallee: I'll, I'll send you one when we have some production. But are you coming in New York Toy Fair?
Azhelle Wade: I think so. I
Gena Lavallee: All right. We'll come.
Azhelle Wade: I, I be, I sh I will. Yeah, I
Gena Lavallee: Okay. If you're coming by, I'll demo it for you.
Azhelle Wade: okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. And what are you hoping to achieve in 2026 with maybe with the new item
Gena Lavallee: in 2026, I would like to see expansion of swift clicks.
Azhelle Wade: Is this changing the way you look at your existing SKUs?
Gena Lavallee: I won't say we've been looking at it that way, but when we are seeing a successful item, we imagine, is this it for this item or is there an [00:30:00] evolution for it?
Azhelle Wade: Love. Ah, love that. Okay. What toy or game blew your mind as a kid?
Gena Lavallee: I was a, a doll girl. So I was first of all, I was, I was definitely the cabbage patch generation. I was also a very big Barbie girl. But one of my absolute favorite toys was the sit and spin from you sit on it. Yep. So you kinda sit, you put your legs crisscross applesauce.
Yeah, like with your legs around the center. And it was like a, a disc on the top and you turn it with your hands and it allows you to spin in a circle.
Azhelle Wade: you had a lot of energy to gig expel.
Gena Lavallee: Yes. Yeah. I, I was, I was the kid who had a unicycle and stilts and a, and a sit and spin. Did
Azhelle Wade: stop.
Gena Lavallee: But yeah, I was a, a unicycle kid is still, maybe my parents were just hoping that I would run away and join the circus.
I don't know.
Azhelle Wade: They're like, we should prepare her for her best career options, which apparently is the circus
Gena Lavallee: it's even super ironic about that is one of my friends from high school is the ringmaster of a circus. He actually used to be a barn and valley [00:31:00] ringmaster. Now he has his own circus. Yeah. So little plug for the Bernardo Circus. Yep. They
Azhelle Wade: circus. Jenna, thank you so much for sending me this product. I'm gonna keep making bracelets, see how many I can get before my next video, and then thank you for sharing all of this behind the scenes of how this came to life, how this became totally nominated for Creative Toy of the Year.
I sincerely, not just because you are a client of mine, but I sincerely hope take home this win and we're gonna do everything that we can to make that happen. I mean. I, again, have to say the thoughtfulness of this design. I so appreciate. I have moved offices. I have a smaller office than I did before, and every time I get a new product to review, after I take it outta the box, I end up with all these pieces.
And the first thing I think is like, where the heck am I gonna put this? And and the fact that now I, 'cause I was thinking that, I was like, where am I gonna put these?
Gena Lavallee: Yep.
Azhelle Wade: like, I guess I have to use all the beads here. And then. Refill it, but I'm gonna put
Gena Lavallee: You
Azhelle Wade: here. I mean like [00:32:00] thoughtful
Gena Lavallee: we will continue to innovate in this space and, and bring new bracelet, innovations, anything that we find tedious, we're gonna try and, and work something out to, to make it better, make it easier.
Azhelle Wade: Thank you so much, listener listening to this podcast. If you're a consumer and you wanna buy the Hess She bracelet maker, please check it out on at Walmart Target. You can get it on Amazon as well. Head over to make it real.com for links to where you can buy this product. If you're a retailer, you better vote. Thehy bracelet maker for a creative toy of the
Gena Lavallee: Or even if you can go people's choice. So anybody, anybody can vote in people's choice, absolutely
Azhelle Wade: every, yeah. So if you're a
Gena Lavallee: ask.
Azhelle Wade: yes consumers, you can vote on People's Choice Award. The link is toy awards.org. We'll put it in the description where you're watching this episode. And if you are a toy industry influencer, you may count as media.
So reach out to the Toy Association and ask, and you can get your link to vote. Toy people. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there, so it [00:33:00] truly means the world to me that you tune into this one.
Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
Thanks for listening to Making It in The Toy Industry Podcast with Wade. Head over to the to coach com for more information, tips, and advice.
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