Toy giant meets T-shirt crack and you have Labubu for your body

Pop Mart X Uniqlo The Monsters tees. Product photos: Uniqlo

For many fans, the Labubu plushies are ‘wearable’ since they appear not only dangling from handles of bags, but also from belt loops of pants. As the craze for the doll turned into a global frenzy, the demand for Labubu-related merchandise has similarly sky-rocketed. Since the plushies became ubiquitous, enterprising retailers started selling non-official merchandise faster than you could say Labubu. Among the first fashion items to be sold were T-shirts. Search for “Labubu T-shirts” on Taobao or Lazada, and you get countless listings of T-shirts featuring the elves, some covering the entire front of the garment. Now, however, fans get to buy legitimate Labubu T-shirts, thanks to the collaboration between Toy Mart and Uniqlo’s UT.

The Chinese and Japanese brands have just unveiled ‘The Monsters’ collection, featuring the Monsterland text and graphics. Available in four colours, they feature Labubu, of course, and other characters from the family of The Monsters. To be sure, this is not the first time Pop Mart has teamed up with Uniqlo. There was the original collab in 2022 (yes, Labubu has been around this long, Europe!) and more recent ones such as those featuring Molly last year and Skullpanda three months ago. That Pop Mart is eager to spread their characters into broader lifestyle and fashion categories is not the least surprising. It’s a testament to their characters’ strong visual identities and the power of viral trends and celebrity endorsement in bringing culture and fashion together. And, a masterclass in modern IP management.

Just last weekend, Labubu opened a jewelry store in Beijing that offered a new line of merchandise labelled Popop. A month earlier, the first Popop store opened in Shanghai, reportedly to frenzied response. Pop Mart’s strategy is an old one. Think Sanrio’s Hello Kitty or any of your favourite Disney characters. But Pop Mart’s endeavours have been fashion and art crossover from the onset. Unlike characters born from animated media or simplified mascots, Pop Mart’s IPs originated from the designer art toy world. A significant development that strengthened that positioning is the recent collaboration between Pop Mart, Pharrell Williams’s Joopiter platform, Japan’s Sacai, and the K-pop group Seventeen. It was an auction that featured Labubu figures dressed in bespoke Sacai jumpsuits. Labubu is distinguished by her clothes and while there are scores of fake Chanel and Gucci garments to buy online, this was the first time there was a high fashion hook-up. Labubu isn’t just a toy; it’s a collector’s item that deserves real designer threads.