Weighted stuffed animals and people’s loneliness
Surprisingly, one of the top Google autocomplete suggestions for weighted stuffed animals is “weighted stuffed animals for adults” which has even more search volume than “weighted stuffed animals for babies”.
Many of these adult customers say they buy because of loneliness. In fact, the percentage of people living alone, pre-pandemic, has grown 15x since the 1800s. And as of the pandemic, a study conducted by Harvard University found that 36% of American adults and 61% of young adults report feeling “serious loneliness.”
A growing market
Weighted stuffed animals’ popularity lagged behind that of weighted blankets by a few years. And while weighted blankets can be pricey, many consumers are able to DIY weighted stuffed animals; It’s a lot easier to unzip one and fill it with a weighted bean bag than to try and weight a blanket. This applies to manufacturers too: store-bought weighted stuffed animals can be much cheaper than their weighted blanket alternatives.