As many of you know. We grew Furry Feline Creatives without any loans, seed money or capital. We were funding the business with Alvin's full time job, paying our mortgage, raising our family and living in Los Angeles one of the most expensive places to live and do business. After 2 years at Small press, SDCC invited us to join the big boys on the main floor and they put us right beside tokidoki. Simone Legno is one of those guys who we look up to. Created great relationships with their staff to this day. His brand story reminded us how important finding the right partners were. He chose the word Tokidoki as "Everyone waits for moments that change one's destiny, by chance or by meeting a new person". His special moment came when he met Pooneh Mohajer. They serve as inspiration to us to this day.
From 2001 to 2006 would be considered the golden era of brands starting making their mark. Uglydoll, Tokidoki, Funko among others.
Then there are also brands that have come and go. SoSo Happy, Skelanimals etc. We have been approach by different partnerships since the very beginning but you need to decide to do what is right for you. So if you are an artist that is just starting now, you may ask, am I too late? The answer is a big NO. We started in 2012 when most of our peers already have a 6 year long headstart with backgrounds working in the industry. Things come and go and it is up to you how far you will take it WITH OR WITHOUT SUPPORT.
Our take was we will make these toys until we can't make them anymore. We doubled again our production as we now have to fill up the entire booth as we faced a lot of competition around us. We are now surrounded by booths that sell pop culture products and big brands that every one knows. We were just a row away from Funko, selling less than $15 a POP with all of the pop culture licenses. How do you compete with that? Well, you don't.
You make best version of yourself and stick with it. 🙂
SDCC Exclusives released were the set of Kawaii Kaiju Friends.