Why your Uncle Goose doesn’t want your toy ideas

Your Uncle Goose is receiving a lot of unsolicited toy ideas lately. We’d rather not get these emails.

We have plenty of our own ideas for toys, gifts, and decor. Ideas are cheap. We have dozens of ideas a day! We’re not going to pay anyone to use one of theirs.

But why the sudden influx of strangers who want us to manufacture their unsolicited, out-of-the-blue toy ideas? We can only surmise, but here goes:

Ideas are cheap: but execution isn't. And now, the pandemic has crushed many would-be inventors’ dreams of manufacturing cheap toys in China. In the past, these inventors might come up with a toy idea every other day. 

They’d farm out the idea to a Chinese company. For a small fee, the Chinese company would knock out a fast prototype. The inventor would take a photo of it, and slap it up on a website with a huge markup.

If any orders came in, the inventor could pay another small fee to drop ship each order. They’d be out very little money to produce each toy. If a toy was a hit, they could arrange for even cheaper mass production: then ramp up marketing efforts.

Further, the inventor would have no concerns about whether the toy was made by slave or child labor. The inventor wouldn’t care if their product was safe or sustainable. The inventor could sit at home and kick out any number of toy ideas to see if they would sell or not.

Access to low-cost Chinese prototyping, manufacture, and drop shipping is now off the table for many American inventors. So we suspect they are turning their attention to US-based companies like Uncle Goose.

However, your Uncle Goose isn’t a contract manufacturer. We don’t even do custom orders. We only design and make our own toys.

Your Uncle Goose has a higher standard for sustainability and safety than your average American company. We believe in paying skilled craftspeople and artisans a living wage.

Throughout the years, we’ve carefully cultivated and nurtured our labor, supply, warehouse, creative, and retail relationships. We’re not going to abuse any of the trust we’ve earned.

So if the pandemic has killed your dreams of cheap manufacture and distribution for your toy ideas, please don’t write to us. We’re not the partner you want.

We’d also appreciate it if you’d re-evaluate greed-based business choices. The pandemic provided many people with an opportunity to do just that. Won’t you join them?

Try giving thoughtfulness and care a try. Pay attention to safety and sustainability concerns. See how those approaches might work out for you.