In short
- Pudgy Penguin’s method to shopper packaged items is altering.
- A veteran of the toy trade is behind the NFT undertaking’s shift.
- He desires to strike strategic offers with big-box shops.
If the Pudgy Penguins model was an island like Hawaii, then it could be towards the start of a years-long section, the place molten lava erupting from the ocean’s flooring has began cooling and forming newly liveable land.
That’s in keeping with Steve Starobinsky, no less than. With many years of expertise within the toy-making world, Starobinsky was tasked in March with refining Pudgy’s method to shopper packaged items. However he acknowledged in a latest interview with Decrypt that Honolulu’s iconic seashores didn’t type in a single day.
As Pudgy’s director of enterprise growth and partnerships, Starobinsky mentioned his latest position requires a comparatively methodic method to the reactionary sprints that many crypto-native tasks embark on, particularly when coping with big-box shops.
For instance, he mentioned the acquisition orders that may put items in entrance of customers in the course of the subsequent vacation season have already been signed, following a Los Angeles-based occasion that takes place yearly in September for producers and retailers.
“They noticed the containers, they noticed the licenses, they noticed the piece counts,” Starobinsky mentioned. “However if you happen to miss that September cycle, you’ve gotten missed [the following year’s] Christmas.”
Pudgy Penguins has managed to determine itself as a pacesetter within the once-hyped NFT house for the reason that undertaking was acquired by CEO Luca Netz in 2022. However as the corporate searches for {dollars} past the cryptosphere, it’s inserting extra energy in Starobinsky’s toy-making palms—and betting on his potential to navigate an trade that’s international to most of his friends.
The corporate’s push with shopper packaged items at the moment includes collaborations with identify manufacturers like Bearbrick, PEZ, and guide writer Penguin Random Home, however Starobinsky mentioned the corporate’s guess will seem greater subsequent 12 months.
“Most of my efforts will showcase themselves in 2026,” he mentioned. “Now we have plenty of bodily merchandise that’s accessible for this Christmas, but it surely’s nowhere the place I believe we might be, contemplating the quantity of eyeballs that we seize.”
As of December, Pudgy Penguins’ namesake NFT assortment was the third most-valuable total, with a market capitalization of round 47,000 ETH, price $159 million, in keeping with NFT Value Ground. It has additionally launched two different collections price greater than $50 million mixed.
Along with that, Pudgy launched a token on Solana final 12 months known as Pengu. The token was just lately valued round $818 million, in keeping with CoinGecko. The corporate has additionally launched a blockchain-based cellular recreation in tandem with Legendary Video games.
That’s a far totally different world than plushies and keychains.
Starobinsky described himself as “a child at coronary heart,” with expertise on groups that crafted items for manufacturers like Paw Patrol and Minecraft. He mentioned he additionally labored on the workforce that launched PopSockets, the collapsible cellphone equipment that are available in numerous colours.
In that sense, he mentioned he’s aware of how Pudgy’s playful, hand-drawn look can resonate with youthful generations and adults alike. Accordingly, the youngsters’s guide launched this 12 months is focused at readers aged 4 via eight.
“Playful manufacturers are dominating popular culture,” he mentioned. “I’ve been very lucky to work on plenty of mental property proper at that second the place it goes from area of interest to mass.”
GM early flight ✈️Chicago, put on your model at present and daily. pic.twitter.com/WJdKcqe0sM
— Steve Starobinsky (@PudgyPartners) November 5, 2025
Winter is coming
Then once more, Starobinsky and Netz, whose actual identify is Luca Schnetzler, have been pals for years. The 2 labored alongside one another at an organization known as Gel Blaster, the place Netz served as chief advertising officer. Satorbinsky labored as the corporate’s head of gross sales.
“We created a brand new class, one thing between Nerf weapons and paintball,” he mentioned. “The most popular factor on the web—Luca was an enormous a part of that, driving that narrative.”
Starobinsky’s work hinges on Pudgy’s potential to make inroads with the bodily world, however at this level, the corporate is not any stranger to procuring carts throughout the nation.
Pudgy Penguins started promoting toys in 2023, and its merchandise have been accessible in a number of shops, together with Walmart, Goal, and Walgreens. As of final October, the corporate mentioned that it had generated greater than $13 million in whole gross sales throughout over 1 million items.
This 12 months, Starobinsky mentioned “a correct refresh of recent items at retail” wasn’t achievable, chalking it as much as the corporate’s lack of expertise concerning bodily items.
Trying to 2026, a Pudgy spokesperson instructed Decrypt that the agency is aiming for over $20 million in retail gross sales between licensed and self-sourced merchandise. They added that Starobinsky at the moment oversees six individuals, who work in enterprise growth, occasions, and public relations.
Starobinsky has been impressed by Pudgy’s foray into bodily items, however he mentioned the corporate can do extra to compete with established names. That includes spending cash on advertising and promoting at a time when rivals often wouldn’t, he defined.
Starobinsky mentioned that producers usually assist retailers promote their toys in the course of the last months of the 12 months, however that dedication typically ends on Dec. 26, as shops markdown prices to inspire customers and make room for recent stock. From his perspective, that creates a 45-day “lifeless zone” that Pudgy can capitalize on as a winter-themed model.
Starobinsky mentioned that putting offers with retailers, with the prospect of larger promoting commitments, might help it bridge the hole between the New 12 months and Valentine’s Day. Transferring ahead, he mentioned one of many Pudgy’s’s largest targets is to “personal winter.”
For instance, Pudgy may go to a retailer, decide to operating an additional month-and-a-half of promoting, and consequently, shops won’t should “take a value discount,” Starobinsky mentioned. He floated the prospect of larger bonuses at retailers for workers that enhance margins.
“We thematically make sense to be advertising in the course of the time when others would really feel like a value play,” he mentioned. “That could be a deep strategic benefit for our model.”
Within the final two months of 2023, passion, toy and recreation shops generated 26.2% % of their annual gross sales, in comparison with 18% throughout all classes, in keeping with Statista. But it surely’s not about avoiding the vacation season, Starobinsky mentioned—it’s about extending it.
“Everytime you’re constructing go-to-market methods, it’s rather a lot higher while you don’t should ram up in opposition to some competitors,” he mentioned. “Whenever you're really attacking white house, you’ve gotten way more probability of success.”
Permitting firms to plan promotions round Pudgy’s merchandise is essential, he added, as the corporate devises its personal campaigns that stack on prime of one another. Nonetheless, Starobinsky underscored that post-New 12 months’s and Valentine’s Day will keep as priorities.
“The way in which to win at retail—how one can go from good to nice—is to win promotional house,” he mentioned. “Thats the way you go from tens of millions of {dollars} to lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} in retail gross sales.”
