'Sticki Rolls' has device-loving kids mesmerized. Plot twist: there's no tech in it
With a name that can fool you into thinking it’s a new type of candy, “Sticki Rolls” has caused a stir in the toy industry and a frenzy among today’s tech-loving kids since it debuted last fall and — what else — went viral.
Plot twist: It’s not a confectionery and there’s absolutely no tech in it.
Sticki Rolls is the most basic type of play that mixes simple crafting with old-school fun. The “toy” is basically a plastic bead bracelet filled with detachable, sharable and reusable tiny holographic stickers.
In just a few months after the wearable sticker bracelets launched on Amazon in August, 2024, Seattle, Washington-based Sky Castle Toys (the company behind it) has already sold 400 million stickers and the brand’s YouTube channel boasts more than 600,000 subscribers.
“It was definitely a hot product last year when it came out and it’s hot this year as well,” Chris Byrne, an independent toy industry analyst and consultant, said in an interview with Bagable.com.
The future looks even more promising, Josh Loerzel, co-founder of Sky Castle Toys, said in an interview with Bagable.com, as toymakers from big to small, including Mattel, Hasbro, Lego, Spin Master and Sky Castle Toys gathered in New York this week for Toy Fair, one of the industry’s largest trade shows.
Loerzel expects to sell over 1 billion Sticki Rolls stickers this year.
Gadget-obsessed kids are mesmerized with the wearble sticker bracelet because it’s cleverly hitting on a combination of hot trends, Byrne said.
First, it’s an innovative take on friendship bracelets, which were wildly popular even before Taylor Swift took them to another level as Swifties flung their handcrafted bracelets to each other at every one of Swift’s “The Eras Tour” concerts that kicked off in March 2023 and wrapped up at the end of last year.
Second, stickers are having a moment, especially among GenZers use them for self expression and an easy and fun way to personalize everything from water bottles to cellphones, laptops, binders, even their bedroom doors and mini fridges.
“Everybody has stickers, but the stickers you have are unique to you and your choices,” said Byrne. “You are part of the macro trend but you also have an individual voice within it. It’s like what happened with the iPhone, in a larger way. We all have iPhones, but my iPhone doesn’t look like yours because I can customize it to be uniquely me.”
Lastly, kids love to collect things. Loerzel said Sticki Rolls’ Kawaii-themed (Kawaii is a Japanese concept meaning adorable or cute) stickers are designed to be collected.
“One other thing, Sticki Rolls is very reasonably priced, which means kids can be involved in one of the hottest trends out there for not a lot of money,” Byrne said.
The Sticki Rolls products include Sticki Rolls Bands (ages 5 and up; $10 each). These are bead bracelets that contain five rolls of stickers. Each roll has 10 stickers. Once a roll is finished, kids can replace it with a new sticker roll. Each set comes with two additional mystery sticker rolls.
The Sticki Station ($25 each) is a DIY pack that comes with 32 Sticki Rolls to build custom bracelets and necklaces and the Sticki Book ($15) is a 50-page activity book where kids can collect and keep their stickers.
It was time for a new bracelet craze
Sticki Rolls is the first big hit for Sky Castle Toys, which Loerzel cofounded with his friend Lev Nelson in 2020.
“The idea was brought to us by a well-known inventor in 2023. He had pitched it around to various companies and they had passed on it.” said Loerzel. “We were excited when we saw it. There hadn’t been a big bracelet craze in the toy industry for about 10 years and we thought the market was ready for a new one.”
He sees many dimensions to the toy, even calling it an art platform. For Kawaii fans, Sticki Rolls is a way for them to create their own art library of Kawaii images, he said.
In total, the brand has created thousands of Kawaii designs to collect as part of its Sticki Roll stickers catalog.
This year, Sticki rolls is expanding into major retailers, including Walmart and Target. It’s already available in Five Below and Claire’s stores.
New Sticki Rolls concepts are already in the pipeline for 2025. One idea takes the mini holographic stickers and gives them a full-sized makeover.
They’re called “Jumbo Stickies,” or larger-than-life Sticki Rolls stickers ($5 for a single mega sticker; $10 for a three-pack), coming out in April. Kids and older fans can stick them on walls, mirrors or any other smooth surface.
“They’re great because they don’t leave a sticky residue behind when you peel them off,” Loerzel said.
Sticki Rolluxe (coming out in the Fall; $50) is another new addition to the brand. It is a kit in the shape of a Sticki Rolls bead that contains a jewelry-making kit for bracelets and necklaces, a couple of Jumbo Stickies, hundreds of mini stickers and more.
Loerzel is excited about Sticki Rolls’ early success, but one aspect of the brand is now an immediate concern.
“Sticki Rolls products are made in China,” he said. China is a major hub for toy production and exports. Most toys sold in the US are still made in China, even as leading toymakers such as Mattel and Hasbro have shifted some production away from China to other countries to offset rising manufacturing costs there.
On Feb. 1, President Donald Trump announced 10% tariffs on US imports from China. This week, he doubled the tariff on imports from China to 20%.
“Certainly the 10% tariffs are challenging, but that’s a number we can maneuver with. If it went up higher, 15% or 20%, we get into an area where we will have to raise prices on our products,” Loerzel said.