All language subtitles for Unstuffed.2023.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

[piano playing]

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[Happy music playing]

[whimsical orchestral
music playing]

[♪]

[Peter Holmes] Hello.

[shimmering musical flourish]

That was weird.

Happens more than you think.

So, am I early or what?

No, Peter. You're right on time.

Yeah.

You know...

I haven't seen you around
since you were about... that
tall.

And you were always bringing
that teddy bear around with you.

What was his name?

Yeah, Marty. God, I-- I haven't
thought about him in years.

I-- I loved that bear.

You know,
you two were quite the pair.

Yeah. Thanks.

Enjoy the show!

Wow.

Got the whole theater to myself.
This is great.

[male voice]
What am I, chopped liver?

Great, now I'm hearing voices.

-[male voice] No, you're not.
-Whoa!

A talking teddy bear?

In a powder blue tuxedo?

[narrating bear]
Well, of course.
I have to dress nice.

This is my big break, you know.

-I'm in this picture.
-No way.

Oh, congratulations,
talking teddy bear.

-I really can't wait to see you.
-Shh! It's starting.

Sorry.

[film rolling]

[narrating bear] It was
a dark and stormy night.

-[thunder booming]
-Wait, that's not it. Oh!

A long time ago,
in a galaxy far, far away--

Oh, no, then, now,
that's not right, either.

Once upon a time-- No?
That's not right either?

Okay, here it is.
[clears throat]

Teddy bears!
Everyone loves them.

They bring comfort and joy
to millions of people
all over the world.

There is a place
where you can go

and you can make
your own teddy bear.

And it's not so much
that you make it.

You build it.

That's right. Build-A-Bear.

So, where did
Build-A-Bear come from?

And how has Build-A-Bear
managed to stay relevant

when so many toy stores
have fallen by the wayside?

Get ready to find out,

because this is the story
of Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Growing up,
it was always a big treat for me
to go to Build-A-Bear.

As a kid walking into there,
you think it's, like,
the coolest place on Earth.

Then still, as an adult,
I still think it's one of
the coolest places on Earth.

Kinda like
stuffed animal Disneyland.
[chuckles] It's so fun!

Well, they didn't have
Build-A-Bear
when I was a kid,

but the fact
that you can create your own
bears is next level.

There were a lot of decisions
to be made.

It wasn't just, like,
"I like that,"

it was this really cool thing
for the kids that they had never
had before.

None of us had ever
seen this before.

So here is my first impression
of Build-A-Bear.

I'm sorry,
you might not love this,
but I'm telling you anyway.

"Wow! This is genius.
They have taken the labor out of

putting the animal together,
and we're doing it for you."

I mean, your profit margin
just went... [whooshes]

-Brilliant!
-[Jeff Timmons] I mean,
you've seen different concepts

for kids that are
created for kids.

Experiences for kids
come and go,

but Build-A-Bear's
a way of life for a lot of us.

[Dubrow] For a parent,
I mean, amazing,

because it wasn't just
walking into a store

and buying something. You got,
like, an experience with it.

[Timmons]
I think there's something
very special and unique

about the process
of creating their own bear.

They have a hand in it,
they can customize it with the--

with the-- with the shoes,
to the hats, to the clothes.

Just the hearts!
Having a little heart

on the inside of the bears
is so cute.

It's your creation,
because you're building it
and not somebody else.

Watching your child be creative,
and the thought process,

and, you know,
all the neurons firing

and everything,
is really incredible.

But to watch them create
something with love is...
it's heartwarming.

[Shipman] You can do
whatever your imagination
wants.

You can choose a crazy bear,
or keep it simple.

Also, the environment
in Build-A-Bear is
always just so happy.

Everyone seems to be
having an awesome time.

As a kid, you're constantly
told, "Oh, behave,"

like, "Calm down."
Like, mute yourself.

But in a Build-A-Bear shop,
you're able to do whatever
your heart wants to do.

[narrating bear]
So, what is Build-A-Bear?

Everyone knows
what a Build-A-Bear is.

I mean, growing up,
everyone's passed by it
in the mall, or seen it.

There's not one person
who hasn't at least
heard of Build-A-Bear.

I had never heard of
Build-A-Bear, to be honest.

And then my son's wife said,

"Yes, I've known about
Build-A-Bear all my life."

I'm like, "How could she
know about Build-A-Bears
and I don't know about it?"

But I do now.

Better late than never.

Do you wanna hold my bear?

Would you like one? [laughing]

-Do you know
about Build-A-Bears?
-[crew member] Oh, yeah.

Huh. Well.

So, the whole world knows
about Build-A-Bear but me?

[♪]

[narrating bear] Now,
if you're watching this movie,

it is safe to assume you've
heard of Build-A-Bear before.

Or at least you have now.

But not so long ago,

there was no such thing
as Build-A-Bear Workshop.

It all came from this
teddy bear-sized woman,
Maxine Clark.

[♪]

Hi, I'm Maxine Clark.

I'm Maxine Clark,
and I am best known

as the founder
of Build-A-Bear Workshop.

My title, though,
when I was at Build-A-Bear,

was Chief Executive Bear,
but sometimes it was Momma Bear.

Sometimes Chief Executive Bear,
sometimes CEB.

Maxine, she is a force.

I don't even know
the words to describe Maxine,

because she, I think,
defies definition.

Uh, Maxine is a dynamo.

Back in that day, you know,
there wasn't the Internet,

and so I had to go to
the library to look her up

to see who she really was,
and I'm thinking,

"Oh, my. She's the President
of Payless ShoeSource."

-♪ Another openin' ♪
-♪ Another store ♪

♪ At Payless ShoeSource
We're building more ♪

Well, I had a great career
with the May Department Stores.
Over 20 years.

They asked me to be the
president of Payless ShoeSource,

which was kind of the dream
job.
I love the shoe business

because shoes are something
that I could always buy
and not have to alter.

So, I met her, and, of course,
I-- In my mind,
I had made her six feet tall.

She came around the corner, and,
of course, she's four foot ten,
and I'm looking down at her.

[Krueger]
I think she was really set on
accomplishing things in life.

To be able to start Build-A-Bear
and make it into the, you know,

iconic brand that it is today

just kinda speaks to
how she just goes after things.

She is a trailblazer,
she is a glass ceiling-breaker.

As a woman, I admire her
and look up to her so much

because I know
how much she's accomplished,

and I think that
she's just so inspiring.

And her footprints
are all over St. Louis,

and, really,
they're all over the world

because there are millions
upon millions of teddy bears

out in this world that
wouldn't be there without her.

I love documentaries,

so I'm always sort of fascinated
to see how things came about.

Me too, AC Slater. Me too.

[Lopez] And I know Build-A-Bear
was, like, a phenomenon,

so I'm-- I'm curious
to hear the backstory.

[narrating bear]
The year was 1997.

[tape crackling]

So during the height
of the Beanie Baby craze,

Maxine had picked my brother
and me up from school,

and we went to
the toy store after school.

We went looking
for Beanie Babies,

if you remember,
when those were very popular.

-Yeah, I remember.
-It's estimated that

close to ten million people
collect Beanie Babies.

For many of us Beanie Kids,
we just love them 'cause
they're so cute and cuddly.

I wasn't really
into Beanie Babies.

Maybe I had ten, and I think
other kids had a thousand.

For others, collecting
Beanies is an obsession.

Ha!
Like you Beanie Moms out there.

We walked in the store, and
they had a big sign that said,

"We have Beanie Babies,"
but they didn't.

I was looking for
Rover the Red Dog,

and the toy store didn't have
that Beanie Baby in stock.

Because during the day,
parents trolled the stores

and they took
all the fun out of it, the fun
of discovery.

And so we walked into the store,
and they didn't have
what they said on the sign,

and Katie just looked at
one of 'em that was on display
that was kind of ragged,

-and she said, "You know..."
-"Maxine, these are so easy,
we could make them."

Well, she meant go home and
make a bear in our craft room.

But Maxine said
that light bulb moment of,

"You know, we can make these,"
was actually...

-[ding]
-...that was the moment
of inspiration

for Build-A-Bear Workshop.

We went back to the house.
She and Jack, her brother,

went downstairs,
get out all the stuff.

And she came up, and I was
on the computer, Netscaping.

It was quite slow,
as you recall.

Could I find a business
that I could buy

that I could turn
into this idea?

That when she said,
"We could make these,"

I thought of a store
where we could make these.

When she came upstairs,
she said, "What are you doing?"

And I said,
"I'm looking to see if I--"

She went, "Well,
that's not what I meant."

I said, "I know that's not
what you meant, but I think

it's a really good idea.
I'm gonna start looking at it."

And I did do some research, and
I did find a couple of factories

that were available for sale,
or I thought they would be.

But they thought I was crazy.

They had a price on it
that was way too high.

I told Katie,
and I wasn't able to buy the one

that I thought we could
really make into this,

and she said,
"Well, why don't we do it?"

Now, I'm not sure she
remembers it exactly that way,
but that's what I heard.

[chuckles] Okay.

What I saw is
Maxine had an idea,

and then found the right people
and brought it to life.

It just seemed
almost seamless to me.

I went right to work
on that project.

That was probably
February of 1997,

and by October of 1997,

we had opened up our first store
at the St. Louis Galleria.

♪ Build a bear
At the Build-A-Bear Workshop ♪

♪ Where there's a bear
For everyone ♪

Welcome to the
Build-A-Bear Workshop!

-Have you ever been into a store
where you can make best friends?
-[child] Uh huh.

♪ We're gonna have some fun ♪

No matter what,
at any cost, we--

You know, we were gonna
succeed in, you know,

convincing people this was
the concept to believe in.

Have you met Maxine?

She's very convincing,
and, you know,

once you meet her
and you fall in love with her,

you're not gonna-- you're not
gonna let anything fail.

[♪]

Welcome to Build-A-Bear!

It-- it's unbelievable feeling
to be standing here with you

and talking to you about-- about
the story of Build-A-Bear,

because when we started,
there were lots of people that
didn't think it would make it.

But not children. [chuckles]

All the kids that I asked knew
that it was gonna be successful.

[narrating bear]
Kids aren't the only ones
who love teddy bears.

Some grown-ups do too.

Meet the McCarthy twins!

I am Maribeth McCarthy.

Hi, I'm Ellen McCarthy.

[both]
And we're identical twins!

And this is Colby.

[both chuckle]

-Colby is...
-Our life companion.

-Basically.
-Life companion, yes.

He has been with us
for so many years.

He's essentially
an extension of us, really.

Especially of our
personality, yeah.

Because I voice Colby, which
I think freaks some people out.

People are like,
"Oh, are you hungry?"

"No!" "Why not?"
"'Cause I'm stuffed!"

-[chuckles] So...
-Somehow it never gets old.

And he was talking from
the second he was in that
nice little cardboard box

-that they give you to take--
-I love that box.

It's like a little house!
I'm like, "Yeah, let's go home."

And it was just--
You know that scene in
Willy Wonkathat I can't sing

because of copyright?
But you walk in and it's just--

-[beep]
-[electronic voice] I'm sorry,
the song "Pure Imagination"

fromWilly Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory is
not currently available.

You look at everything, and
it's literally pure imagination.

That was like us
during Minnesota.

We went to the Minnesota one
in the Mall of America.

-Oh, my goodness.
-And we were just like...

-"Oh, my God."
-"This is magical.
What is this?"

-Once you know us, you're--
-[Ellen] Once you know us,
you're...

-[both] Very used to it.
-Yeah.

But if you're just meeting us,
you're like,
"Oh! There's a bear!"

Mm-hmm. And it's, "Hogs!
What time's your bus comin'?"

And he travels on planes
with me a lot.

I always have that brief, like,
12 seconds of panic attack

when you have to put him
through the belt in the airport.

-I hate that part.
-And I'm there just like,

"Do the wand, do the wand!
Get me through!"

[laughs] But you can't yell,
"My kid's in there,"

because they'll be like,
"What?" So... [laughs]

[both] How many times
have we been to Build-A-Bear?

-We have lost count.
-Yes. We've gone enough
that they know us by name.

Whenever we're dressed in
our princess outfits,
we go and we take pictures

-for them and everything, and--
-The conventions
are a lot of fun

because we get to dress in kind
of, like, how we're dressed.

[♪]

The joy of him is that
he finds joy in everything.

-Mm-hmm.
-And so I wrote this first one,

which is
Colby and the First Day Ever.

And it's about how he and I meet
and become a family.

[in Colby's voice]
"Some people ask about
where you come from.

Like, are you from a big place,
or a small place?

I do not know where I came from.

All I remember is being asleep,
and then I woke up."

And then it's just about
how we met and became a family,

and he just opened his eyes
and there I was.

My hair is amazing in this book.

Went through 17 colored pencils.
It was great.

[narrating bear] It's so weird.
Before they started
this company,

I have no memory of anything.
I can't figure it out.

You tell me if I'm, you know,
fidgeting or whatever.

You have just-- You'll... look.

[crew member]

[Krueger] Well,
Build-A-Bear had a reputation

in St. Louis of being,
you know, the hot company.

And so I was actually diagnosed
with cancer, and, um, was--

Got through all the treatments
and everything,
and needed to find a job.

So, I had a friend that was
working with Build-A-Bear,

and she took my résumé
to Maxine.

Maxine said, "I think you
might be a good fit here."

I said, "Okay, I just
have to be honest with you.

I just finished cancer
treatment, like, a year ago,
and odds are that,

you know, I'll be able to
give you at least
a couple of good years."

And she's like, "Okay, um,
thanks for telling me that.

Um, I think you'd be good
for the role. If you want
the job, it's yours."

No tests, no assessments,
and I got the offer,
like, the next day.

[Klocke] It was-- it was
difficult in the very
beginning,

because a lot of people, um,
no, you know, disrespect.

A lot of men didn't believe
we could do it,

and so, you know,
they didn't understand

how you could have
an interactive retail concept.
What was that?

In fact, we couldn't even
lease our own space.

We subleased
from Maxine's husband

because the landlord
wouldn't rent to us.

I mean,
banks wouldn't lend to us

because we were female-led
and weren't proven yet,

even though Maxine had
a great repertoire of business
knowledge, you know?

Maybe you could call us
trailblazers. I don't know.

I mean, we just did
what we needed to do.

We-- we basically were
on path to reinvent retail.

If you think about
what Build-A-Bear is,

it's a very specific product.

You know, how many bears
do you need a year, right?

So, in a very real sense,

they need a place where
there's lots of traffic.

It's not like the supermarket,
where you go every single week
to restock the fridge.

This is something you do
on special occasions, right?

And you need a place
where a lot of people go

a lot of the time to have
the kind of exposure to make
that business model work.

[narrating bear] In the mid
'90s, that place was the mall!

The mall was
the center of commerce.
It was the center of retail.

That's where you went.

I love the smell of commerce
in the morning!

You know,
you couldn't buy stuff offline

and have it hand-delivered
to your house.

You know, you literally had
to go and drive to the mall

and pick up, you know,
whatever item you want.

Shopping malls were
the hub for young kids.

-We're going shopping.
-I'd like to welcome you
to our mall.

All the action's on
the other side of the mall.

[grand orchestral music playing]

♪ At the mall, havin' fun ♪

[announcer] It's Mall Madness!
It's the mall with it all!

Yeah, you know, shopping malls
have changed so much,

but I remember when
my kids were little, and...

you needed things to do, right?

Or-- You went to the mall.

In my small town, we really
didn't have much to do
other than go to the mall,

so the mall was, like,
a big treat and a big outing.

And in our mall,

the only "fun store" that
they had was a Build-A-Bear.

Auntie Anne's was here.
There was a fountain over here.

We brought a lot of pennies with
us, we made a lot of wishes,

we got pretzels,
and we went to Build-A-Bear.

[Clark] Here we are
at the St. Louis Galleria,

the home of the first
Build-A-Bear Workshop store
back in 1997.

It's a great mall, and we picked
it because it was a great mall.

But also because this location,

right here in the center court
of St. Louis,

is really hard to come by
at any good mall,

but let alone the best one
in St. Louis.

And the other great thing
about this particular space

is that this is
where Santa Claus comes,

the Easter Bunny,
all kinds of Girl Scout events,

so everybody gathers
at this central location

right in front of
the Build-A-Bear store.

You can't ask for
anything better than that.

[upbeat pop music playing]

[♪]

[narrating bear] Wait, I think
I skipped ahead. Can we--

-Let's go back to the part
about teddy bears.
-[rewinding]

[announcer] Teddy bears have
a unique and special place
in our lives.

They're warm,
friendly, and caring,

and they're there for you,
always.

Hi, my name is Lucy Minassian.

I am a licensed
clinical social worker

with over 20 years
of experience,

uh, working
with children and families.

Teddy bears come up in
my line of work all the time.

Teddy bears help kids feel safe

because it's a sense of security
and a grounding force for them.

If they're angry or upset,
they grab the fuzzy animal
and they hold it.

It reminds them of
safety and security.

Children use stuffed animals
as a form of expression.

They talk to it,
they-- they care for it.

It becomes like
an extension of the child.

And what children often
tell me is if they're
going through a tough time,

they grab that one teddy bear,
that one thing that they have
a connection with.

Especially-- And, you know,
families that are
maybe not functioning as well,

the bear becomes
a secret keeper.

It becomes the one thing
that's stable and safe,

despite whatever's happening
in their life.

And that teddy bear
is never gonna disappoint them.

Because how can it?
It's an extension of their
imagination and their love.

I think kids love teddy bears
so much because our imagination

when we're younger
is just so much more vivid.

When you're a kid, you're like,
"Oh, this is like a real bear."

I wonder why the stuffed animal,
the bear...

-[bear growls]
-...why it became a bear.

Why not a puppy?

A bear's, like,
a big, scary thing.

[narrating bear] Bears
can be pretty intimidating.

If I saw a real bear
in the woods, I would run.

[laughs] I would run
as fast as I can.

[narrating bear]
So how did we get from this...

[bear snarling]

-[woman screaming]
-...to this? Aww!

We invited some friends to tell
us the story of the teddy bear.

But they wanted
to build a bear first.

[employee]
What brings us in today, guys?

[Maron Roosevelt]
To build a bear, I guess!

[employee] Well,
you've come to the right place!

[Kermit Roosevelt III]
All right, we can make it here?

-Of course.
-What do we do?

-Is that one we decided on?
-[Maron] Yes.

-[Kermit] I think so.
-[employee] Awesome.

Honestly, I don't know what
I was expecting,

but it was definitely not
how, like-- like,
took a tube and fuzz.

High-power, pressurized fuzz
into the hole in the bear.

[employee] Go for it, my friend.

-[machine whirring]
-Whee! Oh, that is...

[whirring continues]

[employee] Pretty cool, huh?

-Yeah.
-Did not expect that.

Do a ritual?

[employee]
Rub it in your hands,
make it nice and warm.

You're gonna shake
that heart up high

-and say, "Wake up, heart!"
-Wake up, heart!

I did not expect that!

[employee] Yeah, go ahead
and put that right inside.

Wow! [laughs]

[Kermit]

[Maron] Ah! So,
maybe we could call him...

[drumroll]

...I mean,
this is the classic teddy bear,

so maybe kind of, like,
a classic name, like...

[drumroll continues]

-Teddy. [laughs]
-[trumpet solo playing]

That's not very creative,
but whatever.

[narrating bear] Oh,
I think this is the part

where they tell us
the history of teddy bears.

Can't you just
go on Ancestry.com?

-Ha-ha, very funny.
-[Peter chuckles]

Don't you mean "bear-y" funny?
I'll show myself out.

Shh!

Sorry. [scoffs]

Everyone's a critic, right?
[chuckles]

[narrating bear] It stinks!

[militaristic music playing]

[narrating bear]
Who is this guy? I thought
I was telling the story.

-Hi. I'm Kermit Roosevelt III.
-[narrating bear] Who?

And I'm the great-great-grandson
of Teddy Roosevelt.

[narrating bear] Oh. Okay.

So, it's 1902,

and Theodore Roosevelt
is in Mississippi,

and
he's hunting black bear.

So, obviously when the
President of the United States
comes to your state,

you want to
show him a good time.

So they've set up
a hunting party for him.

They've got a guide for him
who's a very famous hunter,

a formerly enslaved person
named Holt Collier,

who's killed
over 1,000 bears, apparently.

And they send this party out
into the swamps of Mississippi.

Holt Collier's there
to make sure that

Theodore Roosevelt gets a bear,
and also to keep him safe,

because you don't want the
President of the United States
to be killed by a bear.

So, there they are.

They're traipsing through
the woods and the swamps,

and it's just not
going very well,

particularly for
Theodore Roosevelt.

TR is just having no luck.

Holt Collier was tracking
a bear with his dogs,

and followed it into this
very dense stand of swamp trees,

and realized this would be
too dangerous for the President.

So he says,
"Mr. President, you wait.

I'm gonna go in with the dogs,
I'm gonna flush the bear out."

So Holt Collier
and the dogs go in.

He finds the bear.

It attacks his dogs.
There's a fight.

He ends up clubbing it
unconscious with his rifle.

And then he basically
drags the bear out
and ties it to a tree,

so he blows the bugle to
summon Theodore Roosevelt,

and the hunting party gathers
around, and everyone is saying,
"Shoot the bear."

And Theodore Roosevelt
had nothing against
shooting animals,

but he did have a sense
of fair play and sportsmanship,

and he wasn't about to shoot
a bear that someone else had
tied to a tree for him.

So, he said,
"No, I'm not gonna do it."

And there were, of course,
reporters on this hunting trip,

and this really captivated them.

So there's
a political cartoonist
named Clifford Berryman

who, in 1902, draws a cartoon.

He titles it "Drawing The Line
In Mississippi."

It's got Theodore Roosevelt
standing there with the bear
in the background

being held by a guide,
and Theodore Roosevelt
is refusing to shoot it.

Word gets around, and there's
a convenience store owner in
Brooklyn,

a guy named Morris,

who sells candy
and novelty and toys,

but his wife has also been
making some stuffed bears,

and he's got a couple
lying around the store,

and he thinks "Hey,
I'll put these in my window,

take advantage of the news. I'm
gonna call them Teddy's bears."

And he thought he should
actually get approval from
the President to do this

since he was using TR's name,

although TR, interestingly,
hated being called Teddy.

Morris writes him a letter,
sends him one of the bears,

which TR gives to his son,
Kermit--

that's my
great-great-grandfather--

and says, "Would it be okay

if I marketed these
as Teddy's bears?"

Theodore Roosevelt writes back
and says, "Sure, you can do it.

I don't think
it's gonna go anywhere."

You know, "Good luck with that."

And of course, it takes off.

You know, the rest is history.

There had been
stuffed bears before,

and children would play
with the stuffed bears,
but they were fearsome.

And the teddy bear is
the first sort of childlike,

almost baby-like representation
of a bear.

This is where
Winnie the Pooh comes from.

This is where
Paddington Bear comes from.

There's sort of a bear mania
that sweeps the nation.

And then... you have your bear.

[employee] Enjoy yourselves!

-Thank you.
-[employee] Have some fun!

-[Maron] We will!
-All right, clothing.

I'm named after Teddy Roosevelt?
Oh, please! He's named after me.

-Uh, we have always
loved teddy bears.
-Yeah.

And so they've just always
been a part of our lives.

-I think with you, it was Hook.
-When Hookcame out

and I was ten and I fell
absolutely in love with it,

and he had a teddy bear.

A happy thought...

I got it. I got it! I found it!

And it was Taddy, and I've
looked for that bear so much.

Teddy bears just
have this thing--

Like, Taddy and Hook,

that connected Peter
to his childhood.

That teddy bear reminded him
of who he was,

and it brought him back
to be Peter Pan. It's--

Teddy bears bring you
back to your childhood.

-Yeah.
-And they bring you back to when
you could believe in anything,

-and you could be anything.
-It's like, "Hey, you know,
these are all the good things,"

and this is kind of
symbolic of that.

-Yeah.
-This-- this is the love.
It's wrapped up in a bear.

My philosophy is
that Elvis Presley

actually made the teddy bear
into a love object

when he sang
"I Wanna Be Your Teddy Bear."

So I think that
in all this time,

at least since the '50s when
he sang that wonderful song,

the teddy bear's become
a sign of love and compassion.

And I don't think
that's ever gonna go away.

[crowd cheering]

[Elvis bear] Thank you.
Thank you "bear-y" much.

[♪]

Who labels a box "Very Important
Historical Documents"?

I one time went to Disneyland
and I saw how Walt Disney

saved everything,
so I did the same.

Touché, madam.

Oh, this box
has so many memories.

Oh, wow,
here's our Racecar Bear.

This was our Ski Bear,
which was really, really cute.

Here was a fairy princess dress,
of course.

You have to have
a fairy princess dress.

This is one of our first dresses
that we had.

We had a tennis outfit,
which is really cute.
This didn't sell so well.

Most little kids that
made a bear didn't play tennis.

That was not one of
our better sellers-- Wow.

This is a precious picture.

Maybe we should
do something with this.

Like, there's the original
drawing of Build-A-Bear,

and then here is the photograph
of the store after it opened

and how exact the design was,

and how we were able
to really bring it to life.

This is a bunch of
really good stuff in here!

The Bear Promise.

"My bear is special.
I brought it to life.

I chose it, I named it,
now I'm taking it home.

Best friends are forever,
and I promise right now

to make my bear
my number one pal."

We had every child
say that to us,

that they were gonna
take care of their bear.

The people that helped us
with this were
amazingly talented.

They did all kinds of displays
for all kinds of theme parks.

The stuffing machine that
we used, well, they wanted
to invent a new one,

but it was really hard
to do that in nine months.

This is a much more modified
stuffing station.

The original one
that we bought was a machine
that stuffed upholstery.

That's what was available.

So this is a very important part
of the process here,

because this is where you can
stuff it as much as you want,
and the pedal is there for that.

The wishes that you
put in your bear,

the engagement
with our store associates.

This is a really personal,
one-on-one experience.

The heart's the most important.

Yeah, the heart!

My very close friend
Sarah Russell was an artist,

and I brought over
my tote of bears.

And she was taking 'em out
and she was hugging them,

and she said, "Maxine,
these bears need a heart."

And I said, "What do you mean?"
And she took out a pencil

and she sketched
this little heart.

And I said,
"That is a fantastic idea,"

and I sent it over
to our factory.

They made thousands of hearts
and shipped them to us,

and by the time we opened
our store, we had the hearts,

and we had them
in a heart-shaped box.

But it was one of
our associates, Jeff Marx,

who was a teacher and worked
part-time for Build-A-Bear,

that really put the heart
in Build-A-Bear Workshop.

My name's Jeff Marx.

Um, I started with
Build-A-Bear in 1997.

Guests would go over
to the heart bucket,

pull a heart
out of the heart bin,

and then they would
put it inside the bear.

And I was on
the stuffing machine one day,
and I remember thinking,

"This seems to be
such a critical moment."

I remember thinking, "There's
more we could do with this."

A couple of days later,

a little bitty boy
came in the workshop.

And he was about four years old,
I would guess.

And he was a little bit
intimidated by
this flat teddy bear.

He wouldn't touch the bear.
He didn't wanna hand it to me.
Mom held it.

And I thought,
"What can I do to get him
to connect with this bear more?"

And that's when
the idea came in my mind of,

"Maybe if I have him
warm up the heart that's gonna
go in there, and kiss it,

maybe he'll be comfortable
with that,

and then that'll connect him
to the teddy bear."

And then I said, "Let's put your
hands together around the heart

and make a wish
for your teddy bear,"
and he made a wish on the heart.

And then as soon as I asked him
to put it inside the teddy bear,

I could see that his face lit up
and he connected with this bear.

And that's when I knew this is
something I needed to do again.

So I started doing it
with the very next customer,

and that just became something
I did with every customer.

He just went with it.
To kiss the heart,
to put it on your elbow,

to put it on your knee,
to put it on your brain
for extra smarts.

Take your heart
and rub it on your head so
your bear is smart like you!

Or on your muscles,
so your bear is strong like
you.

To me, the Heart Ceremony
is just something that is

a piece of the puzzle of how
we connect with each other,

how we connect
with the stuffed animals
and our own creativity.

So for me,
it isn't the heart ceremony
that makes me think "Wow."

It's what Build-A-Bear Workshop
represents,

and the creativity
that happens at that moment

when a guest
is stuffing their bear.

That piece of creativity is what
excites me still to this day

about what
Build-A-Bear Workshop does.

Most people don't realize
that you don't have to
have every idea.

You know, if you create
a canvas on a business

that people want to
participate in,

they'll give you it back
100 times over.

And you let them share their
experiences and their ideas

and be on committees to help you
make the business better,

you're gonna find that
that works,

and I can't think of a business
that that wouldn't work in.

You don't wanna
overwhelm the guest,

and you don't want them
to feel super awkward.

You want them to remember it,

but, um, keep it simple

and just right for them.

There's so many different ways
to complete a heart ceremony.

When you're stuffing
your next furry friend,

spend an extra second or two
thinking about how

this one will be
just a bit more special,

and you'll be "paw-fect"
every time.

There's a place
called Build-A-Bear.

Time out. What's it called?

[crew member]

Ah, Build-A-Bear.

Um, I went to learn about bears
at Build-A-Bear.

It was amazing.

[sighs contently] Have you been?

I asked if I could
buy... this machine

so I can make bears...
from my house.

She said no.

You know,
one thing that we did, um...

Uh, this might have been crazy.

We had our own music.

And I had a friend
who was a music writer,

and he wrote songs.

["Build-A-Bear Theme" playing]

♪ Build-A-Bear... ♪

You know, we could order music
and have music play--

Muzak played in our store, but
it wouldn't have been kid music.

There wasn't anything
that was really good.

So he wrote teddy bear songs
for us, and they were adorable.

["Teddy Bear Heart" playing]

♪ He's got a teddy bear ♪

♪ He's got a teddy bear heart ♪

["Cheerleader Bear" playing]

♪ She's a cheerleader bear
Yeah ♪

♪ She's a cheerleader bear ♪

["Teddy Bear Parade" playing]

♪ What a wonderful day ♪

♪ For the teddy bear parade
Oh ♪

[♪]

So, how many stores open up
and have their own album?

And we sold the albums as well.
It's really, really cute.

But it gave it
that special flair that people
weren't someplace else.

They were immersed in
the Build-A-Bear experience.

[narrating bear] Music has
always been a big part
of the Build-A-Bear story.

Artists like the Jonas
Brothers,
Miley Cyrus,

and even Justin Bieber

all had strong connections
to Build-A-Bear

during their
illustrious careers.

Legally, we aren't allowed
to say that Build-A-Bear

is the reason they all
became huge pop stars.

So we won't say that!

Now, early in my days
at the May Company,

Stanley Goodman, who was
the chairman here in St. Louis,

came for a visit, and we were
all sitting there with--

You know, just bright-eyed
and bushy-tailed, waiting to
hear his words of wisdom,

and I always sat in the
front row because I was small.

It was like he was looking at me
when he said this.

He said,
"Retailing is entertainment,
and the store's a stage.

And when the customer has fun,
they spend more money."

Our first guest conspired
with a ten-year-old

to come up with
an "un-bear-ably" cute idea!

That's a story of no,
not necessarily a story of yes.

-[phone ringing]
-I got a call, and it said,

"Oprah Winfrey wants you
to be on the show on Monday,"

and I said, "Well,
I'm sorry, I can't be there
because I'm in Japan."

And she said, "Are you sure?"
I said, "Yes, I'm sure,

I couldn't get back
if I wanted to."

And then the next call
was from the producer...

-[phone ringing]
-...who said we could
do it on Tuesday.

And I said, "I'm sorry,
I can't be there on Tuesday."

The next call, about an hour
later, was from Oprah Winfrey.

Pick up the phone, she says,
"This is Oprah Winfrey."

Of course, she didn't have to
give me her last name,

but she said, "I understand that
you're traveling on business,"

and that, "we would really
like to have you on our show,"

and, "When could you be here?"

And I said,
"I could be there Friday."

And in that time period,
because
I didn't say yes right away,

they had the time to set up

an entire Build-A-Bear store
inside the studio.

Oprah wanted to make
her own bear on the show.

We have a couple of choices
here for you today.

-[Oprah] Do I get to stuff?
-Yes, you do.

-It's totally up to you.
-[applause]

Okay, so I can have as much
or as little, right?

-Yeah.
-Okay.

And it was like this, you know,

magic that happened.

[audience cheering]

Oh, this is too cute. Too cute.

After the show, she let me use
her office 'cause I had to do
a conference call afterwards.

And I'm sitting there in her
office, and I'm looking around,

and I wanted to
touch everything,
just to say I touched it.

[Oprah] We're all adults
in this audience,

and we had so much fun
when the bears came out.

Everybody,
wave your bears in the air!

[cheering]

The effect of Oprah
was immediate.

Like, almost as the show aired,
we saw our sales going up.

It was off to the races.

And we also, uh,
were launching, uh,

national TV
advertising campaigns.

[announcer]
What does your Build-A-Bear
Workshop bear say about you?

Put that together,
and you have the perfect storm

that really just
was a force that,

you know, turned us on to--
In a whole new way,

and we actually went public
as a company.

Um, had our IPO that year.

And so it was a pretty,
um, momentous,
uh, activity-driven era.

[whispering]
Hey, I'm out of popcorn.
You want anything?

No, thanks, I'm stuffed.

[chuckles]
I liked it both times.

Hello, my good man.
Running low on pops.

Got it.

[Muzak playing faintly]

-Anything else?
-[Holmes] Oh, yeah, I--

-Soda?
-No. No, thanks.

-Sandwich?
-You make sandwiches?

-No.
-[beep]

Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.

-[beep]
-Have you noticed
anything weird around here?

What do you mean by weird?

Well, there's that.

-[beep]
-But I was thinking of,

like, talking teddy bears?

-Talking teddy bears?
-Yeah.

-Well--
-[beep]

You're putting me on, right?

No, I-- I'm not saying
I saw a talking teddy bear.

I'm watching a movie
about teddy bears.

I probably just saw one
reflected in the eyeglasses--

A movie about talking
teddy bears? That's a good one.

Was that-- This was...

-[beep]
-[chuckles] Well,
I regret every moment of this.

-Um, thank you.
-Would you--

Good God!

[chuckles nervously]

[♪]

What'd I miss?

-A lot.
-Like what?

Mostly bear stuff.

Did you say "bear stuff,"
or "bears stuffed"?

Yeah, I'll just watch.

I'm Heather Dubrow.
I'm a mom of four kids,

and we have been
Build-A-Bear fans forever.

They added things
as the years went on.

Build-A-Bear always, of course,
has the little heart,

but then they added the voice.

And that just took it
to another level.

'Cause now, you know,
you have a baby or a young child
that's not sleeping well,

and all the moms got together,
like, "What are we gonna do?"

"Go to Build-A-Bear.
Make a bear.

Put your voice in there,
and the middle of the night,

then they can hug it
and hear your voice."

I recorded my voice
in the very first bear

that my daughter had
because I was on the road.

98 Degrees was
on the road a lot,

and so I got
an opportunity to say

"Hey, you know, Alyssa,
I love you very much,"

and at any time, she could hear
my voice when I was on the road.

What I wanted my voice
to say in the animal is,

[shouting]
"Go to bed! Mom is tired!"

[lullaby playing]

But probably,
it was something like,

[softly] "I love you.
Go to sleep.

I'll see you in the morning.
You're safe. Everything's okay."

There's all kinds of stories.

Guys would use it to propose.

Um, my son used it to ask
his girlfriend to the prom.

People recorded their voices
for it to say "I love you.

Will you go to the prom with me?
Will you marry me?"

But also, Build-A-Bear has been
used for commemorating
sad things as well.

Um, we all live in a world
of unfortunate circumstances,

and if you've had a death
in the family

but were fortunate enough
to have a voice recording

and have that voice
in the bear...

[woman's voice 1] Wanted to call
and wish you a happy birthday,

my beautiful
little five-pounder...

-Seriously, Jillian?
-...love you very much.

[woman filming]
So Mom didn't have a voicemail.

Like, it said her number.
It didn't have her voice.

-Thought it did.
-[woman] No. So I went
through my voicemails

and I found a couple voicemails,
and I just put it together.

And that's the dress
she wore for Dave's wedding.

And push its hand.

[woman's voice 2]
Hey, baby. Love you.

[weeping]

[man] Thank you.

[narrating bear] Long before
there were sounds in bears,

even before there was
a single store
in a single mall,

Maxine had a plan
for Build-A-Bear.

[Krueger] She always saw it
as something bigger than,

you know, just the single store.

So in 1998,
they had four stores.

1999,
finished the year with about
15,

and by 2001,
we surpassed 50 stores,

and then just
a couple of years later,

our 100th store actually opened
in Roosevelt Field

on the 100th anniversary
of the teddy bear.

And we had kinda
internally set our eye

to eventually being in New York,
and had our float

in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day
Parade that year.

[announcer] 76th annual
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

[host] Can you bear it?
The Teddy Bear Centennial

is celebrated with the 100th
"anni-bear-sary" party.

To be a part of that
was a big deal.

We were the first retailer that
was ever invited to participate.

And so it actually
was important,

because it brought it
to life, right?

It gave it a personality.

At the time, our brand awareness
was still... growing.

And so I think a lot of people
at that time were like,
"Go to what?"

A couple of years later,
we opened our store

in Fifth Avenue,
in New York City,
and we went over 200 stores.

Our 200th store
was at the Mall of America.

-[Holmes laughs]
-So.

Kept expanding probably until

about the time that
the recession hit.

[thud]

The signs were everywhere,
but now it's official.

We are in a recession.

But when the subprime
bubble popped and
the stock market collapsed

and home prices collapsed, well,
in that kind of world,

you're not spending a lot of
money on Build-A-Bear.

In fact, discretionary retail
in general got hammered.

[narrating bear]
And that was the end
of the Build-A-Bear story.

That can't be true.
I was just at one last week.

Okay, you got me.

Let's see, where was I?
The-- Oh, yes.

Things were not looking good
for
the once-booming toy company.

After years of growth,
they were facing the first
big decline in revenue.

And then, in 2013,

Maxine stepped down
as Chief Executive Bear,

and someone new took over.

Hey.

This little fella
is called a Delivery Bear,

and at Build-A-Bear,

um, when you get a job offer,

a lot of times,
you receive the job offer

through this little guy.

And it says,
"A 'beary' special delivery."

Um, and I did receive
this delivery bear

when I got my offer to be
the Chief Executive Officer at
Build-A-Bear,

and of course I had to keep it.

One of the things
I love about Build-A-Bear

is that my kids had
already fallen in love
with Build-A-Bear.

This is my son's doggie

that he loved so, so, so, much,

and now he's 20 years old, so.

I'm pretty sure his original
name was Excited Ears,

for obvious reasons,

but he became Ruffy over time.

And then this is Pink Stars,

and Pink Stars is super special.

This is my little girl,
who's now 17,
this was her unicorn.

She used to fall asleep
chewing on this unicorn horn.

And that would just
comfort her right to sleep,

and... I think they all
sort of tell a story

about how special these stuffed
animals are for little kids.

Obviously my kids
were pretty excited

when I started
working at Build-A-Bear,

but you also
have to understand that

I'd been working
in the toy industry
for a long time,

so they're pretty
used to this stuff.

[chuckles]

[laughing]

[laughs]

[narrating bear]
Ha! That's so cute.

So, Sharon came in,
and, you know,

um, energetic, and she was very
kind of business-oriented.

A lot of when
Build-A-Bear started,

it was a lot of fun stuff.
The titles were, like, you know,

all had "bear" in it
and things like that.

Yep, did you know that I almost

did not get the offer,
the final offer,

because I didn't wanna be
"Chief Executive Bear"?

-I did know that.
-[laughing]

-I did know that.
-And then I'm like,

"Why shouldn't Maxine always
be the Chief Executive Bear?

I think we should
retire the title."

And that's why I'm here.

-[laughs]
-I appreciate that. I get it.

I got it from then--
that moment on here. Yeah.

[narrating bear] Aww.

Some of the things
I've made for Cole Bear--

Again, I am not good at
sweaters, so please forgive me.

But he is--
We have decided Cole Bear
is a Hufflepuff, like us.

-[Maribeth] Obviously.
-Yes. So he's a Hufflepuff.

So I had to make him
a Hufflepuff sweater.

This is before Build-A-Bear came
out with anything Harry Potter.

-We were waiting for years.
-We were waiting
so long for that.

Uh, one of the hats I made,
it has not--

-That's-- that's
seen some better--
-Not stood the test of time.

Some Minion hats.

Because I made him
and Maribeth--

-Oh, yeah,
we were matching Minions.
-Matching Minions.

-[Minion voice] Banana.
-And if you're a big nerd,
also, Doctor Who.

Yep. So there's the TARDIS.

-This is what Beth's--
-Yeah, this is what I do.

-This is what we do!
-Mm-hmm.

[♪]

Did you see that guy?

"Did you see
the magic teddy bears?"

I mean, that guy is weird.
You want some?

Okay, in my opinion, I think
a tablet or an iPad, it's--

you have no connection to it,
other than addiction.

That's the only thing.

What?

Whereas with a teddy bear,

you're able to create
a relationship with it.

It's-- it's
a different connection.

When you think
about what a teddy bear
means to a child,

I think what's so beautiful
is that it means something
different to every child.

Teddy bears, when you're
a little kid, are just, like,
your little comfort blanket.

You sleep with them,
you hang out.

I used to have, like, a bunch

on this side,
and a bunch on that side.

I mean, teddy bears,
they make everyone happy.

This should be,
like, a mandatory thing.

Everybody's just
keep one in your car.

When you get stressed out,
hold the bear.

But you can take them anywhere.
Like, you can stuff it in your
bag while you're going shopping.

And just, like, take 'em out.

And, like,
"Hey. I have a bear, you don't."

[both grunting]

-Oh!
-[both chuckle]

I like teddy bears

because they keep me company
when I'm in bed.

I mean, I'm kinda scared

to-- when, sometimes when I--
when I'm in bed,

and, um-- and if I have, like,

the teddy bear beside me,
I just feel like, safer.

There.

-I saw that.
-[Lopez laughs]

Yes, so, sometimes it's weird
'cause, when I have, like,

these toys beside me, um,

I make them sing me
a lullaby to sleep.

You make them sing to you?
Like, what does it sound like?

You don't wanna sing it,
it's a secret?

Okay, just
tell 'em it's a secret.

It's a secret.

[narrating bear] I like him.

Did you know
some of the very first employees

of Build-A-Bear Workshop
were small children?

-That can't be right.
-[buzzer]

Oh. Hmm.

Our Cub Advisors were
our first board of directors.

I obviously
was not a small child
when I started Build-A-Bear,

and I knew that
I did not know everything,

so I went to my friends' kids
and brought them all together

to ask them questions
about what they thought
we should have,

and what
we could name them, and--

It just seemed like
all the kids got together

and voted on their favorite,
whatever it was.

They were very wise,
and they had no holdbacks.

Like, if they didn't
like something, they told you.

And we would meet at our offices
or we would meet in the store

on a Saturday morning
before it opened.

Probably anybody came by,
they would sort of wonder,

"What are all those kids
doing in there working?"

But they loved it, and
I thought it was a great
experience for them to have,

to be part of something
that was starting up,

but also to see what it's like
to work in a store.

So, who wants to work
at Build-A-Bear?

Just think about
the psyche of somebody

that was like,
"I think that would be fun."

They're probably
the right kind of person
to work at Build-A-Bear.

[Stephen Yeun]
My parents were like,

"You need to go get a job.
Please go get a job."

And I was definitely
not cool enough to work

at any of the cool spots,

so I worked at Build-A-Bear.

We love to hire people
who like people.

Many of our associates
are in their drama club,

or they're aspiring performers,

or they're cheerleaders.

It's a different personality,
and I think they select us

because you don't come
into Build-A-Bear,

you don't join the Build-A-Bear
team to just fold clothes.

-They're so nice.
-I've never gone in
and been like,

"What's your bear's name?
Rub the heart, here you g--"

No, they have always been like,
"Now, what's their name?"

-No matter how old
or young you are--
-It does not matter.

They treat you the same way.
At that moment,

you are the most
important person in the room.

-[audience applauding]
-I suck at Build-A-Bear.

I used to go in there
for my kids, and--

-It's a weird place.
-It is a weird place.

[♪]

A bear-ism is a language that
we invented for Build-A-Bear.

We thought about this
as a childlike experience.

And so the bear-isms,
the language here that we spoke,

was a little corny,
but everybody got into it.

So this is a collection of those
original bear-isms that we used.

Here's some of the cute ones.

"One small step for bears,

one giant leap for bearkind."

"Think like a bear of action,
act like a bear of thought."

And most of all, "It's never too
late to have a happy childhood."

Build-A-Bear has
its own culture.

I-- Well, it's really fun
culture, you might imagine.

You know, it's-- Everything
you probably think it is,
is what it is.

Along with that culture
comes a language.

And that language is
really all about bear puns.

-Hi, I'm Dani.
-Hi, I'm Dannah.

And before we start,
can I just say

how "paw-esome" it is
to be here?

And it's truly an honor,
but I mean,

this was the "bear" minimum.

Oh, my God. You didn't
have to start it like this.

What can I say? I'm a genius.

Okay.
My jokes are "un-bear-able."

[Dannah laughs]

You know, things,
like, instead of "very,"

something's "beary."

Now, this is typical vernacular.

I'm not kidd-- Like,
you write this in your emails.

"That's 'paw-esome.'"

And, you know,

we have a whole lot of, like,
"consider the 'paw-sibility.'"

"That's 'un-bear-lievable,'"
or--

and "paw-tay."

-[chuckles]
-[director]

But we do a lot of
"cele-bear-ation,"
that is true.

[Dannah chuckles]

What button does
a bear use to pause the TV?

Wait. I just said it.

The p-- Hey.
Can we, like, cut that?

I can "bear-ly" stand
another one of these jokes.

You just get used to it, okay.

So here's the truth.

Not only do you get used to it,

sometimes you're out
in the world,

and you still use the language.

Which is embarrassing.

[♪]

Um, when Sharon came in, one of
the things was to sort of
modernize Build-A-Bear.

Everybody might remember
the Funhouse font

that's on the front
of our stores,

and we use that everywhere,

and, uh, real hard to read,

especially if you do
a whole poster with it.

I am a total font nerd.

So-- Yeah, so, for a company,

you want the logo
to sort of age well.

And our logo was startin'
to look a little dated.

[♪]

It is very iconic,
but what I wanted to do

is make sure when we rebranded,

we kept everything that made
Build-A-Bear, Build-A-Bear.

Just making it
a little bit more modernized.

And one of the great things
that Sharon decided to do

was separate the brand
from the workshop,

where we took the head--
we call him Bernard, by the way.

He's Bernard,
if you can see him back there.

We took his head,
he goes into the workshop logo,

and then the word
"workshop" is like,
this real fun kind of a font.

I loved Funhouse.
I love the typeface.

But I got, you know,
to make it cleaner and neater,

and looking at something not
like it looked like the past,
but create a new future.

So this is Happy Hugs.

He's one of our best-selling
teddy bears, and--

we generally
don't like to show bare bears.

You know what I mean?

Bear, he's bare,
he's a bare bear.

Anyway, Happy?

Um, want to tell
a little story about Happy Hugs,

and this,
what we call a Paw Pad.

One of the things that I did
when I got to Build-A-Bear,

was make sure that kids would
know that it's a Build-A-Bear.

Now, we've always
had the little tags on them,

but having been on Barbie
and all these other brands,

it felt like the Build-A-Bear
should have a brand mark.

We created this really--
like, I would say,

natural kind of mark
for his paw pad.

It's a heart in a pawprint
with the "B.A.B" in it,
so makes sense why it's there.

We just wanted people
to be really proud when
they got a Build-A-Bear,

and know that it was
a Build-A-Bear, particularly
when we're gifting bears.

"Hey, I've got a paw pad.

So cool."

[narrating bear]
Has that always been there?

I'm Damon Elliot.

Music producer, and, um,

I like to think
I'm a pretty handsome guy.

[director]

I've known Mike
since I was 14 years old.

I mean, he was heavyweight
champion of the world,

and we hit it off right away.

When we do
these celebrity bears,

we often auction them off,

or they're at different events,
and for silent auctions.

And we had created
a Mike Tyson bear.

Our designers
are truly fabulous,

and they had gone to all lengths

to make sure they had gotten

Mike's tattoo
just perfectly stitched,
hand-stitched,

onto the teddy bear's face.

But we were going
to get these signed,

so we could put them
at the silent auction.

Do you really want to know
about Mike and his teddy bear?

Well, the time I gave
Mike Tyson the teddy bear,

I went to his house and, uh,

handed him this bear,

and his eyes lit up,
and he got very excited,

and it seems like
he got really attached.

The bear was supposed
to be handed right back to me,

after he signed it,
'cause it was a--

it was done for him--
for my mom,

who's Dionne Warwick,
for her charity,

and all that went out the window

because Mike seemed to become
very attached to the bear.

And he's like,
"And it's mine now! I'm keepin'
the--"

Mike Tyson refused to return his
teddy bear, he loved it so much.

And then afterwards,
we're on a conference call,
and I'm like,

"So, we've gotten this bear,
check, this bear, check,

and who else are we gonna-- And
where's the Mike Tyson bear?"

"Oh, no, he's keeping it."
Well, "What do you mean, he's
keeping it? He can't keep it."

He's like, "You wanna get
the Mike Tyson bear back?"

The last time I saw this bear,

we were on a private jet
going somewhere near Miami,

and he had the bear, I saw
the bear for about two seconds.

It seems like he takes
this bear everywhere with him.

[♪]

[crew member]
Mike interview, take one.

Oh, God--

[director]

What bear?
What are you talkin' about?

[director]

Oh, you mean that bear.

[director]

I don't think so.

[dramatic music playing]

♪ Oh, my teddy bear
My teddy bear ♪

And then Mike would go...
[imitating] "He's the best,
the best bear in the world."

You can use that, 'cause
he doesn't mind that I do that.

So, um, I've asked for it back,
and he-- he wouldn't
give it back.

[director]

Uh, how 'bout this, man?

I'd like to see you try
to take the bear from him.

[yawning]

[narrating bear] For the record,
I think this is a bad idea.

I know, right?
You don't poke the bear!

[text send tone whooshes]

[spy music playing]

Hey, [bleep],
what do you think you're doin'?

[bleep].

[sounds of struggle]

[tiger roaring]

When Mike Tyson wants to
keep his teddy bear,
he keeps his teddy bear!

-That's all there is to it.
-[chuckles]

And then what was so funny
about it is, of course, we could
just make another one.

[bear] I'm Mike Tyson.
Been the wildest,
I've been the craziest,

I've been the outrageous,
the vicious, the most
destructive fighter.

-I'm Mike Tyson.
-I'm Mike Tyson, yeah.

[bear] An international star,
a warlord just
rip your heart out.

And guess what? I'm Mike Tyson.

[club music plays, stops]

[narrating bear]
And so, the teddy bear

has once again tamed
the mighty heavyweight champion.

I'm Trinity, I'm 12 years old,

and, um, I like Build-A-Bear.
[chuckles]

[director]

This is Irwin.
He's my froggy prince.

As soon as I laid
my eyes on Irwin,

I really wanted
to bring him to life.

They told me
he's very famous on TikTok.

[kid] It came!

It finally came!

[woman] Build-A-Bear frog,
Build-A-Bear frog.

-Build-A-Bear frog!
-[computerized voice]
You did it!

[man]
Aw, look at the little baby!

So, I've seen
the Build-A-Bear frog,

which is actually really funny.

My roommate is really afraid
of frogs, so I have, like,

a frog costume,
and, like, I dressed up
and scared her in it,

and so now I just make TikToks
in this frog suit a lot.

[computerized voice]
Clothing I like--

-[woman] I'll call you back.
-[Tessa] All right.

-Bye.
-Go, Build-A-Bear frogs!

We, um-- And we have
encountered this before,

people like,
"Aren't you too old for that?"

And here's the thing. When
you're growing up, you're told,

"Dream and use your imagination

and make everything around you
a part of your life."

And when you get older,
the world's like, "Stop that!

No! Stop!"
It's like, "Excuse me, sir. No."

If my friend was a teddy bear
when I was a child,

my friend should be allowed
to be a teddy bear now.

It's like,
just for this tiny bit of time,

Build-A-Bear,
it gives you almost permission

in a way,
to embrace who you used to be.

-Like, when you were little,
when you were happy.
-[both] With no judgment.

And you get to pick out the
clothes, which, growing up,
you don't always get to do that.

But yeah, it's-- it's just that.

[♪]

Because you are never too old...

[both]
To have a happy childhood.

[both laugh]

-It's so true.
-It is so true.

You need to tell us to stop,
because we're just--

Yeah, we're not gonna
stop on our own.

[director]

[narrating bear] Over the years,
Build-A-Bear has branched out

into many media formats
outside of stuffed animals,

with an online community,
cartoons--

No moose has ever flown.
It's a fact.

[narrating bear]
...video games...

[bunny] It's always better
to party with friends!

[narrating bear]
...their own radio station,

and they even make movies now!

Hi, I'm Frankie McNellis,
and I'm 16,

and I play Alex in the
Build-A-Bear film Honey Girls.

["What We're Looking For"
by Aliyah Mastin, Ava Grace,
and Frankie McNellis playing]

♪ This is where
We're meant to be ♪

Well, the first time
I ever went to Build-A-Bear,

I don't remember that,
I was a baby.

Okay, at first when
I first got the audition,

I'm like, "Is it an animation?

Am I gonna be
dressed up as a bear?"

But then, once I, like,
read through it, I was like,

"This is
the coolest thing ever."

The Honey Girls are a band
of three very talented artists.

The original names
of the Honey Girls were
Teegan, Risa, and Viv.

Mine's the tiger.

Purple tiger.
I roar in the movie.

-Easy, tiger.
-Rawr!

-[both chuckle]
-[giggles]

I was really cool, 'cause when
we were filming the Honey Girls,

we each got, like,
our own little,
like, Build-A-Bear

that looked exactly like us,
and, like, was really cute.

What's going on?

Hi. Hi, thank you.

Can you do
a little dance for me?

-[disco music playing]
-Here we go.

[Brooks laughing]

He's in his own world.

Boom, Build-A-Bear.

The moonwalk.

That was actually a pretty
good moonwalk, I'm not gonna--

-[record scratches]
-Oh, whoa, there he goes.
[chuckles]

Did he do that to everybody,
or just me?

[director]

Okay, cool.
Thanks, guys, for the interview.

I'll see you guys later.
[chuckles]

[crew member]
After dark, take one.

This old thing?

Kids' stuff.

[cartoon voice]
Hi, there!

What's the opposite
of kids' stuff?

Grown-up stuff.

[actor purring]

-Cut!
-[crew laughing]

Here's a story
that has you clicking tonight.

Who says stuffed animals
are just for kids?

We had a marketing campaign
called Build-A-Bear After Dark,

and it was,
you know, like, a little,

kind of, you know, edgier.

Um, romantic, kind of, you know.

And we had that campaign for,
like, three or four years.

This year, someone picked it up,
and it went crazy.

Build-A-Bear just launched
an After Dark series

of stuffed bears for adults.

These are real.

Real seductive, bam!

Bam! You like it.
Go ahead and...

Hey, do you know
a bear named Marty?

He's about this tall, brown.
I haven't seen him
since I was a kid.

[narrating bear] Yeah, I'll keep
an eye out for him, but, uh...

do you think you could
possibly be more vague?

Oh, he's a bear and he's brown.

Gee, I haven't seen
one of those before.

[newscaster]
Have you seen this teddy bear?

The whole nation
is looking for it.

If you have that teddy bear,
please return it.
That is precious.

[newscaster] This isn't just
your average teddy bear.

Not to its owner,
28-year-old Mara Soriano.

[laughing]

[blowing raspberry]

My name is Mara Soriano,

and I'm a storyboard artist
from Canada.

Is that-- is that good?

[director]

Okay.

What can I say about my mom?

Like, she was
the most amazing person

I have ever
had the privilege to know.

She was kind, she was generous.

My mom was diagnosed
with cancer in 2010,

and for ten years,
she was in remission,
it was really great.

One Christmas,
she gave me this Build-A-Bear,

but I've made
Build-A-Bears before,

so the thought of her, like,

picking out all of the things
that made Mama Bear, Mama Bear,

and recording this voice message
for me at the store,

it just makes me
feel like there really
is a part of her in that bear,

and that's why
it's so important to me,

and it's such-- it's probably
my most prized possession.

She passed away in June 2019.

Um, which was really tough.

[voice cracking] Sorry.

[sobs] I'm sorry.

Like, that bear is so her,

and like, I know that
she put a lot of love in that,

and I--
I just know it, you know?

My husband and I were
moving apartments one day,

and while we were moving,
we had put all
of our stuff on a truck,

and I put
Mama Bear in this backpack.

With all of my important things.

I remember even
going up to my friends,

with her little head
poking out of the backpack,

and saying "Look,
she's got her own special spot!

Like, she's in
the special backpack."

On our way to the new apartment,
we got this phone call

from one of our friends
who was helping us move.

He was biking over,
and he got hit by a truck,

-[tires screeching] [crash]
-so I immediately dropped
everything,

I told my fiancé to take care
of everything while
I go pick up our friend,

and take him to the hospital.

And it was my fault,
because I just put the bear down

next to the U-Haul,
because I was in such a rush

trying to get to my friend,
who was hit by a truck,

and he was okay,
it was all good.

Just a couple bruises.

But it wasn't until,
like, a few hours later,

when we were unpacking,
that I realized

that the backpack
was never brought home,

so I-- I started freakin' out,

I went downstairs
to the security

and asked
to go through the tapes,

and lo and behold,
somebody had swiped the bear,

and I lost it, I was devastated.

I immediately,
like, stopped unpacking

and just started running up
and down the streets,

like, asking people if they had
seen someone with the backpack.

I immediately started
going through dumpsters,

'cause I was told that,
you know, it's--

like, it's just a teddy bear,
so it's not valuable,

so they might have
thrown it away or something.

And I couldn't find it anywhere,

so I didn't know what to do.

That night, I went on Reddit,

and somebody suggested
that I reach out to local
news sources, which I did.

And thankfully,
CBC took pity on me,

and when Deborah Goble called
me for CBC, she said, "Listen,
I don't do this very often,

but I'll tweet about it,
along with my little blurb
on the radio for you."

So I was like,
"Great, thank you.
Anything and everything helps."

And then the next day,
our friend-- the friend
who got hit by the truck--

texted me, and said, "Hey,

did you know somebody
tweeted about your bear?

And I was, like, "Wha-- Who?"
He's like, "Ryan Reynolds."

Oh, I did not believe him.

I was like,
"This is a troll account,"

like, it's somebody
pretending to be Deadpool.

And lo and behold,
I go on Twitter,

and it was nuts!
Like, it was Ryan Reynolds.

He was offering a $5000 reward
to find my bear,

and it was a crazy
whirlwind after that.

Like, as soon as he did that,
everybody picked up on the news,

like, everybody
wanted to talk to me.

This teddy bear
held a special meaning.

I was absolutely devastated.

All I really cared about
was getting the bear back.

Aww!

[newscaster] This is
the touching moment Mara's mom

played her the recording
for the first time.

I guess the story
really touched a lot of people.

I was honestly super-shocked
with the amount of coverage

that it was getting.

So many different people

and companies reached out

to match Ryan Reynolds' reward,

and it was getting really crazy,

and I couldn't believe
that people were doing that

for me, for a teddy bear,
and I honestly think

my mom would've gotten
a huge kick out of it.

And thanks to all of,
like, that news coverage,

three days later,
we got the bear back,

which is--
which never happens.

That never happens.
I couldn't believe it.

When I got
the bear back, it was--

it was like
getting my mom back again.

It was like
her telling me to calm down,

like, she has my back.

Like, the world has my back,
and I felt really

unbelievably grateful,
that that happened.

And it really felt like
she was looking out for me.

I will never let this bear
out of my sight ever again.

[Soriano chuckles]

[Mom]

[Mom]

Yeah. Yeah. She was so cheesy.

[chuckles] I love you
to infinity and beyond.

[Soriano laughs]

[Holmes] I'm so glad
she got her bear back.

Do you think Ryan Reynolds
really paid that reward?

-[narrating bear] He really did!
-Do you think Ryan Reynolds
will put me in his next movie?

[narrating bear]
He really won't!

That's fair.

[Price John] Right in the middle
of the retail apocalypse,

where scores
of retailers went bankrupt,

thousands of retail stores
were closed.

Thousands of retail stores
were closed.

And things like
Toys"R"Us went bankrupt,

and we were the largest,
last standing

toy store in America.

And this is where we then

sort of embraced this idea

of nothin' knocks the stuffin'
outta Build-A-Bear.

[narrating bear] Build-A-Bear
first appeared during the peak
of shopping malls.

In the mid '90s, 140 new malls
were being built every year.

By 2007, that number was zero.

Somewhere between 2012,

and 2018-19,

some estimates
are that mall traffic

declined cumulatively
by about 50%.

That is a massive decrease
in foot traffic.

It was hard
for retailers to understand

what to do in that environment,

particularly an experience-based
retailer like Build-A-Bear.

Where families were going
for fun and entertainment,

was no longer
predominantly the mall.

We started to think
about entirely new places

that we could be,
places like Great Wolf Lodge,

or on a Carnival Cruise Line,
or resorts,

and just pulling apart
the old model,

and it opened up
entirely new venues for us

to take Build-A-Bear
that have been very successful,

and now we have
a much more balanced portfolio,

with fewer of our locations
located in malls.

[Johnson] Walmart is a different
thing. Walmart's the biggest
retailer in the world,

and they have a lot of traffic,
you know, you can do everything.

You can buy
everything at Walmart,
including get your tires.

[Kruger]
This diversification
has been critical,

for us to becoming this thing
that has staying power.

[narrating bear] You never know
where the next big idea
in marketing will come from,

and in 2018,

one of the biggest came from
a meeting about birthdays
at Build-A-Bear.

Hey, you're doin'
great up there!

Is this
your first starring role?

[narrating bear]
Well, I mostly do theater.

The popular retailer
Build-A-Bear is trying to

make amends after it
pulled the plug on a big sale

due to overwhelming demand.

Ah, Pay Your Age Day?

Um, well, let's see, it's--

business had gotten kinda tough,
the "mall apocalypse", right?

So I was sittin' there, and
I was, you know, thinkin',

"Now, what can we do to get
the-- the business going?"

Well, we had
National Teddy Bear Day,

and what you could do is
you could come in on
National Teddy Bear Day

and get a signature bear
for five bucks.

And the lines were out the door.

And so I was thinking,

what could-- How could we sell
a bear for $5 every day?

So I went
in to Sharon, I said "Look.

The number one reason
that people come

to Build-A-Bear
is for their birthday."

About a third of the sales
for Build-A-Bear
come from birthdays.

Millions of kids celebrated
their birthdays at
Build-A-Bear.

So what if, for every time
a kid turned five,

they could come in
and get a bear

on their birthday
for five bucks?

And she sat there
and she's like,

"It's a great idea,
except for one thing.

You're gonna be the one
to tell the four-year-old
that they don't get it."

And so, we were like,
"Okay, well,
maybe we could just make it

so it's available
for anyone to pay their age."

And then it was like,
"One dollar?"

And so did a little bit of,
you know, kinda math,

and adding up,
and it made sense,

'cause the average
was still gonna be five bucks.

So we came up with this idea
for a birthday bear.

And so then it was like, "How
do we introduce this," right?

Well, you get one chance
to make a splash.

And so we played around
with the idea of,

"What if everyone could come in
that one day and get it?"

Why would someone want
a Birthday Bear when it's
not their birthday, right?

'Cause it says
"Happy Birthday" on the paw.

So, I'm in my office,

and Sharon calls me.

"It needs to be all of 'em."

And, you know,
it would really break through,

and we were managing
our marketing dollars.

This was pushed out
on social media,
and that was practically it.

It was all fine, lookin'--
Gotten a little bit of buzz.
That was good.

This deal is just so amazing,
I can hardly bear it!

Don't miss
Build-A-Bear's first ever,

and biggest deal ever,
Pay Your Age Day.

And then all of a sudden,
like, the day before,

people are signing up
for the Bonus Club

in, like, record numbers.

In the middle of July,

with nothing else going on,

we put it out there.

Not really knowing

that it would be
as big as it did.

We drove that traffic

to shopping centers
around the world.

-[alarm buzzing]
-[Chris Hurt] I was at--
I was actually in bed,

about two in the morning,
but my phone rang.

It's a call from the UK.

I'm like, "Hello?"
And he's like, "Chris,

there are lines all the way
outside of the mall!"

I'm like, "Okay."

Now, in retail,
especially in the field,

we-- we're not afraid
to embellish a little bit.

"Define 'line
outside the mall.'"

He's like, "Chris, literally
the line is outside the mall.

It's into the parking lot."

And I had to hear it

a couple of times,

and then did
a little Google search

to see that what
they were saying was true.

[announcer] Build-A-Bear
may have had its first clue,

when posts like this
started hitting Twitter.

In England,
mums are starting to turn.

This one read,
"The end is nigh."

We went... [gasps]
..."This is really happening."

Well, good morning, everybody!
Are we ready?

The saying goes, "If you
build it, they will come."

Today, here in Douglasville,
it's more like,

"If you let them
build it at a really good
price,

a whole lot of 'em
will show up."

We started to see
people lining up,

on the East Coast,

and decided to push out

some social media
on "Don't come to Build-A-Bear."

I mean,
that's not anything you ever
think you're going to do.

[announcer] "Per local
authorities, we cannot accept

additional guests
at our locations."

However, the event
had already drawn crowds

all around the country.

In Arizona, Washington,

-Florida, New York.
-It's been a struggle.

It was our-- it was--
Of course, we were getting calls

from media outlets
all over the country.

It was almost like
you could see as stores opened

across the country, right,
'cause East coast opened first,

so the calls would come
from the East coast.

And then
it'd come through, like,

"Oh, well, it--
We opened in Indiana.

Okay, oops, we're--
Made it to Missouri."

The news kept getting bigger,
and bigger, and bigger,

and the media kept,
you know, hyping and hyping.

[reporter] You have
got to take a look at this
breaking Build-A-Bear news.

Thousands of people
across the country today

got to the malls early,
they stood in line for hours,

-all for stuffed animals.
-[announcer 2] It felt like
the Black Fridays of old.

We're told there
was just too much interest,

and they had to cancel the
event
because of safety concerns.

I mean,
this was a difficult scenario

for the folks at the stores.

[store clerk] Our line ended up
going outside of the mall,

and it wrapped
around the mall building.

It was very long, people
waited for hours, and then--

very upset
when they couldn't get in.
Um, but it was very intense.

We actually ended up
getting shut down
because of it.

-What went wrong?
-Do you feel that you owe an
apology

-to those people
who stood in line?
-Well, absolutely, I mean,

that, that is not
what we are about.

I guess the takeaway is,
"Don't promise
what you can't deliver."

Also, in a day
and age of iPhones

and fancy video games,
the good old-fashioned

teddy bear
still gets people out.

Well, look,
you know, it's funny.

Businesses come up with ideas

that you look
back in hindsight, and you go,

"What were they thinking?"

The fact that, you know, little
Build-A-Bear could virtually

shut down all the malls
in the United States,

there's no way
we could have predicted that.

I mean, when was
the last time there was chaos
in the malls when, like...

Backstreet Boys were performing?
[laughs]

But I tell you what, everybody
heard about Build-A-Bear

at the end of that thing,
one way or the other.

People woke up to the fact
that Build-A-Bear

is around, right?

To a certain extent,
people were like,

"Oh, I remember
doing that as a kid."

But all of a sudden,
it was like, "What is goin' on?"

I think it was
an important milestone

that is part of why
we're thriving today.

The Birthday Treat Bear's
our best-selling product,

and it has been
since we launched that.

He's lookin' at the screen.

[Price John] We're glad that
the kids get to come in

on their most special day,
and pay their age

for the Birthday Treat Bear.

Oh, but by the way,
we did not sell out

of furry friends
that day, right?

It was just a matter
of the number of people

that we could put through,
because it takes

an amount of time
to stuff the animals.

So it wasn't an inventory thing,

it was-- You know,
just the-- the physical demand.

You know, we gotta start
makin' sandwiches.

You get a lot of orders
for sandwiches.

It is really extraordinary,
how often Build-A-Bear

is just referenced
constantly in pop culture.

[Wiggum humming]

[Wiggum laughs] Snow day!

This was my idea.

Honestly,
until this exact second,

-I thought you
were Build-A-Bear.
-[Rocket Raccoon] Maybe I am.

[Fry] Build-A-Bot Workshop.

[Wilde] Stuff-A-Bear.

[bear explodes]

-Ooh.
-[Gru] I don't think so.

Hey, Peter.
Ready to go to Build-A-Bear?

Sheldon, if you
don't like this stuff,

let's just go next door
and build her a bear.

Ye-- I told you before,
bears are terrifying.

As a pop culture icon,
to ourselves,

we were able
to mash up our brand

with other pop culture icons,

not just making
a replica of the product,

but things that had
never been made before.

Like, it wasn't just us making
a stuffed Darth Vader,

it's us making
a Darth Vader bear.

It's a Frozenbear.

Elsa's a bear.

It's not that common,
that these brands

allow you to evolve
their own brand,

to be a part of yours.

But that's the kind of brand
Build-A-Bear is.

[narrating bear] Build-A-Bear
had survived the recession,

the decline of malls,
the retail apocalypse, Brexit.

It was on track to be more
successful than ever before.

And then, in 2020,

a whole new challenge appeared.

When we first found out about

this pending, um, situation,

uh, we, as many,

didn't believe it would be
as dramatic as it was.

I'll never forget,
I called Sharon, I said,

"Sharon, we're gonna have to
shut the stores down."

And within a matter of weeks,

we had furloughed
90% of the organization,

and we were having
daily calls on what to do.

How could Build-A-Bear
survive the pandemic,

knowing that everyone
thought of us as a place to go,

um, in a store,
when all of our doors,

um, and all of our
retail locations closed.

We had to quickly shift gears,

and so we went
from an indoor experience,

somewhere that you come to make

a personalized teddy bear,

to an experience
that's now, um, online.

And we looked at it

as it-- as it was.

As our only
viable revenue stream.

But over the entire company,

it was this can-do attitude.

It was,
"How do we make this happen?

How can we do it safe,

and keep--
and keep the company going?"

I just said to the team,
I'm like, "Look.

I don't know what the path is,

but I can tell you, we have one.

We have mapped a path,

so this is possible.

And all we need is possible."

Between us, though,
I mean, Dorrie knows this.

That possible path...

was about as narrow-- It was
like, this needed to happen,
then this needed to happen,

this needed to happen,
that needed to happen,
that needed to not happen,

and this-- But there was a path.

We were in a really
interesting position.

We had announced
to our guests that we were
going to be offering Grogu,

sometimes known as Baby Yoda.

Build-A-Bear Workshop debuts

its long-awaited
plush Baby Yoda.

How hot is this toy right now?

When we knew when we were
gonna get it, I was like,

"This is gonna be big," 'cause
it's the cutest little thing.

This is
the Build-A-Bear Baby Yoda.

-[plush squeals]
-What?

And there was a tremendous
amount of anticipation for that.

[audience aww-ing]

-I know.
-It's gonna be best-seller.

Hitting the stores this spring.

We have
all of this inventory there,

and we knew, once we put Grogu

live on our website,

that it would sell

at an incredible velocity,

and so we had to
prepare ourselves for that.

Well, our warehouse
can only handle stuffing

so many orders a day.

We hired back
many of our bear-builders

who have been furloughed,
and we brought in

stuffing machines to create
what we called the nursery.

It was truly
an extraordinary moment.

There he is, yes.

Oh, my goodness.

Thousands and thousands
and thousands
and thousands of these.

In many ways, Baby Yoda
was such a pivotal part

of getting through the pandemic.

We were able to make
a lot of people happy

at a time when
it mattered more than ever.

An important furry friend,

as we like to say for--
for Build-A-Bear. [chuckles]

During COVID, there was
the South Parkspecial

about COVID that's clearly,
you know, more appropriate
for an older audience.

[Butters] Hey, Dad.
You think maybe we could
go to Build-A-Bear today?

[Mr. Stotch]
Butters, for the last time,
you can't go to Build-A-Bear!

I think one of the things
that was most extraordinary
about that

was that in the storyline,

Build-A-Bear was the example
of what returning to normal was.

[Marsh] Butters, Butters. Look!

[Butters] Whoa!

[Price John]
And that's pretty amazing.

[narrating bear]
Now, this is my favorite part.

Oh, hi, there, Curly.

Hi. How are you doing? Yeah.

["I'm Yours" by
Build-A-Bear Kids playing]

[chuckling] I love it.

Oh, yay.

Aww. Cute.

♪ I fell right
Through the cracks ♪

♪ And now
I'm trying to get back ♪

What do you want me to do with
this thing? Do I hold it?

[laughing]

Wow! Huh. Very nice.

♪ Divine intervention ♪

♪ I reckon it's again my turn ♪

Is that a Build-A-Bear?

Thank you!

♪ Or learn some ♪

♪ But I won't hesitate... ♪

This isn't
a Build-A-Bear, is it?
It is a Build-A-Bear?

I've never built one.
How'd they build it?

See, they're always
so flexible and cuddly.

And they're not
hard to figure out, you know,

like a computer game, or,
you know, something that
you have to put together.

They're already kind of put
together, and so you get just
to look at them, and hug them,

and love them,
and smile at them, and--

Cool. [chuckles]

This is great. My little buddy.

I mean, it's just so delicious.

How do you not love, like,

a little stuffed thing.

This is good, this is a good
little cuddly guy right here.

It's-- I feel like
takin' a nap now.

♪ Listen to the moment
People dance and sing ♪

♪ We're just one big family ♪

♪ And it's our
God-ordained right ♪

♪ To be loved, loved
Loved, loved, loved ♪

-Sorry.
-[vocalizes, chuckles]

It's gonna do,
like, a breakdance.

♪ But I won't hesitate... ♪

I like teddy bears.

You know, it's--
Isn't that funny?

You see babies,
and you go, "Aww,"

and you see like,
little puppies, and it's, "Aww,"

and then you get a little bear,
and it's "Aww!"

And they're so soft. Hi!

There's always love for a bear.
I mean, doesn't it just
sort of-- I just--

everybody just squeezes it.

I think I need a tutu on him.

I mean, that's fun!

He's-- he's a cutie-pie.

Oops!

Can't go without your boots.

There's always some sentiment
to toys and things that
you collect, and I just,

as an almost 50-year-old man,
don't wanna start crying

about-- about it,
about having a teddy bear.

I don't know, just being able
to have a connection like this,

and hug it, and squeeze it,
and cry, and like,

all of the emotions that you can
go through with a teddy bear.

It's the best thing
that you could ever ask for.

Bye! [laughs] I'll miss you.

♪ Oh, I'm yours ♪

Don't leave me!

♪ Oh, you believe I'm yours ♪

[narrating bear]
So, how did Build-A-Bear

manage to survive
all these years?

Maybe it's because Build-A-Bear

was never really
just a toy store after all.

You have
this relationship, not just

with the store itself,
but with the people.

But especially with the feeling
of what this brings.

Well, here's the thing,
it's like, when you go shopping

at a store,
you're buying a thing.

When you're going
to Build-A-Bear,

you're having an experience.

I think the reason
that Build-A-Bear resonates

for so many people
is because they were--

they weren't making a bear,
they're actually
making memories.

It was somebody's birthday,
somebody's anniversary.

I mean,
there were so many things,

it wasn't really about the bear,

and I think
that's the part that--

We became
part of family memories,

so people can still be telling

their stories,
so you can't sell that.

You can't manufacture that.

I think that
in my time at Build-A-Bear,

the one thing I would be
most proud of is the fact

that Build-A-Bear
is going to live

for another generation.

Because at the end of the day,

the need for that teddy bear,

that teddy bear hug,
that connection,

is as important,
maybe more important than ever,

as we become
more and more digital,
and I'm really proud of that.

I'm proud that this company
and these teddy bears

are still gonna be there.

You know, we have this saying,
"Once a bear, always a bear."

And we have a lot of bears
out there, in the human form.

And, uh, we made
a lot of best friends,

not only furry,
but also human best friends.

Which is probably the most
significant part of my life.

And meeting Maxine.

It seems like just yesterday
I was standing

at the ribbon cutting
at the St. Louis Galleria.

Boy, have we grown.

But, you know,
you forget all the little
changes that you've made.

You just remember the day
that you stood in line,

and all these customers
came pouring in the door.

Sorry, it is
an emotional experience.

To see that 25 years
and 200-plus million children

have made bears in our company

and have a memory
that's like that,

that's a gift that
you can't really imagine.

You know, I don't know
what life would be
without Build-A-Bear,

and I hope they don't know
what life would be
without Build-A-Bear,

and that Build-A-Bear
will be here,
you know, for a long time.

And I try to encourage as many
entrepreneurs as I possibly can
to build their dream too.

Because I didn't dream this.
It evolved.

And so you don't ever know
what's possible
until you give it a try,

and so Build-A-Bear
is about giving it a try,

whether it's a stuffed animal,
or a business.

There's a million ways
to-- to be thankful,

right now, about building
a company that's come

to this point in its life
and has so much further to go.

[applause, cheering]

Whoo! Whoa!

You-- you guys are back!

Look, you-- you know, when
I was a kid, I always used to
tell jokes to my teddy bears,

and it would be a dream
come true if I could...

tell some jokes for you guys?
Yeah? Okay.

All right, okay, bears.

[clears throat] Um, so,
uh, what do you bears, uh--

what do you bears think
the employee discount is
at the dollar store?

You ever think about that?

You think it might just be, uh,
"just take it"? [chuckles]

[murmuring]

No?

[narrating bear]
Hey, do the bear jokes!

Um, people--
It's not a fair stereotype.

People say bears
love honey, huh?

"Oh, look at those bears,
they love honey."

Doesn't everybody love honey?

-[laughter]
-Right?

I mean, who do you give honey,
and they're like,
"Oh, no thanks.

-What-- what,
do you think I'm a bear?"
-[laughter]

"I'm a maple syrup guy."
Get outta here.

Yeah, I mean, this guy knows
what I'm talking about.

-[laughter]
-[narrating bear
laughing loudly]

I-- I feel like bears
are better than human beings.
Bears should rule the world.

I'm not just saying that
to "panda" to you.

-[laughter]
-Well, did you know that
a bear has enough, uh, strength

in its jaw to bite
through a bowling ball?

I looked it up, that's true.
Cut to me cutting my tooth
on a very stale pistachio.

[laughter]

You guys are better,
is what I'm saying.

-[laughter]
-Ah, grizzly bears.
Any grizzlies?

Roar if you're--
if you're a grizzly.

-[bear] Roar!
-Grizzly bears can actually
run 40 miles per hour.

That's as fast as a greyhound.
We race greyhounds.

-Why aren't we
raising grizzly bears?
-[laughter]

Probably because
a greyhound won't hop the fence

and maul a woman
for her Cracker Jacks.

[laughter]

Who are you talkin' to?

[whimsical music playing]

Hey, Pete.
Did you forget somethin'?

[Holmes] Marty?

[♪]

[Marty] I love you, Pete.

You're my best friend.

["Build-A-Bear Theme"
by Timmy Tappan playing]

♪ Build a bear ♪

♪ Build a bear
At the Build-A-Bear Workshop ♪

♪ Where there's
A bear for everyone ♪

♪ Here a bear, there a bear
Everywhere a bear, bear ♪

♪ You're gonna have some fun ♪

♪ Choose me
Stuff me, stitch me up ♪

♪ Fluff me, dress me
Fill me with love ♪

♪ You'll never be alone
When you take me home ♪

♪ Oh, won't you take me home ♪

♪ There's a bear
At the Build-A-Bear Workshop ♪

♪ Just waiting for you ♪

♪ Big bear, little bear
There's a funny bunny there ♪

♪ All kinds of friends
For you to choose ♪

♪ Sing together
And play all day ♪

♪ So think real hard
Give me a name ♪

♪ Won't you give me a name? ♪

[♪]

[girl] My bear is special.

I brought it to life.

I chose it, I stuffed it,

and now I'm taking it home!

Best friends are forever,
so I promise right now

to make my bear
my number one pal.

[narrating bear]
Bye, everybody. Goodbye!