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Gross sales of skateboards and scooters propelled U.S. toy gross sales to $11 billion throughout the first half of 2021, a 19% enhance from 2020, the NPD Group mentioned Thursday.
For greater than a 12 months, the toy business has been bolstered by purchases from households caught at residence in lockdown throughout the ongoing coronavirus well being disaster. Disposable incomes shifted from film theaters, amusement parks and eating places to toys, as mother and father regarded for tactics to maintain their children entertained.
With the brand new Covid-19 delta variant, this pattern has continued.
Outside and sports activities toys have seen the most important enhance over the past six months, reaching $2.9 billion in gross sales, up 11% from final 12 months.
Scorching summer season months have led to elevated gross sales of water-related toys, mentioned Juli Lennett, NPD’s vice chairman and business advisor for U.S. Toys.
“With the vaccine nonetheless not obtainable for teenagers beneath 12, ‘safely social toys’, like playground gear and skates, skateboards and scooters additionally continued to develop,” she mentioned.
In truth, 10 of the 11 toy classes that NPD tracks, which embody plush, dolls and video games and puzzles, noticed double-digit gross sales development in 2021. The humanities and crafts phase was the one one to say no, falling 1%.
Lennett expects toy gross sales will proceed to climb and get a lift from the kid tax credit score, which will likely be distributed within the second half of the 12 months. She mentioned the 2 stimulus checks that got out earlier this 12 months had a “profound impact” on first-quarter toy gross sales.
“Within the week that the primary test hit financial institution accounts, the toy business grew 17%,” she mentioned.
From January via July, Pokemon was the top-selling toy property, adopted by Barbie, Star Wars, L.O.L. Shock!, Fisher-Value and Marvel.
And it isn’t simply children which can be having fun with these manufacturers. Grownup males, specifically, drove important toy gross sales by shopping for buying and selling playing cards associated to Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering and the Nationwide Soccer League.
“Nostalgia has been a key driver of development over the past 18 months,” mentioned Lennett. “Shoppers have regarded to fill the isolation with reminiscences of happier occasions of their lives.”