China’s Bing Dwen Dwen merchandise sees promised resupply

February 14, 2022

BEIJING – The popular plush toys of Winter Olympics mascot Bing Dwen Dwen will be restocked to licensed stores starting Sunday to meet the surge in demand, according to the marketing department of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee.

On Sunday, a new shipment of 2,000 Bing Dwen Dwen plush toys arrived in Beijing and will be distributed to licensed flagship stores soon. In the next week, 35,000 toys will be shipped to Beijing and up to 100,000 are expected to be available before the opening of the Winter Paralympics on March 4.

The organizers have also released a special Lunar New Year edition of the Bing Dwen Dwen plush. The first batch is expected to arrive in Beijing next Saturday and the stock is estimated to reach 180,000 before the opening of the Winter Paralympics.

Manufacturers will also continue to accelerate production of licensed mascot merchandise including dolls, keychains, water bottles and badges and plan to supply another 1.5 million pieces online, according to organizers.

Since the Winter Olympics kicked off on Feb 4, the mascot – a chubby panda wearing an ice shell – has become so popular that all related merchandise, including plush toys, keychains and dolls have been sold out, and people waited in long lines outside the official Games flagship stores in the capital hours before the store opened.

In order to meet surging demand, organizers have said they would increase the supply, and factories have already resumed work early from the week-long Lunar New Year holiday to ramp up production.

Piao Xuedong, director of the marketing department of the organizing committee, said organizers had prepared a large stock before the opening ceremony, but people’s enthusiasm went beyond expectations.

The Games coincided with the Chinese New Year holiday and the manufacture of the silicone gel which makes up the ice shell of the toy is time-consuming and resource-intensive. This explains the scarcity of stock and slow replenishment, he said.

According to Piao, this round of restocking will first meet the needs of athletes, coaches, media and other workers inside the closed loop before going to customers who have placed pre-sale orders at physical and online retailers.

He said the market demand will ease somewhat before the opening of the Winter Paralympics, and then be further relieved by mid- to late March.