Fifth Avenue Will Soon Be Home to a New Bear Market
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Build-a-Bear Workshop is anything but bearish on New York City. The rapidly expanding chain is opening a flagship store tomorrow at 565 Fifth Ave. that, at 22,000 square feet, will be more than 10 times larger than usual for the company.
The extra space will showcase such additional features as a T-shirt designing station, international-themed outfits, baby bear merchandise, and three rooms available for private parties.
Build-a-Bear Workshop’s founder and “Chief Executive Bear,” Maxine Clark, said New York City was an ideal location for its flagship store because the city draws such a large and diverse clientele.
“New York is such an international city,” Ms. Clark said. “This store will draw both local customers and tourists.”
Build-a-Bear Workshop has been growing rapidly since its launch in 1997. It now has more than 180 stores in America and Canada, as well as locations in England, Japan, Australia, and Denmark. It booked $302 million in revenues in 2004.
The company had been planning a New York City location for years and was waiting for the right space and timing, Ms. Clark said. When the company opened a temporary Rockefeller Center location during the 2004 holiday season, its warm reception confirmed that the city already had a strong customer base.
Tomorrow, that customer base will be able to explore a Build-a-Bear Workshop with many new features in addition to the bear-making process so unique to the company.
The process begins with customers picking out unstuffed animals. The selection includes not just bears but dogs, cats, bunnies, and monkeys, each designed to fit into the same clothes. The dolls range in price from $10 to $25, which includes the shell and the stuffing but not outfits and accessories. After choosing an animal, customers can pick out a sound chip to put inside, with noises ranging from giggles and growls to messages such as “I love you” and songs like “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” There is also an option to record a personalized noise.
The animal is then stuffed, and a bar code is placed inside to help locate the animal if it is ever lost. Customers also get to partake in the Heart Ceremony, placing a heart they’ve picked out inside the animal before it’s sewn up and fluffed at the Bear Spa.
In the Heart Ceremony, a Bear Builder runs through a series of instructions with the store’s little customers. “Okay, rub the bear’s heart in your hands to warm it up. Now, rub it on your forehead so your bear is really smart … rub it on your arm so your bear is really strong … rub it on your stomach so your bear is never hungry. Now turn around once so your bear will always have fun.”
After the heart is in place and fur fluffed, customers then type up a birth certificate for their new friend before choosing from the many outfits available, including NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB uniforms, graduation gowns, suits, lacrosse uniforms, and Statue of Liberty outfits. They range from $10 to $15. Shoes and accessories are available for less than $10.
And the fun doesn’t stop there. The New York City store has many other unique features to occupy its young visitors, and probably many of their adult chaperones.
At the “T’s By Me” station, children can design T-shirts for their animals on paper, and watch as employees transfer their designs onto bear-size shirts.
“Designing T-shirts was something kids already liked to do,” Ms. Clark said. “We like to adapt ideas that humans like and apply them to bears.”
Customers can also create their own “United Nations” of bears with the Fureign Friends line. It consists of 41 internationally themed outfits, each with a “passport” full of information about the country.
After making stuffed animals in the Build-a-Bear Workshop, children can go next door to the company’s “friends 2B made” store, where they can make, dress, and personalize their own dolls. The Fifth Avenue location will be the third friends 2B made store in the country, and the first on the East Coast.
The grand opening tomorrow begins at 10 a.m. An Olympic gold medalist gymnast, Dominique Dawes, will attend, and actor Marc John Jeffries will serve as master of ceremonies. During the event, Build-a-Bear Workshop will honor its Huggable Heroes – 11 individuals and one group of kids whom Ms. Clark has chosen to recognize for their community service efforts. Each Huggable Hero is awarded $1,000 toward their cause.
“In my opinion you can never encourage kids too much to focus on things other than themselves, whether it’s their communities, churches, or other causes,” Ms. Clark said.
Linda Collins, director of the Fifth Avenue store, has worked with Build-a-Bear for two years and said she has seen the company’s popularity grow enormously.
“People used to be like, ‘Build a what?’ ” she said. “Now I can’t wear my [Build-a-Bear Workshop] shirt in public without people coming up to me.”
The colorful walls, bright decorations, and cheerful staff give the store a warm, friendly atmosphere, one that Ms. Collins said affects employees as much as customers.
“We go through the stresses of any retail business, but when you look up and there’s a 3-year-old showing you the bunny he made and trying to find the right slippers and underwear for it, you have to smile,” she said.