A Winter Rendezvous: The Cute Prelude in Wangfujing
When the winter breeze sweeps across the streets of Wangfujing, inside Beijing APM Mall, the warmth of art toys has long been quietly spreading. As the core trend hub of the capital, this place has always been the first stop for fresh creativity. Every heartwarming cuteness can quickly become the reason for youngsters across the city to travel here. Here, people wandering the mall are always expecting new surprises, and this time, we brought a fluffy, gentle rendezvous, for POP MART.
To align with the pop-up event of「Glitter Wish Party」, the brand hoped to break the boundaries of conventional inflatables, and make an unprecedented attempt — to turn the SKULLPANDA art toy into the nation's first ever giant long-pile plush inflatable, letting everyone feel the softness of the art toy, scaling the palm-sized little guy into a huggable gentleness, so that this cuteness could warm everyone's heart, in the winter of the capital.
Within Every Tiny Detail: The Meticulous Restoration of the Plush Texture
Scaling a few-centimeter art toy into a several-meter giant long-pile plush inflatable, the greatest challenge was never the size expansion, but the restoration of the texture. The softness of the art toy lies in the fluffiness of every strand of plush, and in the delicate matte finish of the face. Do it wrong, and the entire image would lose its original soul.
We polished and refined the IP design draft over and over again, spending half a month just adjusting the fabric matching: for the face part, we picked a delicate matte fabric, perfectly restoring the delicate texture of the art toy's face. Even the X-shaped mark in the eyes, and the blushing cheeks, we did precise printing, so that after scaling up, it was still exactly the same as the original, without any distortion. For the body part, we picked three different long-pile plush fabrics: the white plush for the hood, the purple plush for the scarf, and the gradient plush for the tail. Each of them had different fluffiness and length, just to restore the layered plush feel of the original art toy.
Even for those long gradient tails, we made 4 prototypes back and forth. Among different plush fabrics, we picked the material that could perfectly present the purple-to-black gradient, and we specially added invisible support structures, to ensure that such long tails could stretch steadily after inflation, without collapsing, just like the look in the art toy, laying softly on the ground. We balanced the fluffiness of the plush and the practicality of the inflatable. Even for such heavy plush fabric, we could ensure that the inflated outline perfectly matched the IP's cute vibe, without deforming due to the fabric's weight.
Plush Healing: The Gentle Coordinate in the Mall
This fluffy little guy was never an ordinary installation. He was the healing coordinate of the entire mall, turning the cold of winter, into fluffy warmth.
In the atrium of the mall, he caught everyone's attention in an instant. Passing shoppers couldn't help but stop, reaching out to rua his fluffy head, taking photos with this cute giant, storing this winter warmth into their albums. He was just like a little guy running out of the art toy world, using his own plush, softening the entire mall's atmosphere. Even hurried passers-by, the moment they saw him, couldn't help but break into a smile, couldn't help but want to get close, to touch this softness.
Many people traveled all the way to APM Wangfujing just for him, just to take a photo with this nation's first plush SP inflatable, sharing this cuteness on their social media. During the event, he became a viral check-in spot on Xiaohongshu in Beijing. In just a few days, related check-in posts flooded the feed, becoming the hottest cute topic of the capital this winter, everyone was saying, this plush SP is just too cute!
Brand New Breakthrough: The Attempt of the Nation's First Plush Inflatable
This time, we broke the boundaries of conventional inflatables, and made the nation's first ever long-pile plush POP MART inflatable. Before this, everyone's impression of inflatables was the smooth PVC fabric, but we, wanted to bring everyone a different touch, a different gentleness.
To make this plush inflatable, we overcame numerous challenges: for the air tightness of the plush fabric, we adjusted the base fabric of the material, to ensure no air leakage after inflation. And for the fabric's weight, ordinary PVC is very light, but long-pile plush is several times heavier, so we readjusted the inflatable's structure, adding invisible reinforcement, to ensure the stability after inflation. Even such a big plush inflatable, could stand steadily in the mall. And for the splicing of different fabrics, the matte fabric of the face and the plush fabric of the body, we did seamless splicing, no abrupt threads, perfectly restoring the IP's look, just like we directly scaled up the art toy.
This was a brand new attempt for us, and also a new breakthrough for the inflatable industry. We proved that inflatables are not just smooth PVC, they can also be fluffy plush, they can also bring everyone a different, touchable gentleness.
Crafting with Heart: Bringing the Cuteness to You
We always believe that a great inflatable is never just an inflatable installation, but a medium that can deliver temperature, a carrier that turns the cuteness you love, into touchable gentleness.
This time, from our design workshop, to the atrium of Beijing APM, we completed a brand new custom deployment: from the early-stage material attempt, to fabric and structure debugging in the production phase, to on-site installation, we took full control of the entire process. We solved all the problems of plush inflatables, letting this brand new attempt, perfectly present in front of everyone, without any loss, turning the brand's creativity, into the plush gentleness that everyone can touch.
We have always been trying new materials, new possibilities. Whether it's conventional PVC inflatables, or this brand new long-pile plush inflatable, whether it's precise IP restoration, or brand new material breakthrough, we can help you achieve it. Whether it's a mall pop-up event, or a holiday theme display, no matter what new material, what new idea you want, we can turn your wildest ideas, into the gentleness that can warm people's hearts.
