When Jazwares acquired Kellytoy in April 2020, Squishmallows was a three-year-old plush brand with a devoted niche following and little mass-market presence. Judd Zebersky saw the gap. More than 100 million Squishmallows units were sold in a single year, according to Reuters. The Kellytoy deal was an expression of how Zebersky had been building Jazwares for nearly three decades: identify the right brand, cultivate the relationship, move when the fit is proven.
A Platform Built on Licensing
Licensing was Zebersky’s foundation from the start. His first real commercial hit was a line of novelty drink cups shaped like WWE wrestlers, products that required entertainment licenses before Jazwares had any meaningful market presence. That early experience set the template for what the company would become. Over the following two decades, Jazwares built relationships with some of the most recognized franchises in entertainment and gaming, from Pokémon and Star Wars to Fortnite, Marvel, and Cocomelon.
“I have really loved pop culture since I was a kid,” Zebersky told Reuters. “I was into comic books and toys, and I’m also an artist, a not very good one. I looked at my wife, and I said, ‘I want to make toys.’ She said, ‘Follow your dreams,’ and that’s what I did.”
That instinct translated into a licensing operation with genuine scale. Jazwares’ portfolio grew to include both wholly owned and licensed brands across toys, plush, action figures, costumes, and pet products, a structure designed to move with cultural cycles rather than depend on any single property.
The Acquisition Playbook
Zebersky’s approach to acquisitions followed a consistent logic: test the relationship first, buy when the fit is clear. Before acquiring Kellytoy outright, Jazwares had already established a distribution partnership with the company, giving both sides a working read on how their operations could integrate. The same pattern appeared earlier with Wicked Cool Toys, purchased in 2019, which brought the Pokémon master toy license and an experienced product team into the Jazwares portfolio.
“This was a brand that needed a lot of love,” Zebersky said of Squishmallows. “It struck a nerve, and when you strike a nerve in the toy industry, great things can happen.”
Squishmallows became a fixture on TikTok and Reddit, endorsed by celebrities from Kim Kardashian to Lady Gaga, and collected by adults as readily as children. The brand won the overall Toy of the Year award in 2021, 2022, and 2023 from The Toy Foundation. By the time Judd Zebersky announced his departure in January 2026, Jazwares was operating in more than 100 countries.
Philanthropy at the Center, Not the Margins
Judd Zebersky established Jazwares Cares, the company’s philanthropic arm, at the company’s inception in 1997. Through the program, Jazwares has donated millions of toys to children’s hospitals, schools, and non-profit organizations, and runs an Adopt-a-School initiative supporting Title I schools near its offices.
The Zeberskys’ personal giving runs deeper. They donated $2 million to the “Catch the Love” capital campaign at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, contributing to an expansion project estimated at $170 million that extended the facility from four floors to eight. The hospital named both the Pediatric Emergency Department Registration Area and the Outpatient Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Unit in their honor. Zebersky also developed a custom Lotsy Dotsy doll in honor of the hospital’s resident clown, made specifically to comfort young patients during hospital stays. Every child admitted receives one.
Laura Zebersky joined the Make-A-Wish Southern Florida board of directors in 2019 and was named Chair of the Board of Directors in 2022. The couple made more than 100 wishes come true through the organization. Make-A-Wish Southern Florida’s donor records for 2023-2024 recognize Laura and Judd Zebersky in the $1,000,000+ tier, the organization’s highest level of acknowledgment.
Giving back, like deal-making, was never an afterthought. “Putting a smile on children’s faces, especially when they are at the hospital, is at the heart of everything Laura and I do in business, family, and life,” Zebersky said.
