Inside Jazwares The Company Judd Zebersky Built From Scratch
The story behind Jazwares begins not with a toy designer, but with a lawyer who got on a plane to China and started learning how things were made. Judd Zebersky, who earned a JD from the University of Miami School of Law and ran his own practice, made a professional break that few attorneys attempt. He spent months inside toy factories in southern China in the late 1990s, learning manufacturing from production workers, and came home to build a company.
A Manufacturing Education in Rural China
Zebersky’s time in China was not a brief scouting trip. Judd Zebersky described traveling remote roads to reach factories and spending extended time learning injection molding, blow molding, rotocasting, hair rooting, and engineering design. The practical knowledge he gathered became the basis for Jazwares’ internal capabilities and shaped the people it recruited.
The motivation was straightforward. “I looked at my wife, and I said, ‘I want to make toys,'” he said. “She said, ‘Follow your dreams,’ and that’s what I did.”
Scale Through Licensing and Strategic Buying
Jazwares entered the toy market through licensed properties, building its catalog around recognizable brands including Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Fortnite. The acquisition of Wicked Cool Toys in 2019, followed by Kellytoy in 2020, expanded both the company’s size and its product range. Kellytoy delivered the Squishmallows line, a collection of ultrasoft plush characters with individual names, bios, and backstories.
Squishmallows became a TikTok fixture and a collector’s item, drawing celebrity attention from Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian. More than 100 million sold in a single year, each priced between $5 and $30. Alleghany Capital Corporation first invested in Jazwares in 2014 and took a majority stake in 2016, with Berkshire Hathaway becoming the indirect parent through its Q4 2022 Alleghany acquisition.
Judd Zebersky stepped down as CEO on March 20, 2026, with COO David Neustein taking over three days later. The company now reaches buyers across more than 100 countries and has earned recognition from TIME, Fast Company, and Fortune. Refer to this article for related information.
Find more information about Judd Zebersky on https://www.jazwares.com/about-us/leadership
