Why Build-A-Bear Has Been on an Nvidia-Like Run

Sharon Price John is going around the room introducing me to stuffed animals. First is Bluey, then Pompompurin—one of “Hello Kitty’s best friends,” she explains. There’s a capybara she nicknames “Mr. Chill,” and holding court at the head of the table is Oogie Boogie, the adorably terrifying antagonist from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Price John and I have just sought refuge from the plushie explosion that is Build-A-Bear Workshop by darting into the retailer’s adjoining recording studio, though—and I should have known—the toys spill into this space too. They’re wearing headphones and sitting at consoles, placeholders for the human hosts and producers who record real podcasts and shows for the company’s iHeartRadio station here. Creating content out of Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc.’s intellectual property is just one of the ways the chief executive officer has led her company out of a dark period and transformed it into one of the stock market’s best performers of late. Nearly a penny stock in April 2020, its shares are now worth about 50 times that pandemic low, putting it on a growth trajectory closer to that of Palantir Technologies Inc. and Nvidia Corp. than of a classic retailer that, as the name suggests, allows people to make their own toy bears—or foxes, or cats or whatever trademarked IP the customer chooses to stuff.