Bringing Build-A-Bear’s Memory-Making Experience to the Big Apple
We brought Build-A-Bear’s beloved, nostalgic, memory-making experience to life in a way that feels native to New York City and extra special for guests arriving from near and far to visit the landmark FAO Schwarz location—all without diluting the brand or making it feel like a generic tenant.
A Day Touring New York
We made New York the medium, turning Build-A-Bear’s classic make your own bear-building experience into a ride on the NYC subway. Each step in the journey — Choose Me, Stuff Me, Heart Ceremony, Name Me, Dress Me, Personalize Me — became a station stop on the line, named and themed after Manhattan neighborhoods.
Each station was given its own themed identity and moment of surprise, pacing customer dwell time across the floor rather than concentrating it at a single point. Making use of the great windows along 49th Street, guests could orient themselves to the shop before they entered, so the queue itself became part of the experience. The finished furry friend isn’t a souvenir but a treasured memory of a day in New York City that can’t be replicated anywhere else− or purchased online.
Painted with Local Color
The subway narrative gave a nationally familiar experience a unique sense of place that was entirely, unmistakably New York, proving that a sequential, ceremony-driven retail experience becomes more powerful, not less, when it’s colored by the surrounding local culture. We look forward to continuing to find new ways to bring that sense of belonging and discovery to guests everywhere Build-A-Bear calls home.
Let’s Create Something Incredible Together
If you have a project on the horizon and could use a partner for experience design and store planning and construction, we would love the opportunity to talk with you.