The parent company, H. Scharrer & Koch, was founded in Bayreuth in 1856 and made glass beads for export. In 1910 Theo Köhler took it over and began turning beads into toys, and after the war the bead toys became a common Christmas present, assembled… from the rejects of good wood and glass beads.
In 1968 the next generation of the family launched a new name. Sigikid joins Sigi, short for Sigrid, to kid, and the first child of the family, Axel, was born the same year. He has run the German company for more than thirty years, from Mistelbach in Bavaria.
The company was founded on a simple complaint: the plush toys of the day were stiff and naturalistic, and nobody was making anything genuinely soft. It is now known for its designer plush and its organic lines.
Materials and method
Sigikid no longer manufactures in Germany. Most pieces for the North American market are made in the company's own factory in Romania, bought and rebuilt in the early 2000s to match its German production standards, with some components made in China. Everything passes quality control at the company headquarters in Mistelbach.
Softness and machine washability are treated as design requirements rather than afterthoughts, which is unusual in plush.
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