IKEA recently announced the winners of the brand’s latest Soft Toy Drawing Competition. Eleven-year-old Nick from St. Louis is the first American since 2017 to win one of the top honors in this creative contest!
The SAGOSKATT collection from Swedish retailer IKEA is a limited-edition collection of soft toys made for kids, by kids. Each year children from around the world are invited to submit their designs, featuring drawings of a would-be imaginatively awesome plush.
This year’s competition brought in more than 66,000 entries—with five chosen as the top winners. Each winner will have their drawing turned into an IRL IKEA toy! One hundred percent of the proceeds from the SAGOSKATT line are donated to local children’s right to play initiatives.
Along with 11-year-old Nick (who won for his “Bird” design), the other global winners were “Sandwich friends” designed by nine-year-old Audrey from Canada, “Cat” designed by eight-year-old Liepa from Lithuania, “Fried egg” designed by seven-year-old Zosia from Poland and “Mermaid dog” designed by nine-year-old Savva from Russia.
Jorge Omar Santoyo Henaine, Product Design Developer for Children’s IKEA, IKEA of Sweden, said in a press release, “I feel very lucky and grateful to be part of the team involved in the SAGOSKATT project. The whole concept of ’for children by children to help children’ is something that makes me extremely proud.”
Santoyo Henaine continued, “The endless creativity in kids is amazing. Each year we are impressed by the amount of unique, cool and fun creations we receive. We wish we could make all of them! When selecting the winners, we consider a lot of important criteria, for instance, how unique, colorful and expressive the drawing is, if it can be transformed into a soft toy for mass production and if we can secure the safety requirements for the future toy.”
Find the SAGOSKATT toy line in stores and on IKEA’s website.
—Erica Loop
Photos courtesy of IKEA
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