Lairbrew

You've obtained a supreme potion of marketable plushie!

Lairbrew can concoct you a high-quality plush to your specifications! Let us brew what we brew best and you'll have a bewitching plush for your business without any toiling or trouble. With over 100 plush projects bubbled in our cauldron you can count on our experience!

Pick your plush poison

• Why Work With Lairbrew?

• Our Plush Gallery

• All Our Services

• See The Process

• Cost Estimates

• Contact Us!

ABOUT LAIRBREW

Lairbrew is a plush shop that specializes in collector quality plush for older audiences. It is queer and disabled owned and operated, run by a pair of wives from their home. Our designs seek to stoke the dragon-like urge to snatch a new shiny and bring it home to your lair to lay on! We are fully self-taught and have learned an immense amount about the industry through hands-on persistence and dedication.

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The Designer

Hello! I'm October Copper, and I'm the one who wears all the design related hats at Lairbrew! Working with Lairbrew on a plush design means working with me. I'll do my best to make sure the plush you receive is something you're proud to offer to your own customers!

Skills that make me a good choice as a designer for your next plush project:<sub>- 5 Years of manufacturing experience
- Knowledge that can only be gained with experience, with over 100 projects done to date
- Excellent communication throughout the design process
- Up-to-date knowledge from a plush seller's perspective, not just a designer or marketer from outside the industry</sub>

It is difficult to put everything I do to create a good customer experience in to succinct words, so I will let my work speak for myself!

• Years of Etsy Reviews

Kindness, patience, and understanding are core to what I do. Artists, small businesses, event co-ordinaters, anyone, we're all trying to make it. If someone is turning to me for my skills, and they're willing to value them properly, I am going to make it worth their while. My communication style is casual, but I take great pride in being a professional who gets good results.

WHY WORK WITH US?

Most people are used to a very specific process when it comes to producing merch. You make art, submit it as a specific file type, and get something made from that. Any more involvement (such as layer arrangements or vectorization) is technically optional. Plush are generally not like this at all. A single design can be the result of dozens of hours and months of accumulative work. There is also a very sharp learning curve for what can and can't work, and the mountain of knowledge one must obtain to create manufactured plush both legally and ethically is a hard one to scale.By working with Lairbrew your plush process is reduced to communicating an idea to me. Then I handle all the rest!

WHAT WE DO FOR YOU:

^{- We handle safety testing for you. Safety tests are not optional and are necessary even if you say an object is for older audiences! Toys that are not properly tagged can be seized and destroyed by customs. If the idea of learning all the associated laws is not something you want to dedicate time to do not ignore it and hope for the best. Work with someone who understands them!- By working with Lairbrew you can know you're working with competent manufacturers and people being treated well. We have multiple vetted manufacturing contacts with whom we have a well established, positive work history. We use these same manufacturers ourselves and stand by their quality on the basis of experience.- The final manufacturing sheets will get your point across exactly how you'd like it which is important for decreasing time spent in the prototype phase! Our design work involves extremely detailed prototyping sheets (typically with 6 views of the subject as a minimum,) embroidery vectors and guides, fabric swatch matching using industry standard and up-to-date fabric sets, working on Pantone certified color accurate screens, creating high resolution full bleed sublimation printing renders, and even doing 3D modeling and in-house patterning for some more complex projects.- By working with us you don't have to stay up late to exchange more than one communication with a manufacturer a day! We frequently have a full work day at least once a week operating on the manufacturer's time zone, and we maintain phone contact for emergencies or critical approval/denials. This speeds up communication!- We're very affordable compared to unscrupulous middlemen who want you to believe they are working with US factories by saying they are US based and never disclosing that they're just arranging communications.- You'd be supporting a queer owned and disabled owned business! We're very easy to work with since we're just a team of 2 primarily doing what you want to do: selling plush!}Knowledge and details are the keys to an extremely strong start for your project! By having multiple partner manufacturers to choose from, and thanks to doing as much design labor in our own process as possible, projects get on the right track quickly.

The Journey of one plush design

These slides show the full evolution of our popular kobold plush: rough concept sketch, reference sheets, the initial prototype, a cycle of feedback, the resulting prototype after feedback, and a few iterations later: the final plush.

Reference Sheets

Information must be clearly presented to the chosen manufacturing partner. Every manufacturer also has their own quirks and preferences for how they like this information presented that you only learn over time working with them. Making these is very tedious, but labor spent polishing pays off by saving headaches later, and experience helps a lot!

Concepts and their plush counterparts

Some of these plush are still being prototyped but already look great, which goes to show that my design workflow produces great results! My experience in the field comes in to play often before prototyping, and this can benefit your plush project immensely, especially if you have very specific needs!

• Finished Plush

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Service fee quick menu

• Offered Services

_{All prices are in USD. Anticipated labor hours vary by project.}PLUSH DESIGN
$40 per hour
^{Feel free to ask how many hours your project is likely to take!}PLUSH PROTOTYPING
_{Cost varies, these are estimates.}Plush keychain: $150
Mini (6 inches or less:) $175
Medium (9 to 12 inches:) $250
Large (14 to 20 inches:) $450
Extra Large (24 - 38 inches:) 725
Giant (40in+:) Between $800 and $1500_{Prices do not include shipping, which starts at $50.}PLUSH MANUFACTURING
First order of a design:
100 to 199 plush +15% order cost
200 to 499 plush +10% order cost
500+ plush +8% order cost
Subsequent orders of the same design:
+5% order cost^{Other costs to expect:
Safety Testing:
Varies based on the manufacturer, their partner lab(s,) and intended markets for your plush. A safe bet is usually around 1k.By-Sea Shipping:
Varies based on plush size, quantity, and time of year. For very large plush shipping may cost more than the manufacturing.Tariffs and import fees:
Please know you will be responsible for tariffs/import fees in all cases, as these are not set by me or within in my control. If these change they will need to be paid before I release the plush to you.Taxes:
I am not a tax professional and cannot advise you.}

Want a flat price?

If the idea of having something fully quoted out stresses you out too much, consider a flat price! Flat price plush include design, prototyping, safety testing, and manufacturing.100 9in tall plush in a sitting position:
^{$4500 - $700 non-refundable down, $3800 single payment before manufacturing begins.}100 12 to 14 in long plush in a laying position:
^{$6500 - $1200 non-refundable down, $5300 single payment before manufacturing begins.}100 40 in long plush in a laying position:
^{$10000 - $3000 non-refundable down, $7000 single payment before manufacturing begins.}These prices do not include shipping, which will be a separate cost. The larger the plush the higher that cost will be.

Additional Service Fees

Creative Commons Licensing
_{All work done by Lairbrew defaults to CC BY-NC-ND for CC License.}Concept and production art CC:CC BY-ND:
_{For taking completed design work to other producers}
$750 Flat FeeCC BY-SA:
_{For taking incomplete work to other artists to be completed, or for completing it yourself}
$500 Flat FeeWIP content for socials:
_{Varies by project, work format, and the amount of recording or photography required.}Commercial Character Rights:
_{For characters and character lines I am commissioned to design. If your project involves me designing a character you intend to take ownership of these will need to be negotiated.}NSFW Project Charge:
_{I am willing to develop NSFW plush. It is not my cup of tea and it is a more complicated process with fewer manufacturer options, so I charge an extra $750 flat for prototyping. I will still turn away a project I am uncomfortable with. I will not accept realistic/exact animal replicas, underage characters, or depictions of non-consent.}

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