The decision to leave a law career and start a toy company in the late 1990s would have struck most people as a gamble with long odds. Judd Zebersky made it anyway. He had earned his JD from the University of Miami School of Law, established a law firm, and then walked away from it. “I looked at my wife, and I said, ‘I want to make toys,'” he recalled. She told him to follow his dreams. He did.
Education by Immersion
Zebersky’s preparation for the toy business did not come from business school or industry mentors. It came from spending months inside Chinese manufacturing facilities in 1997, learning production processes by watching and doing. He absorbed injection molding, blow molding, and rotocasting. He studied hair rooting techniques. He traveled to remote areas in southern China where the industrial scale of toy production met conditions that were far from corporate. That education gave him a fluency in manufacturing that shaped Jazwares‘ hiring and operations for years.
The company launched with licensed entertainment properties, building its catalog around brands with proven fan bases. Minecraft, Fortnite, and Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise gave Jazwares early traction. Strategic acquisitions followed: Wicked Cool Toys in 2019 and Kellytoy in 2020. The Kellytoy deal added Pokémon licensing rights and Squishmallows, the plush toy line that would define the company’s next chapter.
Awards, Philanthropy, and a Planned Transition
Squishmallows developed a following that crossed demographic lines. The toys, each named and assigned a birthday and personal backstory, spread through TikTok and attracted celebrity fans including Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian. More than 100 million units sold in a year. Retail prices ranged from five to thirty dollars. Jazwares earned recognition from TIME, Fast Company, and Fortune for its influence and workplace culture. Judd Zebersky received the South Florida Business Journal’s Ultimate CEOs honor in 2024 and appeared on The Business Report’s Top 50 Entrepreneurs list in 2023.
Jazwares Cares, founded alongside the company, donated millions of toys to children’s hospitals, Title I schools, and nonprofits including Make-A-Wish and Toys for Tots. The Zebersky family gave two million dollars to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. Judd Zebersky stepped down as CEO on March 20, 2026. Jazwares, at that point, employed approximately 1,400 people selling products in over 100 countries. Visit this page for more information.
Find more information about Judd Zebersky on https://www.linkedin.com/posts/university-of-miami-school-of-law_judd-and-laura-zebersky-jd-93-toymakers-activity-7249433715506843648-E0Af