MERCH MAKERS
FiGPiN uses a fan-focused app and intentional design to build a passionate collector community. by Madeleine Buckley, associate editor
B
ack in 2013, Dan Williams was visiting Disneyland when he picked up a few blind-bagged pins. He took those pins back to his desk, opened them, and liked what he found — bright colors and sturdy material. However, he quickly realized that he had nowhere to display these pins. He wasn’t going to wear them, so he stuck them into his desk drawer, thinking how cool it would be if he could display them like figures. And that idea stuck in the back of Williams’ mind for about three years. In those years, he started a business with Travis Oliver, manufacturing custom goods for companies like ThinkGeek. Then, in 2016, the team started working on a pin-based project, which sparked a reinterest in that tiny start of an idea that Williams had with his Disney pins. He and Oliver, along with their collegues Erik Haldi and Amado Batour, all came together and started developing the idea that March. Those four men would become the owners of FiGPiN. “We were working on another project, but when we started doing FiGPiN, [Dan and I] just kind of looked at each other and said,
Batman: The Animated
Series FiGPiNs | Source:
‘we just want to do this. Let’s just do this.’ So we just really did. We still did our other stuff, but when there was any open moment, this is what we pulled all of our energy and focus on,” Haldi says. Now, five years later, FiGPiN is the only thing that the foursome works on. It has grown into a business, produced more than 700 different pins featuring more than 40 licenses — including Disney, Star Wars, My Hero Academia, DC Comics, Harry Potter, Marvel, Stranger Things, and more — and developed a dedicated fan base.
SO, WHAT IS IT? The FiGPiN team was developing a product type that had been around for a long time: enamel pins. But what they chose to do with the hard enamel medium was entirely new. For those who have never seen one, a FiGPiN is not entirely a figure, nor is it entirely a pin. Each one stands about 3 inches tall and, while it does feature spikes on its back that could poke through fabric like any other pin, it also comes with a stand so you can display it like an action figure. According to Batour, who now serves as the vice president of design and digital experience at FiGPiN, it is often hard to describe the product to people who have never seen one before. “We kind of give our whole explanation, and they think, ‘oh, so you make pins, right?’” he explains. “And we’re like, ‘no, we make FiGPiNs.’ And they think PiN
FiG
we’re kind of full of ourselves when we say that. But then when they see the product, time and time again for more than three years straight, they’re like ‘oh, wow, this isn’t just an enamel pin. You guys did something else.’ And they have a hard time putting their finger on it. Like, ‘how did you make this thing more magical?’”
“OH, WOW, THIS ISN’T JUST AN ENAMEL PIN. YOU GUYS DID SOMETHING ELSE.” - AMADO BATOUR The FiGPiN team does a few things to create this “magical” collectible experience, Batour says. One of those things is maintaining a realistic, art-first design approach. Instead of creating a distinct “FiGPiN” look and stylizing each character to match it, the designers — led by Haldi — literally draw every pin, adding details and pushing the limits of what enamel can do to make each 3-inch, metal character look as close as possible to how they appear on screen, on the page, or in person. Michael Ruddy, a FiGPiN fan and the co-founder of Hero Complex, a company that makes the first officially licensed FiGPiN accessories, describes the deep sense of childhood nostalgia he gets from looking at the pins. He first started collecting Dragon Ball Z FiGPiNs when he came across the company on the showfloor at Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC). Talking about those pins, as well as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and Batman: The Animated
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