I’m riding a green, cross-eyed monkey named Elliott. Beside me, Blair Lawrence rolls by on an orange cow named Angus.
Nearby, riders of a fox named Micheal J and a unicorn named Sparkles – easily identified by their giant nametags – are circling a fountain on the ground floor of the Aberdeen Centre in Richmond, B.C.
The giant, plush, battery-operated animals roaming around the mall are the brainchild of Mr. Lawrence who founded the Vancouver-based company, Stuffy Riders, in 2016.
The animals – a furry covering over a mechanical body with four wheels – are now in 71 malls across Canada. This spring, the company opened its first U.S. stores, and several other locations outside North America are in the works.
Blair Lawrence founded the Vancouver-based company Stuffy Riders in 2016.
Stuffy Riders is breathing new life into Canadian malls at a time when they’re at risk of an otherwise sleepy existence. Amid the rise of e-commerce and the fall of department stores such as Nordstrom Inc. and Hudson’s Bay Company, the way shopping centres attract patrons is changing – and Stuffy Riders could be a key part of that.
If the whole business feels like it was dreamt up by a six-year-old – it was.
In 2014, Lawrence went with his family to a mall in Spokane, Wash., where he said an “alien–looking” ride captivated his son’s attention.
“I thought at the time that if somebody actually did this right, it could be a hell of a business. So, I started developing it,” he said.
Drawing upon his experience as an importer-exporter, he reached out to his contacts in China and went to Shanghai to set up the manufacturing process. It took about a year of development before he was ready.
In 2016, Lawrence opened his first Stuffy Riders store in a different mall in Richmond, B.C. at 8 a.m. By noon, he feared he’d made a huge mistake. People came by asking how much it would cost to buy one, but after finding out that they weren’t for sale, nobody had any interest in renting one to ride around the mall. “I spent all this time and money developing this thing and not one person wanted to go,” Lawrence said.
It was 1:30 p.m. before he got his first rider. Her name was Kaitlin, and after persuading her dad to rent one, Lawrence granted the two unlimited time on their ride because he was thrilled to have customers. Kaitlin came back every day for the next two weeks, he said.
By the end of his first week, he had lineups out the door of his flagship store. At the time, he charged $8 for 10 minutes. Today, he charges $9 for the same time and 59 cents for every additional minute.
And while the animals do sometimes inspire trepidation from mall owners and patrons, Lawrence said built-in sensors that stop the ride if an animal gets too close to something typically allay concerns.
Owing to his company’s nicheness, especially in the Canadian market, Mr. Lawrence has had to learn a lot just by doing. One of his lessons came from operating Stuffy Riders kiosk locations.
Every Stuffy Rider is combination of what Mr. Lawrence calls a “skin,” or its furry exterior, and its mechanical body underneath. Since the “skins” are what come into contact with customers, they’re the part of the animal that needs to be taken off and cleaned regularly.
However, after traumatizing some younger customers while “skinning” a Stuffy Rider behind the counter of a kiosk, Mr. Lawrence quickly learned that these locations would require a separate, closed-door space.
“We’ve had little kids crying that we’re hurting the animal,” he said.
Ideas for new “skins” are constantly churning in Lawrence’s brain. Most recently, he was thrilled to unveil a Stuffy Riders baby, which he said resembles a crawling infant.
Kids may be the ones persuading the adults in their lives to try out a Stuffy Rider, but Lawrence said he actually sees more adults than youth represented in his overall rider population. Some will even hit the stores for date night, he added.
At the heart of the Stuffy Riders empire, the man behind it all, Lawrence, is almost as much of a character as his beloved animals. There’s not much about the way he does business that’s ordinary, but somehow, it continues to pay off.
For example, the company’s upcoming expansion in the Bahamas began with Lawrence boarding a cruise ship that was supposed to travel up Canada’s eastern coast and, at the last minute, rerouted to the Caribbean country.
In an effort to make the most of his unplanned trip into the southern hemisphere, he hailed a cab upon arrival and requested to be taken to the local mall to talk shop with its owner.
Sisters Emma and Zoe Zhang return from a cruise around the Aberdeen Centre on a Stuffy Rider animal.
That mall is now the future site of the Bahamas’ first Stuffy Riders store, and Lawrence’s cabbie from that day is its franchisee. They’ve even worked out a deal in which the cab driver will take cruise goers directly from the ship to the mall for a Stuffy Riders experience.
Back at the Aberdeen Centre, the local love for Stuffy Riders in Lawrence’s hometown is indisputable.
Sisters Emma and Zoe Zhang squeal with delight as they roll back into the store on Slush the wolf. “It was so fun!” they shout in unison.
Seven-year-old Zoe notes the independence of the experience as her favourite part. “We could drive it ourselves,” she said.
For teenagers Brendan and Saige Leung, the thrill of their rides on Dino the dinosaur and Andy the horse takes on a leisurely meaning. “I didn’t have to walk,” Brendan said.
Standing near the entrance to his store, two kids whizz by Lawrence on opposing Stuffy Riders wolves. “The race is on,” he jokes.
No matter their reason for riding, Lawrence is glad to see them. The revolving door of patrons coming in and out of his store makes for a stark contrast to his first day on the job nearly a decade ago, and a reminder of how far he’s come.
