Crazy Aaron’s Aaron Muderick talks Goliath, Better Butter – and Pinchies!

Aaron, before we dive into some of the new launches, this is the first time we’re chatting since the news about you joining the Goliath family. Congratulations! What made Goliath feel a good fit for Crazy Aaron’s?
I’m in year 27 of my Crazy Aaron journey, and I knew that it was time for a change, right? There have been different milestones along the way, many of which were really big changes. If you go back to 2005, we were a promotional products company, putting corporate labels on tins for employee mixer events. So there’s been a lot of changes over the years, but the core has always been putty, chemistry and making really good stuff.

I was looking at strategic partners and had the opportunity to meet Jochanan and Adi from Goliath and just sort of felt a connection. I think they’re a good cultural fit for our organization, our mission and our values. We were originally doing the European distribution agreement, taking advantage of their strengths in European distribution, and then we decided to take a step further and become one organization.

It gives us greater distribution and a global sales force that can take our quality product to the broader world in a way that we never could before. It also means we now have a tremendous opportunity to use Goliath’s deep network in Asian sourcing to help us take a giant pile of ideas that didn’t fit perfectly in the ‘Made in USA’ box and figure out how to move forward with those. I’m excited!

27 years in, what keeps you enthused about what you do?
Look, writer’s block can come but you have to remember it can go. But it doesn’t go if you don’t change something. I have this quote on the wall behind me here, it says: ‘Any idea can turn to magic or dust depending on the people who rub against it’. Like this Goliath move, you have to embrace moments of fresh potential and creative opportunity. That’s what helps you refocus away from the worries of running a business, into the new things you can really be excited about.

Speaking of new ideas, let’s talk about Better Butter. A buttery smooth putty that really does feel and look like butter. I can’t imagine that was an easy nut to crack?
No, it wasn’t easy. It took 10 years of experimentation, off and on.

Wow.
Every few months we’d discover something or the team would come up with an ideas that pushed it in the right direction. And I know you felt it at Toy Fair Billy – it’s so good.

It is!
I am not someone to say: “This is the best thing in the whole world” I let our customers judge that – but this is the best thing in the whole world.

Ha!
When you feel it, there’s almost a non-verbal appreciation… A kind of ‘oh my gosh, I didn’t even know something could be this soft and silky’. And then there’s that moment where they put it down and expect their hands to be covered in slime or grease, but there isn’t any. I love it.

How did it come about? What made you want to crack butter?
Well, there’s two separate paths that happen in our product development process. One is on the technology and chemistry side, where I am pushing the team to make the best thing. And it’s hard to figure out how to make it – but once you figure out how to make, it’s also hard to make. And then once you have something amazing, what do you call it? If you close your eyes and squeeze it, it really feels like you are squishing your hands into a pot of warm butter. And butter is trending – it’s a hot theme – so all of these things aligned and we ended up with this successful product.

Sticking with food, you also have the new Mix Your Own Mac & Cheese Thinking Putty.
Yes, and if Better Butter was very chemistry-heavy, this one came about through consumer demand. Food themes and ‘make your own’ is very popular. And mac and cheese is a very popular food item. It’s one of the first things kids learn how to make themselves, so we felt there could be a product here.

And then Pinchies – ‘squishy, squeezable fidget friends’. What makes this an exciting launch for you guys?
You asked me earlier about staying motivated… I’ve been doing inventor meetings for six or seven years now and in the past 18 months, it’s really started clicking. We worked with Tim Walsh and David Yakos on Pinchies and as soon as I got my hands on it, I was very excited. It embodies our brand, and yet it’s not a compound. It embodies everything our sensory brand stands behind.

And there’s a game element to Pinchies too?
Yes, they’re D12 dice that can be made into other shapes. This is about the sensory experience, but we’ve made it more than just a fidget toy with the gameplay and the characterization.

Before we wrap up, what would you say is Crazy Aaron’s most underrated item?
Success in this industry is about a lot of things and one of them is timing. And the other is marketing and positioning, right? We have a product called Angry Putty which gets stronger with every stretch… The more you stretch it, the more it fights you back and it really gets incredibly tough. You can really build muscles using this – it’s almost an exercise product!

Now, I don’t think Angry Putty is the right name for this product and it didn’t sell particularly well. But what’s interesting is that we have our own retail store, and we have the product on the shelf there where it really gets the time, attention and explanation from the store staff. And it’s in the top three bestsellers in the store, even though worldwide it’s a discontinued failure! That tells me the bones are good, right?

So maybe one day we’ll fix that problem and it’ll be a tremendous success because everything old can be new again in the toy business.

Great pick. Aaron, it’s always a pleasure. Thanks again.

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