Endorsed by Rihanna, Dua Lipa, and BLACKPINK, sold for as high as $149 on POPMART and eBay, generating almost half a billion dollars in revenue over the past year alone, Labubus have caused a commercial explosion. What started as a niche art project with Kasing Lung’s illustrated book series The Monsters has quickly turned into a billion-dollar commercial steamroller in just a few years.

This has become a common theme in mass society with the homogenization of culture, as crowds strive to associate with the nicheness of an item instead of respecting the story behind it. Similarly, the “matcha craze” simplifies the appreciation of the ancient and cultural practice of matcha cultivation to a mere “performative” admiration. Society’s unfaltering habit of buying items by the masses in hopes to identify with the persona that comes with their reputation destroys individuality and adds to the dangers of commercialization.

According to Lung, Labubus were inspired by his childhood in Norway. Nordic folklore embodies the creatures as good-hearted and kind, who play in magical forests and create chaotic situations through their misplaced good intentions. In collaboration with the Chinese company How2Work, the early years of Labubu appealed to a smaller audience of art toy enthusiasts. It wasn’t until 2019 following a partnership with a much more well-known company ‘POPMART’ that the toy line began booming.

With their signature furry exterior and toothy grin, Labubus are sold as figurines, plushies, and, most famously, in “blind boxes.” And honestly, upon first glance, they aren’t super appealing and can only become truly appreciated by fans who have read Lung’s series.

However in April 2024, Lisa from BLACKPINK was spotted with a Labubu keychain on her bag and soon began posting about her adoration for the creatures. Celebrity endorsements spread rapidly, and social media unboxing videos quickly ensued despite the majority’s lack of knowledge about their origin. Labubu’s journey is a reflection of society’s shallow yet human need to associate with their revered influencers and esteemed figures without any thought on why Labubus were created.

In a similar story, matcha, in recent years, has been labelled on social media as “too mainstream” and a “performative” choice, when in reality it is simply a healthy drink that has been cultivated in east Asian culture for over a thousand years. However, due to rapid exploitation of the drink by social media influencers through commercialization, its background has been erased.

Consequences of commercialization are not confined to the loss of “nicheness” or individuality, but also the grave impacts they pose on the environment. According to OneStop ESG, Labubu dolls and the blind boxes that accompany them are typically made from the plastic polyvinyl chloride (PCV) which is derived from fossil fuels; the production of PCV creates toxic byproducts like dioxins which pose serious threats to the environment and human health. The blind boxes are also wrapped in several layers of material including foil bags and plastic, which are typically discarded and live out their 20-year life spans piling landfills.

The Labubu trend, among many others, normalizes hyper-consumption and waste by teaching society that the constant purchasing of new products and quick discardance of them is a norm. These trends have very little actual meaning to the people indulging in them, and soon become toys that are “made to pollute.”

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Wynne BruBaker at [email protected].