US winner selected from 66,000 global submissions in annual IKEA Soft Toy Drawing Competition

Following the annual tradition, IKEA encouraged children across the globe to take part in the Soft Toy Drawing Competition and unleash their imagination creating the soft toys of their dreams. This year, IKEA received more than 66,000 entries from around the globe, and five unique drawings were selected to become real soft toys. IKEA US is happy to announce we have a US winner—Nick, 11 years old.

This is the first time the US has had a winner since 2017. Nick says he would tell his bird “You have been chosen to be a special plush for a special person. I would tell him to take care of the kids and be a great cuddler, and then the kids can feed him rocks.”

The SAGOSKATT collection is a range of limited-edition soft toys designed by kids for kids. It is the result of the annual IKEA Soft toy drawing competition where children across the world come to the nearest IKEA store or enter online to submit a drawing of their dream soft toy. This year brought many challenges with pandemic restrictions and made IKEA focus on the digital solution for the competition. But nothing could stop kids from going wild with their imagination and being creative: more than 66,000 drawings were submitted globally. The five most original drawings from the competition were selected by the jury at IKEA of Sweden to be turned into real soft toys – the SAGOSKATT collection.

These are the five most creative and unique characters that were selected by the jury this year:

1. “Bird” designed by Nick, 11 years old, USA.

2. “Sandwich friends” designed by Audrey, 9 years old, Canada

3. “Cat” designed by Liepa, 8 years old, Lithuania

4. “Fried egg” designed by Zosia, 7 years old, Poland

5. “Mermaid dog” designed by Savva, 9 years old, Russia

The Soft Toy Drawing Competition does not only allow children to share their dreams and imagination, it is also the way to contribute to every child’s right to play and develop. IKEA is donating 100% of SAGOSKATT proceeds to support local initiatives that promote children’s right to play.

“I feel very lucky and grateful to be part of the team involved in the SAGOSKATT project. The whole concept of ’for children by children to help children’ is something that makes me extremely proud,” says Jorge Omar Santoyo Henaine, Product Design Developer for Children’s IKEA, IKEA of Sweden.”The endless creativity in kids is amazing. Each year we are impressed by the amount of unique, cool and fun creations we receive. We wish we could make all of them! When selecting the winners, we consider alot of important criteria, for instance, how unique, colourful and expressive the drawing is, if it can be transformed into a soft toy for mass production and if we can secure the safety requirements for the future toy.”

About IKEA
At IKEA, the vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people by offering well-designed, functional and affordable, high-quality home furnishing, produced with care for people and the environment. Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is one of 12 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA retail under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Ingka Group is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating 375 IKEA stores in 30 countries – including 52 retail locations in the U.S.

For more information on IKEA Retail U.S., see IKEA-USA.com, @IKEAUSANews, @IKEAUSA or IKEAUSA on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest.

About the IKEA franchise system
The IKEA retail business is operated through a franchise system with franchisees that are authorised to market and sell the IKEA product range within specified geographical territories. Inter IKEA Systems B.V. is the owner of the IKEA Concept and worldwide IKEA franchisor, who also assigns different IKEA companies to develop the product range, supply products and deliver communication solutions. Today, 12 different groups of companies have the right to own and operate IKEA sales channels under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V.

About Inter IKEA Group
Inter IKEA Group includes Inter IKEA Systems B.V., IKEA of Sweden AB, IKEA Supply AG and IKEA Industry AB related businesses. Inter IKEA Holding B.V. is the holding company for the Inter IKEA Group.