 "Photo: Submitted Photo")
 "Photo: www.plajapets.com")
Chances are, if you put three determined college students together on a project, good ideas can come about. But most of these good ideas aren't selling like crazy internationally and gaining rapid media attention.
Jason Johnson, a 2004 MSU international business graduate, teamed up with another MSU alumnus, Adam Kittelson, to create Plaja Pets. The toys are hot sellers over the internet and all over the United States, as well as throughout Europe and Asia.
Johnson said he was sitting in class one day when he decided he wanted to start Plaja Pets, the plush animals with detachable and interchangeable heads and tails. With the six original and current Plaja pets, you can create over 200 different plush animals by mixing and matching their heads, bodies, and tails.
But why the unique design?
"We wanted to be different than Beanie Babies," Johnson said.
Co-Founder of Plaja International, Plaja Pets' parent company, Johnson said the concept of detachable and interchangeable toys has been around forever. Johnson said one customer once called the unique plush pets a cross between Beanie Babies and Mr. Potatohead.
When Johnson and Kittelson started brainstorming their ideas that eventually became Plaja Pets, all they had were a few colorful pictures. Johnson said they needed a way to digitize their sketches.
Enter the third MSU alum who helped make Plaja Pets happen, Tanisa Sharif. Kittelson had known Sharif from classes at MSU. Sharif was a graduate of graphic design and took the sketches and digitized them into prototypes.
That was in 2005 and since then Plaja Pets has slowly grown into a popular local and international sell. But if you want to go out and buy a Plaja Pet instead of order one off of the internet, there is only one place to go - the Plaja Pets kiosk located in the River Hills Mall between the food court and the movie theater.
If the only place to get Plaja Pets is a kiosk in the mall, then how has Plaja Pets become a thriving international seller?
Two ways: word of mouth and the internet.
Plaja Pets, although they originated in Mankato, were first sold in South Korea. Kittelson was in China when he met a retailer who said Plaja Pets would fare well in South Korea.
Since then, Plaja Pets have been purchased by and shipped to people all over the world, including England and Scotland. Johnson said he hopes Europe will be their next international wholesale retailer within the next year.
Not only have customers taken notice to the plush detachable pets, but so has one of the biggest toy retailers in the world. F.A.O Schwartz and Plaja Pets are in the last stages of organizing an agreement in which Plaja Pets will be sold by the huge toy store. Johnson said they are currently working on the packaging for the toys to be sold in and will return to F.A.O. Schwartz in New York in January.
"It's a long process to get it to larger stores," Johnson said.
Their quickly-growing company and small-town success story has caught the eyes of many. Johnson recently spoke at the MSU College of Business in an entrepreneurship class. Johnson said the most interesting part of talking to the class was he knew some of the students from classes he had taken two years ago.
The day after Thanksgiving, Johnson and his plush pets will be featured on the KARE 11 program "Showcase Minnesota." Johnson will be surrounded by a room full of kids who have never seen the toy before, something Johnson is a little nervous about.
"Hopefully they don't cry," he said.
In the next few months, Johnson along with Kittelson will be taking their toy around the world, literally. They will be attending toy fairs in both New York and Europe, as well a toy fair in Las Vegas next June.
Currently, there are six Plaja Pets on the market: a panda, rabbit, goldfish, dragon, parrot and elephant and six more are expected to be release in February just in time for the New York and Europe toy fairs. The new pets include a lobster, tiger, pig, monkey, unicorn, raccoon and Stomper, the MSU Maverick mascot.
Johnson said his goal for Plaja Pets in the next year is to keep getting the word out about their product and have more kiosks by next Christmas. In the long run, Johnson hopes to license out Plaja Pets to larger toy stores.
Amanda Reinarts is a Reporter staff writer
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