While Kigurumi has been popular within Japan for a number of years now, over here in Australia it wasn’t really commonplace until last year when a boom in popularity saw it becoming a new hit with people. One of the Queensland Universities “Bond University” for example took part in an event where some students wore animal onesies for an entire week to raise funding for a local animal shelter, while it was also not that rare to find people sporting them at other events / in shopping centers etc.
I recently had the opportunity to do a short but sweet Q&A with Sonya Cameron, General Manager of KiguZoo who are one of the major onesie suppliers in the country and a distributor of SAZAC Kigurumi for the ANZ region. Have you been wondering a bit about their milestones for the year? Wondering what have been the most popular designs? Read on below!
KiguZoo was started 4 years ago by my business partner Alex Hellier. We have had a physical store for over a year and the largest range of Kigurumi with over 250 products, ranging from licences characters to the standard animals.
From your experience, how has the market for kigurumi / animal onesies grown over the last year? Do you see kigurumi as a fashion trend that will continue to grow in the Australian market?
The market for Kigurumi has grown over 100% in the past 12 months. Had you asked me about the craze 4 months ago whether there was longevity i would have said no however i now believe that the Kigurumi is a staple item in anyones pyjama or even costume collection.
As a company, what have been some of the highlights and major milestones from 2013?
Milestones of 2013 was major media exposure on television shows and radio also securing the Sanrio Kigurumi License in Aus and NZ
With Kigu Zoo releasing so many different designs to the Australian market this year, have there been any designs or types of designs that have garnered more attention than others?
Their top designs were:
- Lemur
- Unicorn
- Pug
- Giraffe
With another year almost over, what can we expect to see from Kigu Zoo in 2014?
2014 will be an exciting year with us obtaining the licensed to distribute Disney Kigurumi!
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Granted the weather is sweltering hot with multiple heat waves making their way across Australia, there is nothing quite as nice as snuggling up in an animal onesie during the Winter months. However for those considering on dressing up to celebrate Australia Day, the company are promoting their selection of adults and kids onesies based on the design of lovable Australian Kangaroo and Koala.
I would just like to thank Sonya once again for her time in doing this Q&A.
