A Short History of Jellycat

Jellycat publishes very little about its own history, so this is assembled from press coverage, interviews and public records. Where something is community belief rather than documented fact, we say so.

1999 — two brothers and a trade stall

Jellycat was founded in London in 1999 by brothers Thomas and William Gatacre. The company launched from a small stand at a London trade show, and early UK stockists included John Lewis and Selfridges.

The name is the part everyone asks about. The widely repeated account — given by the founders in interviews — is that Thomas's seven-year-old son combined "jelly" and "cat", and the name stuck because it sounded like the toys felt. We have not found a primary company document confirming it, but it comes from the founders rather than from fans.

2001 — America

Jellycat Inc. was established in Minneapolis in 2001, only two years after founding. Early international expansion is a large part of why the brand's collector base is now spread across dozens of countries, and why regional exclusives became a meaningful category.

The slow build

There was no single breakout moment. Jellycat spent roughly two decades building a range and a reputation in gift shops, department stores and nurseries rather than chasing mass-market toy retail.

One useful marker of continuity: the Slackajack Monkey held the longest tenure in the contemporary collection at 21 years in production as of 2024. Designs that survive that long are the exception — most of the catalogue turns over far faster, which is what makes retirement such a constant feature of collecting.

2024 — twenty-five years

Jellycat marked its 25th anniversary in February 2024 with an event at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. By this point the brand had won several industry awards, including Earnshaw's Earnie Award in 2015 and 2018 and an Outstanding Achievement Award at The Greats in 2020.

2025 — the money, and the pivot

The scale of the business became public through its accounts. In 2025 Jellycat's profits doubled and the company announced £110 million (about $250 million) in dividends to its owners — following an earlier £58 million payday that had already drawn attention.

The same year brought a visible change in strategy:

• In June 2025, Jellycat stopped supplying approximately 100 independent shops, citing a "brand elevation strategy".
• It opened experiential retail instead — the Jellycat Diner at FAO Schwarz in Midtown Manhattan, a Chicago location later in 2025, and a temporary Jellycat Ski Club in Los Angeles.

Reaction among collectors was mixed, and the independent-retailer decision remains contentious. It is fair to say the company moved toward controlling how and where its products are experienced; it is not fair to claim we know why, because Jellycat has not said.

What this means for collectors

Two things follow from the history.

The early catalogue is poorly documented. Designs from the late 1990s and 2000s are the hardest to identify and value, because neither the company nor the community recorded them systematically at the time. If you have an old Jellycat and cannot find it anywhere, that is not unusual.

The brand is bigger and more deliberate than it was. A company earning at this scale, with tighter distribution and its own retail experiences, is not the same company that sold from a trade-show stall. Whether that makes future designs more or less collectable is a genuinely open question.

You can browse the full catalogue we've assembled, or start with what's retired.