People are lining up at 4 AM, crashing websites, and dropping thousands on a fuzzy vinyl creature with nine teeth and a cult following. Meet Labubu: part toy, part fashion statement, part emotional coping mechanism. Born from a Nordic mythology-inspired art project and catapulted to fame by Pop Mart, Labubu has become a collector’s dream and a status symbol—thanks to limited drops, blind box buying, and celebrity fans like BLACKPINK’s Lisa.

Today, Sammi unpacks how scarcity, nostalgia, and the chaos of modern life created the perfect storm for Labubu’s rise—and what that says about the future of fandom, consumption, and identity.

Follow Sammi on Instagram here

Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter here

Here’s what Sammi covers today:

00:00 Labubu’s Bizarre Social Currency

01:08 Where Labubu Came From

02:55 Scarcity as a Business Plan

04:10 The Lisa of It All

05:27 What Labubu Tells Us About the State of the World (Really)

06:31 The Future of Fandom

07:22 How to Show Social Currency Some Love

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices