Following the annual tradition, IKEA encouraged children from all over the world to take part in the Soft toy drawing competition and unleash their imagination, creating their dreams' soft toys. This year, IKEA received more than 66,000 entries worldwide and selected five unique drawings to become real soft toys.
The SAGOSKATT collection is a range of limited-edition soft toys designed by kids for kids. It's the result of the annual IKEA Soft toy drawing competition where children worldwide come to the nearest IKEA store or enter online to submit a drawing of their dream soft toy. This year brought many challenges with store visits restrictions and made IKEA focus on the competition's digital solution. 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 2021.
These are the five most creative and unique characters that were selected by the jury this year:
“Sandwich friends” designed by Audrey, 9 years old, Canada
“Cat” designed by Liepa, 8 years old, Lithuania
“Fried egg” designed by Zosia, 7 years old, Poland
“Mermaid dog” designed by Savva, 9 years old, Russia
“Bird” designed by Nick, 10 years old, USA.
The Soft toy drawing competition does not only allow children to share their dreams and imagination; it's also a way to contribute to every child's right to play and develop. IKEA is donating 100 per cent of SAGOSKATT turnover 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" makes me extremely proud. 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 a lot 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", – says Jorge Omar Santoyo Henaine, Product Design Developer for Children's IKEA, IKEA of Sweden.
