The Cabbage Patch Kids Get a Makeover

In the early 1980s, Cabbage Patch Kids dolls were so popular they drove some moms to fisticuffs as they scrambled to score one of the yarn-haired moppets for their daughters. Barely a decade later the dolls had fallen victim to the toy industry’s perennial challenge: winning a new crop of fans every few years when kids outgrow their toys. Now Jakks Pacific, the toymaker that holds the rights to the Cabbage Patch franchise, says it can reinvigorate the brand by linking it to products better known by today’s girls.

Cabbage Patch Kids will begin hitting stores later this year sporting new outfits and wearing Twinkle Toes, a popular line of sneakers from Skechers USA that sparkle and light up. Twinkle Toes have been Skechers’s top-selling kids’ line since their introduction in 2008. Jakks also is in talks to sell the $34.99 dolls in Skechers stores, helping to make up for a shrinking number of toy shops and toy departments in the U.S. The shoes are “bringing Cabbage Patch into today’s era,” says Stephen Berman, Jakks’s chief executive officer.