Vermont Teddy Bear Company Creates Limb Loss, Limb Difference Bears Including Military Bear
These teddy bears look different--and proudly so. The Vermont Teddy Bear Company worked with the Amputee Coalition to create "limb loss" and "limb difference" bears to help support acceptance and celebrate people’s differences.
“We started to think about it and we said, ‘we got to do this really well,'" said company CEO William Shouldice IV.
"We did some research and hooked up with the Amputee Coalition and we worked on building the prototypes and when we got their sign off we decided to roll them out.”
Shouldice told the FOX Business Network’s Dagen McDowell the idea for the limb loss and limb difference bears came from the company’s employees paying attention to customer requests.“We also have great employees who listen and it became this recurring theme where customers kept asking for bears that had limb loss or limb differences.”
The bears are customizable, with options such as a soccer bear, baseball bear and a military bear.
When Taya Kyle, Wife Of 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle, asked about the higher cost for the military bear, Shouldice responded, “It costs more to make, it has the full uniform, crutches and as a result of that we had to charge more for it.”
Shouldice then explained the importance of being able to personalize the bears, saying “We say, ‘when you send a bear, you send love’ and we hope this goes a long way towards that.”