Flying Tiger - Where affordable design becomes a wonderland

Can you imagine developing emotions for a coaster or sharing a smile with a cake spatula while baking? As strange as it sounds, Flying Tiger has managed to achieve just that - solely relying on the power of design. They have transformed the world's most mundane objects into personal experiences, and we willingly pay $1 billion for it each year.

From Umbrella Salesman to Billionaire - The Tiger Story

Flying Tiger's Danish founder, Lennart Lajboschitz, left school at the age of 16 and embarked on a journey across Europe. With no money, he traded comic books and even coached a ping pong team whenever an opportunity arose. He met his wife at the age of 20, and they quickly ventured into a joint business: repairing a pile of broken umbrellas and selling them at local flea markets. With the money they earned from the umbrellas, they opened a small quirky shop in Copenhagen, where everything cost 10 Danish kroner (~$1.50).

Lajboschitz, for his own entertainment, started applying his own designs to their existing products. Vibrant colours, witty slogans - anything that came to mind. The success was overwhelming. The store's revenue almost instantly doubled. They quickly opened another shop, and then another, and within 3 years, there were already 40 Tiger stores operating in Denmark. Today, they have 900 stores worldwide, with an annual revenue of nearly $1 billion.

Design, design for everyone

There are few places where the overwhelming power of design can be experienced as profoundly as at Flying Tiger. A plain white mug or an eraser alone wouldn't excite anyone. But a white mug for rainy days or a giant, genuinely adorable eraser can instantly drive people crazy. Be it surprising, funny, or incredibly cute — one thing is certain, it immediately impacts you. It's rare for everyday objects to establish such a connection and stir up feelings. When was the last time you laughed out loud while buying paper napkins?

The brutal success they have achieved over the past 25 years has demonstrated that good design is not a luxury, but an essential need. It has the power to make even the most ordinary object personal and exciting, which is something we secretly crave, regardless of our budget. As one customer of Flying Tiger put it:

"When I walk into a one-dollar store, I feel poor. But in Flying Tiger, I feel like a millionaire."

Alongside cool design, Tiger doesn't leave the customer experience to chance. From the moment their Copenhagen store opened, Lajboschitz went above and beyond, delighting visitors with complimentary coffee and pastries, and on weekends, he would put on magic shows for the children while their parents shopped. Nowadays, the stores themselves provide the attraction: you'll probably never buy 95% of the design items in the store, but when they're all gathered in one place, surrounding you, they offer / a captivating experience.

The layout of the store serves this exact purpose: the shelves are low, allowing you to see the entire store at once, and the pathway is just like in Ikea - you must navigate through the entire labyrinthine experience before reaching the cash register. Customer experience is so crucial at Tiger that Lajboschitz himself takes a basket and walks around the shelves in one of the stores every day. He observes the overall impact of the products and the reactions of the customers, using this information to continuously improve the brand.

"If you're the boss and you constantly sit in your office, you have no idea what's going on in your business. I need to personally witness the dynamics of everyday life, our products, and how people feel in the store, otherwise, I completely disconnect from reality. I am not a merchant, but an anthropologist. I observe people, not the market and competitors."

Tiger has a billion reasons why it's worth investing in design if you want a successful business. However, what's even more critical is the necessity for continuous improvement. They release 300(!) new products into the market every month and collaborate with a team of designers to figure out how to amaze people next time. Even if you don't have an army of designers at your disposal, it's still worth following their example every day. View your products through the lens of your customers. Consider what could truly wow you. And no matter what you sell, never, ever compromise on quality.