A heartwarmingly gentle look and devotedly stretched out: this little Steiff lamb with the famous "button in the ear" inevitably wins over young and old alike.

Like every Steiff animal, this lamb is made from head to toe to accompany us for a lifetime. It is a unique piece that has been carefully handcrafted. All the individual parts are sewn by hand - the durable stitching, which is characterized by a special seam width with a high stitch density, is outstanding. Even the characteristic "button in the ear" is attached by hand.

The lamb is part of the "Teddies for tomorrow" series: with a view to the desire for innovation that is deeply rooted in the company's history, Steiff is constantly trying out new, future-oriented materials. In this case, Steiff uses a material for the fur that, like the filling, is made from recycled PET bottles. An upcycling of a particularly successful kind, because the fur of this lamb is fluffy, incredibly cuddly and soft to the touch.

With its "Teddies for tomorrow", the long-established company Steiff is taking another step towards the future while consistently upholding its traditional company philosophy: "Only the best is good enough for children." This motto, attributed to company founder Margarete Steiff, already appeared in the first Steiff catalog in 1880. Her biographers describe Margarete Steiff as a woman of great determination who ventured into self-employment with her felt clothing business in 1877 in Giengen an der Brenz, her birthplace in Baden-Württemberg.

As chance would have it: In a fashion magazine, she discovered the pattern for a fabric elephant, based on which she made a pincushion in early 1880. But it was children who enthusiastically took up the "Elefäntle", and the stuffed animal soon became a popular children's toy. In the same year, Margarete Steiff GmbH was founded in Giengen and the product range was gradually expanded. The Elefäntle was joined by a colorful zoo, which even included camels and giraffes. The greatest success, however, was the teddy bear.

When you get right down to it, the final impetus for the success story of the cuddly bear can be attributed to the Americans. At the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1902, Richard Steiff, nephew of the famous Margarete, was already resigned to accepting his design "Bear 55 PB" - the world's first plush bear with movable limbs - as a failure when Hermann Berg, representative of an American trading company, came along. The retailer was so enthusiastic about the Steiff bear that he ordered the enormous quantity of 3,000 pieces. His intuition proved to be spot on: The "Teddy Bear", named after the American President Theodor "Teddy" Roosevelt from 1906, became a bestseller in the States. From here, the worldwide triumphal march of the teddy bear began, which, like all Steiff products, has borne the "Button in Ear" trademark since 1904.

When Margarete Steiff died in 1909, around 400 employees and 1,800 home workers were already producing almost one million teddy bears and a total of around 1.7 million toys for Margarete Steiff GmbH every year. Every single item is meticulously handcrafted, with high-quality materials and products, because: "Only the best is good enough for children." Until today.