Ithaca Toys Expands into Promotional Products
In addition to our educational toys for early-learners, Ithaca Toys has recently expanded our product line to include branded merchandise for the educational and corporate sectors.
Founder Lee Kaltman stated, “We have focused primarily on product development for educational toys, but the company is more than the products we create. We also support workforce development and ethical labor, so we needed to expand our product offerings to continue being sustainable and meet our goals.”
Interested in scaling up production and expanding our offerings, Ithaca Toys partnered with two student teams from a course led by Robert Newman, a Senior Lecturer in the Engineering Management Program at Cornell University. As a result of working with the Cornell students on an updated business development plan, we have branched out into the production of promotional products and personalized keepsakes using the same maple wood as our educational toys.
“As an educator, working alongside these students was a fun experience for me. I learned a lot about how to manage others and the teams came up with a plan to help the company scale up in increments—detailing workforce development, calculating FTEs (full-time equivalents), conducting cost analysis,” said Kaltman.
Ithaca Toys secured a license to produce Cornell-branded wood products and hired an intern from the program, Tolulope Olukanmi, a graduate student from Cornell University, M.Eng. ’21, as the company’s first Business Development Associate.
“I joined Ithaca Toy Company with interest in doing something in the education space. As an Engineering Manager, I was interested in managing the physical products being made and observing how the children interact with them,” said Olukanmi. “I hope to gain product management experience from the internship and I’m glad I get to learn about marketing and sales as well.”
Armed with new product offerings and talent, Ithaca Toys is moving forward with a renewed focus on being both sustainable as a company and impactful as a member of the community.