divided into sections by topic to make it more accessible . please help by adding section headings in accordance with wikipedia s manual of style . january 2016 this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message margarete steiff gmbh type stuffed toy manufacturer industry stuffed toys founded germany 1880 founder margarete steiff headquarters germany area served worldwide products teddy bears etc. website www.steiff.com steiff factory museum 1960s era steiff jocko doll margarete steiff steiff is a german based plush toy company . it was founded in 1880 by margarete steiff who was later assisted by her brother fritz . the toys began as elephants and were originally a design steiff found in a magazine and sold as pincushions to her friends . however children began playing with them and in the years following she went on to design many other animal themed toys for children such as dogs cats and pigs . she designed and made most of the prototypes herself . steiff s nephew richard joined in 1897 and gave the company an enormous boost in popularity by creating the teddy bear in 1902 . by 1907 steiff manufactured 974 000 bears and has been increasing its output ever since . the steiff company motto as styled by margarete steiff is only the best is good enough for children . steiff products are subject to meticulous testing and inspection . they are required to be highly flame resistant and among other things smaller pieces such as eyes must be able to resist considerable tension wear and tear etc. the most common materials used in steiff toys are alpaca felt mohair and woven plush . eyes are generally made of wood or glass and the stuffing is commonly wood shavings or polyester fibers . a large amount of the work is done by hand from design sketches to airbrushed paint . the final touch on any steiff toy is the trademark button in ear assuming the animal has one ; in any case they ll find a spot for it . the famed button in ear was devised by margarete s nephew franz in 1904 to keep counterfeits from being passed off as authentic steiff toys . it is metal and originally had the symbol of an elephant later replaced by the name steiff . the button is still used to distinguish steiff toys from fakes . 1 2 some special toys have both the elephant and the name . references edit http www.steiff.de the steiff collection external links edit steiff website in english steiff website steiff company us branch bbc news teddy bear celebrates 100th birthday the steiff factory building in giengen glass icon of modernism . in goethe institut online architecture september 2014 german margarete steiff biographical tv movie at the internet movie database v t e teddy bears bear manufacturers build a bear workshop chad valley j. k. farnell gund ideal toy company margarete steiff gmbh merrythought teddy atelier stursberg teddy hermann ty inc vermont teddy bear company types of bear ag bear beanie babies boyds bears care bears coffee bean bears forever friends freddy teddy gund snuffles holiday beanie babies me to you bears werebears teddy bear museums teddy bear museum dorset teddy bear museum teddy bear museum of naples famous teddies aloysius archibald ormsby gore benjamin bear berlino duffy the disney bear fozzie bear freddy fazbear grizzly teddy lotso microsoft bear misha nassur nev paddington bear pooky pudsey bear rilakkuma roosevelt rupert bear rupert family guy smokey sooty superted teddy mr. bean teddy ruxpin uszatek mr whoppit winnie the pooh yogi bear film and television the adventures of teddy ruxpin bear behaving badly becky and barnaby bear c bear and jamal colargol disney s adventures of the gummi bears issi noho old bear stories paddington the secret world of benjamin bear superted ted ted 2 the teddy bear master teddy edward the yogi bear show boonie bears books corduroy little bear old bear and friends teddy dressing the berenstain bears uppo nalle winkie winnie the pooh music let me be your teddy bear psycho teddy teddy bears picnic the teddy bear song video games build a bear workshop hubert the teddy bear winter games naughty bear op ration teddy bear related topics the bear club peter bull gummy bears round and round the garden sgul teddy bear hospital richard steiff sudanese blasphemy case teddybear airdrop minsk 2012 teddy bear parachuting teddy bear review teddy bear toss teddy grahams theodore roosevelt authority control worldcat identities viaf 150776328 this article about a toy company is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title margarete steiff gmbh & oldid 744060157 categories companies based in baden w rttembergtoy companies of germanyteddy bear manufacturerstoy company stubshidden categories articles needing sections from january 2016all articles needing sectionsarticles covered by wikiproject wikify from january 2016all articles covered by wikiproject wikifyarticles needing additional references from april 2014all articles needing additional referencespages using infobox company with unsupported parameterswikipedia articles with viaf identifiersall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages catal deutschfran ais l tzebuergeschnederlandsportugu sripoarischsvenskat rk e edit links this page was last modified on 12 october 2016 at 21 37 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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