Description:

The Underfoot toys outside encourage children to explore the magical natural world while playing with the toys outside. The Underfoot family of character toys are designed to be played with outside in the dirt and undergrowth of the garden. Oke Velvet Worm takes children on a wild adventure into the natural world as children use the characters' stories to learn about the interlinking ecosystem of characters and their homes in the natural world.

Children engage in less outdoor play than previous generations. This global trend has impacted a child's ability to understand and form a relationship with the natural world. Unstructured and imaginative play is where children engage in self-actualised play separate from parental supervision and small-world play, where children develop stories inspired by their immediate surroundings. Getting kids back out in nature helps their overall well-being, enabling them to play with the Underfoot toys as character extensions of the natural world.

The Underfoot are designed for children aged 5-7. This is a key age when children develop their imagination, communication and social skills and interact more independently with the natural world. Using an eco-fiction framework to develop the story world, the toys focus on animal narratives around the nitrogen cycle system. This design feature is used to help children attune to the cycles and stories of nature and animals to support the children in seeing the world through a natural worldview. Children use the story on the backcard packaging and the information cards for each toy to learn about the character's role in the environment and relationship to other creatures. Each character has a clearly defined personality and physical attributes that link them to a step in a natural cycle.

The Underfoot Toys propose a new genre of character toys designed specifically for outdoor play. In this mode, the natural world becomes an ever-changing playset for the characters. A core design feature is integrating natural materials such as soil, leaves and water during play as part of the toy's character. The Underfoot toys incorporate natural materials such as dirt, water, leaves, and sticks into the toy form as an extension of the character, making natural elements integral to play. An example is Leafy, which uses an encapsulated leaf for the boat to float. Natural materials become a unique extension for each toy that reinvents the play experience whenever the child plays outside.

Extensive playtesting with children from the local nature organisation Kiwi Conservation Club and children from the bush school was conducted to test toy function and appeal. The design was well received at the 2023 Nuremberg Toy Fair. Industry reviewers praised the freshness of the aesthetic and the integration of natural material within the play. The need for children to go outside to use natural objects to complete the play was of great appeal and a pivotal selling point of the product.