Duolingo wants to make its green owl mascot “as famous as Pikachu” with its first pop-up store

The fluffy bird can be seen all over the company’s merchandise, from plush toys and T-shirts to beanies and backpacks. On TikTok, Duo appears in all of Duolingo’s posts, and often the content echoes memes in which Duo makes people feel guilty about skipping a language class. This tactic has helped Duolingo and its feathered mascot gain a huge, if small, fan base, especially among Gen Z. Duo even got to walk the red carpet after the app was mentioned in the blockbuster movie Barbie.

Now Duolingo has turned its app—and Duo—into a real-life experience with a pop-up store in New York City’s Soho neighborhood. The 55-square-meter store was located on Grand Street and offered limited-edition items, including bright green Crocs inspired by the company’s mascot, which cost about $70 a pair.

Duolingo has a clear mission: “One day, we want to make Duo as famous as Pikachu,” said Michelle Sharp, Duolingo’s head of marketing, in an interview with Modern Retail. “Everything we do – protecting the intellectual property, expanding to different platforms, and doing things like this experiential pop-up – is in service of that goal.”

That’s why Duolingo’s pop-up store is more than just a merchandise drop. To gain entry to the so-called “Streak Society” pop-up – a reference to the app’s exclusive club for members who achieve a streak of seven days or more – guests first had to complete a Duolingo lesson. Inside, attendees could play games and take photos with Duo.

In keeping with the spirit of the app, the longer a person’s turn, the more opportunities they can unlock in the pop-up store. For example, the pop-up store featured a claw machine with plush toys and other prizes, and visitors with a 30-day or longer line received a ticket to play the machine. The pop-up store also featured a giant leaderboard where guests’ lines were added as they entered the store, and every 30 minutes the learner with the longest line won a giant duo plush toy.

Duolingo’s pop-up store comes at a time when the company itself is on a roll. In the second quarter, the language learning app saw revenue jump a whopping 41% from the same period last year, to $178.3 million. Duolingo’s paid user base grew 52%, and there are now 8 million subscribers paying for the otherwise free language app. The company has been profitable for five consecutive quarters.

Duolingo has only been selling physical goods for about two years, but Duo’s growing popularity made it an obvious new revenue stream, Sharp said. The company declined to provide exact sales figures, but Sharp said its merchandise sales have doubled every year since launching its online store. The platform also sells products wholesale through boutiques and on Amazon. As demand for Duo plush toys grew, the company expanded its product line to include products tailored to its growing cast of characters in the Duolingo universe, such as the cartoon bear Falstaff and the gothic teenager Lily.

Sharp knew Duolingo’s bet on retail goods was a success when counterfeits began appearing on marketplaces like Amazon and Alibaba. Duolingo’s goods have become so popular that the company now fields requests to remove counterfeits on a daily basis. As Sharp put it, “We’re flattered.”

Duolingo’s retail strategy seems to take inspiration from other brands that have manifested their characters in the real world. Pokémon’s Pikachu springs to mind, of course. But there’s also Netflix, which opened a pop-up store in Los Angeles last year selling merchandise based on the streaming giant’s hit series like Stranger Things. Netflix plans to open a permanent retail location in 2025. Last year, an Angry Birds-themed cafe opened in the middle of a mall food court in New York’s Flushing neighborhood.

Duolingo isn’t the only non-retailer dabbling in pop-ups, either. On August 21, The New York Times hosted a pop-up in New York City to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its mini crossword puzzle.

“Pop-ups are becoming increasingly important for any company doing business online because you can only be discovered in that one medium,” said Michael Brown, partner and Americas retail leader at consulting firm Kearney. “It’s really about attracting new audiences and new customers.”

Duolingo’s app isn’t a video game or a toy like Angry Birds or Barbie. But there are gamification elements. For example, users earn experience points and gems, the game’s in-app currency. In particular, members of the app’s Streak Society can unlock rewards – from exclusive avatars to bonus gems – the longer their streaks last.

The lion’s share of the company’s overall revenue comes from the portion of users who pay to skip ads or use its new AI-powered features, according to the Wall Street Journal. Merchandise is therefore a way for the company to make more money without bombarding its fan base with more advertising, although Sharp noted that sales are not the focus of Duolingo’s retail efforts.

“Sales are secondary to spreading brand love and building brand awareness through merchandising,” she said.

For Kearney’s Brown, retail for a company like Duolingo is more about advertising than the product itself. “If someone is wearing a Duolingo T-shirt on the street or has the Duolingo owl on the shelf in someone’s home, then every product becomes an advertising board for them.”

Still, Sharp said she would consider the event a success if they sold out their entire inventory – around 7,000 items. Early numbers suggest Duolingo will meet or exceed its original estimates that between 3,500 and 5,000 people will visit the pop-up store.

In the meantime, there are plenty of options. It’s too early to say if there will be more pop-ups or even a permanent store in the future, but Sharp said Duolingo is currently in preliminary talks with two brands about collaborations similar to the partnership with Crocs. As a global app with a huge fan base worldwide, Sharp also hopes Duolingo will open more pop-up stores in other countries.