Press Release

ST. LOUIS, MO (October 13, 2005) — Build-A-Bear Workshop®, Where Best Friends Are Made®, is opening a new location in Toms River, New Jersey at Ocean County Mall on Friday, November 11. Build-A-Bear Workshop is thrilled to be opening the first store in Toms River, New Jersey and to offer Guests a unique and exciting entertainment retail experience. As part of the opening, children from Cherry Lane Child Care Center and children from Grandma's Day Care Center will cut the ribbon and make bears to donate to the Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter of Ocean County.

Build-A-Bear Workshop is based on the premise that nearly everyone, regardless of age, has a special fondness for stuffed animals. When Guests visit a Build-A-Bear Workshop store, they enter a lighthearted teddy-bear themed environment consisting of fun bear-making stations. Guests choose their furry friend to make, stuff it just right, and add personality with hundreds of outfits and accessories. The company is also known for the memorable heart ceremony that takes place during the bear-making process. This station allows Guests to choose a red satin heart, make a special wish and place it inside their stuffed animal.

As part of the grand opening celebration, on Saturday, November 19, Build-A-Bear Workshop invites the first 200 Guests to participate in Stuffed with Hugs™ and make a bear for free to donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter of Ocean County. The bears will be given to children in need. Stuffed with Hugs™ began in 2001 and since then Build-A-Bear Workshop has donated over 125,000 bears to worthy causes. Build-A-Bear Workshop is a store for, and about, kids and Stuffed with Hugs has allowed kids to put smiles on the faces of tens of thousands of other children. It is a simple, yet significant way for kids to help other kids and make a difference.

Founder and Chief Executive Bear, Maxine Clark, knows what families want in a shopping experience, and the store is her response to happy memories of shopping as a child. The Build-A-Bear Workshop® innovative store concept takes children's interactive entertainment retailing to a new level, combining the process of making your own stuffed animal with the exciting atmosphere and fun of shopping the way it used to be. “When I was young, it was exciting for me to see all the decorations in the stores, and I loved every minute of it,” says Clark. “That excitement was something I wanted to re-create for children and families today.”

As Guests enter a Build-A-Bear Workshop store they are introduced to a variety of stuffed animals including bears, dogs, cats, bunnies, monkeys and a series of Beary Limited™ edition Collectibear® animals. Build-A-Bear Workshop stuffed animals are very affordable, ranging in price from $10-$25. Hundreds of coordinating outfits and accessories are also available to further personalize new furry friends. Guests in Tom's River have the chance to show their team spirit by purchasing special bear-sized New York Mets™ and New York Yankees™ uniforms, Tiny Tees® shirts and accessories. In addition, New York Knicks and Nets jerseys are available for all basketball fans and New York Jets and Giants uniforms and sweatshirts are available for football fans!

Clark is looking forward to opening in Toms River. She notes, “Our plan is always to open in the premier malls across the country, and we will continue this approach as we open at Ocean County Mall. We have many Guests who have visited our stores in other cities and personally written to me requesting a Build-A-Bear Workshop store at Ocean County Mall. Now we will be able to reach even more of our friends in Toms River continuing our strategy to bring our stores to wherever families go to have fun,” says Clark.

Community Partners
A major focus of the company is its continued commitment to causes that support children and animals. When Guests purchase any of the Build-A-Bear Workshop cause animals, which include Nikki's Bear III, Read Teddy®, Bearemy Kennel Pals® dogs, and World Wildlife Fund Collectibear® friends, a portion of the proceeds go directly to charitable organizations. In addition to the cause-related animals, Build-A-Bear Workshop launched the Huggable Heroes™ program in 2004 as a way to recognize and honor young people that have impacted their own neighborhoods, schools and communities by giving of themselves to others. It is a program that empowers and inspires children to get involved because Build-A-Bear Workshop® believes that young people can affect change. More information about the Huggable Heroes program is available online at http://huggableheroes.buildabear.com.

Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc., is the only international company that offers an interactive make-your-own-stuffed animal retail-entertainment experience. Founded in St. Louis in 1997, the company currently operates more than 200 stores in the United States and Canada. The addition of stores in Europe, Asia and Australia make Build-A-Bear Workshop the global leader in the teddy bear business. In November 2004, the company expanded the make-your-own concept from stuffed animals to dolls with the opening of its first friends 2B made® stores, which feature doll making. Build-A-Bear Workshop (NYSE: BBW) posted total revenue of $302 million in fiscal 2004. For more information, call 888.560.BEAR (2327) or visit the company's award-winning Web sites at www.buildabear.com and www.friends2bmade.com.

TRADEMARKS
We would like to thank you for your interest in business. As you write your story we ask that you use our full Name: Build-A-Bear Workshop® and that when referencing the process of making stuffed animals you use the word “make” not “build”.

Build-A-Bear Workshop® is our well-known trade name and our registered trademark of Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. Build-A-Bear Workshop® should only be used in capital letters to refer to our products and services and should not be used as a verb.

Contact: Wendy Bain
314.995.3939 x101
wendyb@blickandstaff.com

Shawn Bertani
314.423.8000 Ext.5366
314.452.6391 cell
shawnb@buildabear.com