Leslie Edelman has run Tiny Doll House, a miniature figure shop in New York’s Upper East Side neighborhood, for 35 years. Eighteen months ago, he says, new customers started coming into the store on a regular basis.
In addition to Edelman’s regular customers (parents, grandparents, collectors), groups of 20-somethings now flock to the store on Saturday afternoons. They giggle among themselves, text furiously, and buy little Labbu keychains, Pez dispensers, and imitation Eames chairs. “I’ve seen you on TikTok,” some people say to Edelman.
“There’s so much to photograph,” says Edelman, 75, a lifelong New Yorker.
Business owners like Edelman say they’re noticing changes in consumer behavior. To increase their offline activities, Gen Z is increasingly seeking out and spending money on old-fashioned hobbies and habits. Small businesses that sell tactile, nostalgic products and services, such as rotary phones, needlepoint kits and embroidery services, are seeing an increase in revenue from both existing and new customers as the average age of shoppers declines, some executives say.
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Marni Shapiro, co-founder and managing partner of research and consulting firm The Retail Tracker, said craft-based activities and retro-style in-person experiences have steadily gained in popularity since the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, she says physical products related to offline hobbies hit new sales peaks this winter as the term “analogization” became popular on social media.
Nearly three-quarters of adults will participate in a craft project in 2025, up from 62% in 2019, according to Mintel research. According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, the arts and crafts materials industry was valued at $23.56 billion in 2025, led by supply companies such as Crayola and Faber-Castell.
“As we become more and more digital and leverage more and more AI, the reverse trend will become very noticeable,” Shapiro said. “For me, nostalgia is the biggest (retail) trend out there. It’s not going away. It’s getting stronger.”
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Paris-based Louise Carmen sells accessorized leather journals in two stores and online for up to 198.55 euros, or about $232.84, before customization. Founder Nathalie Valmarie says the brand reached new U.S. audiences throughout 2023 after her daughter started filming bird’s-eye TikTok videos of employees’ hands customizing leather notebooks with engravings, colorful cords and charms.
Some of the videos have been viewed more than 1 million times, and about 60% of Louise Carmen’s online sales now ship to the United States, Valmarie said. Some Americans posted online about booking transatlantic flights to buy notebooks in Paris.
Shapiro said political and economic uncertainty, such as a turbulent job market, declining homeownership and rising costs of living in the U.S., tends to cause people to go back to the products, styles and experiences of their or their parents’ childhoods and make a fuss about them. Moreover, the more time you spend scrolling on your phone, the more likely you are to engage with the media about that uncertainty, making hobbies that keep your free hands busy more and more in demand.
Keeping a diary allows Valmarie to collect her thoughts, reflect, and be creative, she says. She thinks younger generations may benefit even more from this practice. Gen Z’s lives and experiences have been “exposed to social media from an early age by them and their friends and family,” she said. When handwriting in your journal, “you don’t have to act; you just write honestly.”
“Analogization” also involves aesthetics. Nostalgic-looking products can be a fashion statement, says Camp Snap president Trevor George. His Redondo Beach, Calif.-based company sells screenless digital cameras that automatically apply film-mimicking filter effects to photos for $70 to $200 each. George said the brand has sold more than 1 million cameras since its launch in late 2023.
He said the company’s sales were up 350% at the end of last year compared to the same period in 2024, and celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Idris Elba have been spotted using CampSnap products. “Smartphones are a little tired,” he says. “It’s kind of like a personal statement to go out with friends or be involved in a community and pull out this camera that looks like an old-school camera but actually has digital capabilities.”
Nostalgia trend life cycle
Peter Fader, a marketing professor who specializes in consumer behavior at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said Gen Z consumers are now between the ages of 14 and 29, which means many are at an age where they want to explore their identities and have a little money to do so.
In some ways, Fader says, this generation’s affinity for analog products, or their modern versions, reflects many Gen Zers’ often-stated desire to buck the mainstream. In another sense, they are doing exactly the same thing as previous generations. Fader says going analog isn’t all that different from the 2010s when millennials became obsessed with Polaroid cameras and record players.
Many Gen Zers still post their analog experiences online, a testament to the convenience of modern technology and its deep roots in many people’s lives, Fader said. But he says even going analog for a little while may help you find a new and rewarding hobby that improves your life.
Tiny Doll House owner Leslie Edelman in her Manhattan shop
Leslie Edelman
“I’m not saying this analog thing is a passing fad, because it continues to be a fad with each generation…[but]I wouldn’t bet too much on a huge analog resurgence,” Fader says.
Shapiro says the popularity of any kind of nostalgia goes through its ups and downs. Edelman suspects his store has survived for decades because people seek out physical items that evoke strong memories.
“People can create a living room they’ll never have,” says Edelman. He still remembers the first dollhouse he built for his niece decades ago. It was a pink Victorian mansion with white trim and small dark brown shingles. “When I look at these things or hold them in my hands, I feel warmth and peace.”
Conversion from EUR to USD was performed using the OANDA exchange rate of 1 EUR to 1.18 USD on March 3, 2026.
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