Pudgy Penguins, known for its NFT toys, dive deeper into football

Pudgy Penguins, a non-fungible token brand globally recognized for creating NFT-inspired toys, has expanded into football through major NFT partnerships with two major football clubs. The Pudgy Penguins NFT team, which partnered with Spanish football club CD Castellón last year, has now partnered with English Premier League football club Manchester City. In this article, we will explore this expansion journey in more detail.

The journey of chubby penguins, from toys to football

Over the weekend, the Pudgy Penguins team, through their official X account, confirmed they have taken a deeper dive into the world of football. Launched in July 2021, Pudgy Penguins is a digital asset incubation studio known for creating Pudgy Penguins, a globally recognized collection of non-fungible tokens comprising a fixed set of 8,888 unique digital penguin characters on the Ethereum blockchain network.

🚨PUDGY PENGUINS PARTNERS WITH MANCHESTER CITY

Pudgy Penguins will launch a range of premium collectibles for an over-18s audience and a merchandise line with Manchester City, tapping into the club’s 300 million global fans. pic.twitter.com/B0HtfgNj2q

– Coinbureau (@coinbureau) January 16, 2026

Pudgy Penguins is also the brainchild of Lil Pudgy, a series of non-fungible tokens that includes a fixed supply of 22,222 smaller NFTs hosted on the Ethereum blockchain network, Pudgy Rod, a complementary collection of fishing rod NFTs that were airdropped by the original holders in 2021 and are now used as multipliers in the ecosystem and soul-linked tokens, non-transferable tokens such as “ Opensea x Penguins SBT” launched to recognize community engagement, loyalty and licensed participation.

Pudgy Penguins entered the physical retail space in May 2023 with the launch of its first toy line. Initially launched online through Amazon, the collection sold over 20,000 units in its first 48 hours and generated over $500,000 in sales. This was clear evidence of strong demand beyond the NFT community. Later that year, the toys were stocked in more than 2,000 Walmart stores in the United States, and within 12 months of their launch, more than a million plush toys had been sold worldwide. These plush toys are now available in the United States, Europe, Asia and Hong Kong.

Pudgy Penguins dive deeper into football

The Pudgy Penguins NFT team partnered with Spanish football club CD Castellón in January 2025 to feature their characters on the team’s official jerseys and shorts. As part of the collaboration, an open edition NFT was released, and certain holders of this NFT were eligible to be featured in some way related to the partnership. The characters Pudgy Penguins and Lil Pudgys appeared directly on CD Castellón jerseys.

CD Castellón🇪🇸 x Pudgy Penguins🐧 pic.twitter.com/7jb2Ww8BJ9

– Football Shirt News🌍 (@Footy_ShirtNews) January 24, 2025

In the latest news, NFT team Pudgy Penguins announced a “landmark partnership” with English Premier League champions Manchester City to launch a premium co-branded NFT line aimed at adult audiences. The move is seen as one of the highest-profile crossovers between a native Web3 brand and a global sports giant, aimed at introducing the Pudgy Penguins intellectual property to a massive, mainstream audience. The delivery of the goods was scheduled for January 17, 2026.

These businesses are part of Pudgy Penguins’ broader strategy to evolve beyond their digital origins and toy lines to become a global, dominant intellectual property (IP) through real-world uses and premium brand building, bridging the gap between digital assets and traditional markets. This integration will provide NFT holders with concrete ways to feel part of the brand journey, thereby strengthening the holders’ identity and community.

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