What if kids could learn about sports, INSIDE SportsCenter? Well 27 licensing deals, 7 TOTY nominations, and 1 incredible host all led to this incredible feat of edutainment.

For 2025, Abacus Brands teamed up with ESPN and a roster of elite athletes to create the ESPN Virtual Reality Headset. This fully immersive toy is nominated for Educational Toy of the Year and delivers sports history, rules, trivia, and facts in a way kids have never experienced before.

In this episode of Making It in the Toy Industry, I sat down with Steve Rad, CEO of Abacus Brands, to unpack the creative, technical, and licensing marathon behind this ambitious VR learning tool and how his team managed to turn a sports encyclopedia into an unforgettable, fully immersive experience for kids.
Steve reveals what it was like working with Disney and ESPN, and how they managed to feature icons like Shohei Ohtani, Kobe, and Ronaldo all while staying true to their educational mission.

This toy teaches kids the why behind the rules of sports, helps kids explore games they’ve never played, and lets them learn inside SportsCenter alongside one of ESPN’s top anchors: Arda Öcal. This is edutainment to the highest level.

The ESPN Virtual reality headset is nominated for Educational Toy of The Year and you can (and should) vote here.

Featured in this episode:

• The shocking cost of licensing deals with some of the biggest names in sports
• Why Jordan was the one athlete they couldn’t lock in
• What happens when licensing constraints actually push creativity
• And how an early prototype made Steve stop in his tracks and send an all-team email

Vote for ESPN Virtual Reality Headset in the Educational Toy of the Year category. Voting is open to Toy Association members AND members of the media. Cast your vote for Virtual Reality ESPN in the Educational Toy of the Year category!

Voting is open to Toy Association members AND members of the media. So if you're in the media and you aren’t registered to vote, contact the toy association at [email protected] for details.
Listen for these Important Moments!

• [00:06:02] – Steve explains how the ESPN VR Headset turns every page of a 148-page book into a fully immersive sports learning experience from standing inside SportsCenter to skydiving out of planes.
• [00:16:31] – It took 27 separate licensing deals to make this toy happen. Steve shares what it took to get athletes like Kobe, Ohtani, and Messi inside the experience (and why Jordan didn’t make the cut).
• [00:23:44] – Want to pitch a brand like ESPN? Steve walks through why they said yes to a toy concept, and how Abacus framed it to feel more like a cultural experience than a product pitch.
• [00:27:10] – If you’re hitting walls with licensing, this segment shows how constraints can lead to more creative storytelling including how Abacus pivoted when big names were too expensive to use.
• [00:35:57] – You’ll hear about the moment Steve saw the first VR prototype and knew they had something special. Plus, how that one moment raised the creative bar for the entire project.

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