Gear from 2000 to 2026 — key chains gave way to bags and clothes
Gear is the catalog’s name for LEGO-branded products that are not brick-built sets: backpacks, hoodies, key chains, mugs, posters, plush, video games, and the rest of the gift-shop aisle. In the theme tree it is a parent line with sixteen sub-categories, from Bags, Totes, & Luggage to Video Games and Accessories. Almost all of it is recent. We indexed 6,086 of them between 2000 and 2026. Inside it, volume roughly tripled each decade, then kept climbing.
Gear is the catalog’s name for LEGO-branded products that are not brick-built sets: backpacks, hoodies, key chains, mugs, posters, plush, video games, and the rest of the gift-shop aisle. In the theme tree it is a parent line with sixteen sub-categories, from Bags, Totes, & Luggage to Video Games and Accessories.
Almost all of it is recent. We indexed 6,086 of them between 2000 and 2026. Inside it, volume roughly tripled each decade, then kept climbing.
Volume by decade
| Period | Gear items |
|---|---|
| 2000–2009 | 795 |
| 2010–2019 | 2,314 |
| 2020–2026 | 2,977 |
The 2000s opened slowly (37 items in 2000) and did not break 150 until 2007. The 2010s doubled that pace and spiked in 2017 (358). 2022 is the peak so far, at 515. 2026 already sits at 394 with several months still to go. A handful of 2027 placeholders are already in the catalog; we left them out of this window.
Which sub-categories grew — and which shrank
From 2000 through 2026, the mix flipped:
- Bags, Totes, & Luggage — 960 items, now the largest line. Just 14 in the 2000s, 292 in the 2010s, then 654 in 2020–2026. City, Ninjago, and Star Wars backpacks are the workhorses (138 bags in 2022 alone).
- Clothing & Footwear — 627 items, almost all recent. The 2010s totaled 39. Then came the adidas wave (148 in 2021), a high of 176 in 2023, a dip to the high twenties in 2024–2025, and 48 so far in 2026 as Nike shoes and Crocs collabs land.
- Key Chain — 823 items, the 2000s and 2010s leader (157 then 420). Still steady in the 2020s (246), but no longer first.
- Stationery and Office Supplies — 799 items, a quiet climber in every decade, already 86 deep in 2026 alone.
Houseware (604) and uncategorized Gear (550) fill out the middle. Video games tell the opposite story: 100 in the 2000s, 164 in the 2010s, then 22 since 2020. Clocks and watches followed the same fade (61, 158, then 5). Role-play, magnets, storage, plush, bag tags, posters, puzzles, audio/visual media, and seasonal items are all still in the mix; they are just no longer the volume drivers.
What does it mean?
Gear is merch, not minifig-scale building. Piece counts are usually zero, and Brick Value Index does not apply. Over a quarter-century the catalog’s non-set aisle did not just get bigger — it changed character, from key chains and games to bags and clothes.
