Vat19 Tour, Maryland Heights

Location: 11783 Borman Dr., St. Louis, MO 63146

Website: https://www.vat19.com/

When I mention Vat19 to people they either say, "What the heck is that?" or OMG I love their videos! In a nutshell, Vat19 is a company that sells curiously awesome merch. "Since 2007, Vat19 has been collecting unique products from all over the world, choosing only the awesome stuff we'd be excited to receive ourselves, and finding a creative and entertaining way to present it to you. Along the way, Jamie has collected a talented band of specialists that makes Vat19 work." 

In a brilliant move, they started doing free tours on Thurs and Fri afternoons which brings people into their facility and sells merch. This is the waiting area where they have toys and games out for kids to play with while you wait for the tour to start. 

Their hallways are covered with fan art.

You can pose with some of the props they created for their videos. 

This is the golden play button they got from YouTube when they hit 1 million subscribers. They are currently over 8 million.

These are 2 script writers for the videos.

Signing autographs

Then the tour moves into the studio where they film. Fun fact this is the largest soundstage in St. Louis. 

This is the couch where many of their videos are filmed and several of the actors came to pose with the kids. My daughter was thrilled that she got to meet Sloane!

You might recognize the gummy bear chair from this video.

This couch is made of gummy bears, and they had to move it up high because people kept trying to eat it. 

The tour then heads into the warehouse where you can look at all the awesome/weird/funky/cool merchandise they have. They give you about 15 minutes to shop and they'll alert you when it's time to check out. Here is a sampling of some of the products....

My son was obsessed with the screaming chicken. It can scream for 45 seconds straight. 

Sloane was making TikTok videos with some of the kids. Here is my daughter sampling the Simpsons Duff Energy Drink. 

After you check out everyone gets to go to the board room and watch their latest video and mark up the wall. 

At the very end, every kid gets to spin the prize wheel. My son won some Aaron's Thinking Putty and my daughter won a swag bag with stickers, slap bracelets, pencils, and stickers. 

 

I told my kids I would buy them each one thing, and my daughter chose the Shashibo Shape-shifting cube. It is so cool! I find myself playing with it. This is a great place to shop and the tour is a fun way to kill an hour and meet some cool people. What a fun job this would be!

Nice article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch about Vat19.