THE RUBBER DUCK JUST GREW UP. AND GOT ATTITUDE.

From a wrong turn in Eastern Europe, a mysterious little duck shop and a few cocktails to Britain’s Original ‘Alternative’ Duck Store®, this is the story behind GET DUCK’D!!.

This is a rare personal insight into the truth behind the origins of GET DUCK’D!!, from the man behind the brand himself.

It’s a story that starts in Bucharest, on a warm autumn night around Halloween, with a duck shop that never seemed to be open, a bit of shopping, and an idea that refused to go away.

IT STARTED WITH A WRONG TURN

The trip was never supposed to have anything to do with rubber ducks.

GET DUCK'D!! was dreamed up by a British founder and his Romanian partner Ana during a trip to Bucharest to visit her family. Ana had grown up there and they knew the city well, so this wasn’t some first-time tourist adventure. They both knew the city. However, they had accidentally booked an apartment in a different part of town to where they would normally stay, so they weren’t quite as familiar with it.

Bucharest is a huge city, and behind its famous central boulevards is a maze of backstreets, packed with a mix of communist-era apartment blocks, traditional old-style architecture and modern buildings that even locals born there can get lost amongst.

Still, they liked this particular area almost immediately… and began to find their way about.

One evening, wandering around the dimly lit, graffiti-filled backstreets, they noticed a small shop with what looked like rubber ducks in the window from the other side of the road.

They hadn’t initially realised it was a duck shop. It was just a small, slightly mysterious little place that caught their attention as they wandered through the backstreets.

The strange thing was, it never seemed to be open.

Every time they passed it, the shutters were down and the place was closed. Not thinking too much of it, the shop became a useful little landmark. Once they spotted it, they knew where they were and which way they needed to head to get back to the apartment.

They passed it a few times over the next couple of days, always with the same result.

Closed.

Until one particular evening.

A FEW VERY RANDOM GIFTS

It was Halloween weekend, and they had plans to meet the family for dinner. They still needed to find a few gifts to take, but after a frustrating and unsuccessful afternoon of looking around the shops, they were running out of ideas - and time.

Then, they passed the little shop they had noticed a few days earlier, but now the lights were on.

This time, it was open.

They went inside to investigate and realised it was a shop dedicated entirely to rubber ducks.

They started picking out a few as gifts.

A footballer duck for their nephew.

A Hulk-inspired duck first caught his eye.

A ghost duck stood out because Halloween was approaching, and he had always been interested in the paranormal, supernatural and the unexplained.

And a vampire duck.

They were in Romania, after all - a country with an enduring connection to the Dracula legend, inspired in part by the real-life Vlad ‘the Impaler’ Țepeș, the fifteenth-century Wallachian ruler whose reputation and brutal history helped shape one of the world’s most famous vampire stories.

It seemed almost obligatory.

They took the ducks with them to dinner, where everyone loved them.

There was laughter and conversation, and he noticed people looking at the different ducks and reacting to them. It wasn’t simply that they were funny. Each one had its own look, personality and little bit of character.

The important thing was that the ducks felt personal.

You could look at one and immediately think:

“

That’s so-and-so.

”

That was the moment something clicked.

Maybe there was more to rubber ducks than bath time and simple children’s toys.

They could be funny, collectible, unusual gifts for adults too.

And maybe there was an opportunity to create something different - something with more personality, humour and attitude.

What he hadn’t expected was that buying a few ducks as gifts would almost instantly turn him into a bit of a secret collector himself.

There was something oddly addictive about finding another design and thinking, I’ve got to have that one too.

MAYBE THERE WAS SOMETHING IN THIS

The idea didn’t arrive fully formed that night.

But something had stuck.

He started looking more closely at the world of rubber ducks over the next few days, and the more he researched, the more interesting the gap seemed.

There were plenty of ducks.

Plenty of shops.

But the more he looked, the more the traditional duck shops all seemed to look the same.

Cute ducks.

Safe ducks.

Too many generic ducks.

All a bit beige… or vanilla.

They just didn’t have much personality.

They didn’t really make you stop and think:

I LOVE IT.

No attitude.

No individuality.

Basically, BORING!

And that got him thinking.

“

If that’s what you’re into, great. But what about everyone else? What about the people who don’t want ‘white and fluffy’?

”

What if there was an alternative?

What if the rubber duck didn’t have to be aimed at children or bath time?

What if it could grow up?

What if it could have personality?

Humour?

Attitude?

A bit of edge?

What if choosing a duck could feel more like choosing a gift specifically because it connects with someone?

That was where the idea really started to take shape.

About a week after that first visit, sitting on a rooftop cocktail terrace overlooking Central Bucharest, he finally said it out loud to Ana.

“

I’ve got an idea. I’m going to open a duck store. But different to all the others. Totally original.

”

Ana’s first reaction was probably somewhere between are you serious? and where in the hell did that come from?

But they talked about it.

And the more they talked, the more it made sense.

The cocktails eventually wore off.

The idea didn’t.

FROM BUCHAREST TO LEEDS

The idea arrived in October 2024.

Getting it into the real world took considerably longer.

For some time after the pandemic, he had known that he wanted to change something. To do something different. To build something of his own.

He just didn’t know what that something was.

“

I knew I wanted to do something totally different. I just didn’t know what the hell it was going to be.

”

Until this particular trip.

Suddenly there was something.

The humble rubber duck could become something much bigger than a novelty.

It could have attitude.

Humour.

Personality.

Charisma.

It could be collected, displayed, given as a genuinely memorable gift and chosen because it had a connection with somebody.

And the experience could be different too.

Not simply finding a product because you needed a present.

Finding something that made you laugh.

Finding something that made you immediately picture the person you were buying it for.

Imagining their face when they opened it.

Hoping for:

“

WTF is this?

”

That was the bit he wanted.

A proper experience.

A gift that actually created a moment.

Back home in Leeds, the rough idea became a real business.

The name, the attitude, the visual identity, the mascot, the packaging, the website, the products and the bigger vision all started taking shape.

There was sourcing to work out, products to find, artwork to develop, packaging to design, suppliers to deal with, a website to build and plenty of setbacks along the way.

The idea was quick.

Making it real wasn’t.

After months of development, GET DUCK’D!! finally launched in spring 2026.

The aim was never simply to sell rubber ducks.

It was about doing rubber ducks and gifting differently.

And creating a brand.

“

Think Different. GET DUCK’D!!

”

THE PROBLEM WITH BORING GIFTS

The more the idea developed, the more obvious the original problem became.

Gift shopping can be bloody miserable.

You know the feeling.

You’ve got a birthday coming up.

Christmas is approaching.

You’ve drawn someone you barely know for Secret Santa.

Someone’s leaving work.

You need something for a friend, a partner, a family member or that someone who is impossible to buy for.

So you start searching.

Google.

Amazon.

Gift websites.

Page after page.

“Funny gifts for him.”

“Funny gifts for her.”

“Unique gifts.”

And eventually you find yourself looking at the same sort of products, the same sort of descriptions and the same safe ideas dressed up in slightly different packaging.

There is no shortage of stuff.

But sometimes the problem isn’t finding a gift.

It’s finding the gift.

The ridiculous thing that makes you immediately think:

“

That’s f***ing perfect for them.

”

That feeling is at the heart of GET DUCK’D!!.

Because the best gifts aren’t necessarily the most expensive.

They’re the ones that make someone laugh.

The ones that feel like you actually thought about who you were buying for.

The ones that create a reaction.

The ones that don’t get forgotten five minutes after they’ve been opened.

A gift that feels like a gift.

And that’s why the experience matters.

Fun to find.

Fun to choose.

Fun to give.

Fun to open.

And, hopefully, fun to keep.

DOING RUBBER DUCKS DIFFERENTLY

GET DUCK’D!! isn’t interested in filling another online shop with rows of predictable ducks.

The collection leans towards the more niche, quirky and unconventional side of the duck world.

Today, GET DUCK’D!! is the world’s first alternative rubber duck store, built around unusual ducks, adult gifting, art and personality.

GET DUCK’D!! specialises in unusual rubber ducks and alternative gifts for adults, bringing together genuine designer ducks, all imported from Europe, with a particular focus on finding the most interesting designs rather than simply taking the obvious ‘safe’ options.

The collection includes what is believed to be one of the UK’s most eclectic ranges of genuine Lanco ducks, with designs that aren’t always readily available elsewhere in the UK.

“

There are loads of ducks out there, but I’m not interested in just picking the obvious ones. We go looking for the interesting stuff. If it’s boring, why would we put it in a GET DUCK’D!! set?

”

At the heart of the gifting side of the brand is The Perfect Pair: The Original Rubber Duck & Mug Set®, bringing a carefully chosen duck together with an artist-designed mug to create something that feels like a proper gift.

The point isn’t simply to find an unusual duck.

It’s about finding something that feels right for the person you’re buying it for.

A footballer for the football obsessive.

A ghost for someone fascinated by the paranormal.

A vampire for the person who lives for Halloween.

Something completely ridiculous for the person who already has everything.

The same basic idea that started in that little Bucharest shop still applies.

Find the one that makes you think of someone.

More unusual in a usual world.

And the alternative side of GET DUCK’D!! doesn’t mean everything has to look the same.

There is a bright and colourful side to the brand.

Bold colours.

Graffiti and street-art energy.

Ridiculous characters.

Humour.

Attitude.

And there is a darker side too.

Horror.

Witches.

Strange things.

Things that probably wouldn’t make it into a traditional gift shop.

Alternative doesn’t mean choosing one particular look.

It means not automatically choosing the obvious one.

There’s probably a reason Halloween feels so at home at GET DUCK’D!!.

“

Halloween fits us. I’ve always been into horror, paranormal, and all things supernatural. It’s such a big part of today’s popular culture, and considering GET DUCK’D!! was conceived around Halloween time, it’s kind of our unofficial birthday. So damn right we’re going to make a big deal about it.

”

Horror and the occult have a strong connection to GET DUCK’D!!. It isn’t something that only appears when October rolls around either. The dedicated Horror Collection runs year-round, because at GET DUCK’D!!, Halloween never really ends.

Halloween is just an excuse to turn it up a bit.

THEN CAME THE MUG

One of the biggest ideas within GET DUCK’D!! came from somewhere completely unrelated to rubber ducks.

Mugs.

Growing up, he remembers Easter eggs that came with mugs.

Mars.

Maltesers.

Different chocolate brands, different designs.

His grandmother used to get him a certain Easter egg and mug every year.

Over time, he ended up with a sentimental collection.

They were never expensive designer objects.

They were just mugs.

But they became little reminders of different times and different memories.

And somehow, they stayed.

Years later, while thinking about what GET DUCK’D!! could become, that memory resurfaced.

It was about 3am.

Still thinking about the business, sitting in front of a pen & paper, staring at an empty coffee mug, throwing ideas around in his head and trying to work out what could turn the duck from a product into a proper gift experience.

And then came the moment of clarity.

It was right in front of him the whole time.

Why not a duck and a mug?

It sounds obvious now.

At the time, it felt like one of those ideas that had been sitting there waiting to be noticed.

Not a mug thrown in as an afterthought.

A proper part of the gift.

Something that could have its own artwork.

Something people would actually want to keep.

Something that could become part of the collecting experience.

And that became:

The Perfect Pair: The Original Rubber Duck & Mug Set®.

The concept was simple.

Pair a collectible duck with an artist-designed mug and turn the whole thing into a proper gift experience.

But the more the idea developed, the more it became about everything around those two products.

The anticipation.

The presentation.

The packaging.

The moment the box arrives.

The duck waiting inside.

The artwork on the mug.

And then what happens afterwards, when the duck ends up on a shelf or desk and the mug becomes part of everyday life.

A gift that feels like a gift.

Not just something bought because you couldn’t think of anything else.

THE MUG BECAME A CANVAS

There was another piece to the puzzle.

He had always been drawn to graffiti, street art and things that looked a bit different.

And he kept thinking about that original duck shop in Bucharest.

The street outside had been covered in graffiti and urban artwork.

There was something about the contrast that had stayed with him.

Hard, urban artwork covering the walls.

Soft, ridiculous rubber ducks sitting inside the shop.

It shouldn’t have worked.

But somehow, it did.

So why couldn’t the mug become a canvas too?

The idea is to work with emerging artists, illustrators, cartoonists, street artists and even tattoo artists, giving their work a physical place to live.

Not simply artwork on a screen.

Something functional.

Something people can use, display and collect.

Someone might discover an artist because they came looking for a duck.

Someone else might discover a duck because they fell in love with the artwork.

That crossover between ducks, art and collecting is a big part of where GET DUCK’D!! is heading.

And the artwork doesn’t stay the same.

The artists change.

The mug designs change.

The ducks change.

The combinations change.

The same basic gift can always feel different.

That is what makes The Perfect Pair more than simply a duck with a mug thrown into the box.

It is another part of the experience.

Something to open.

Something to laugh at.

Something to drink from.

Something to keep.

NOT EVERYONE’S CUP OF TEA

GET DUCK’D!! knows it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

And that’s fine.

It was never designed to be.

There are plenty of places selling safe, sensible and predictable gifts.

GET DUCK’D!! would rather make someone stop doom-scrolling and think:

What the hell is that?

Then find something that feels exactly right.

It is deliberately different.

A bit weird.

A bit cheeky.

Sometimes ridiculous.

Sometimes dark.

And unapologetically itself.

For collectors.

For people who like alternative things.

For the misfits, rebels and rockstars.

For people who don’t take life too seriously.

And for anyone who has ever searched through page after page of gift ideas and thought:

Is this really the best you’ve got?

“

Love us or hate us, we don’t care.

”

Boring gifts are cancelled.

Not everyone’s cup of tea. (Or maybe even mug of coffee!)

THE BRAND IS THE STAR OF THE SHOW

There is one unusual thing about the man behind GET DUCK’D!!.

Despite the personal story behind the business, this isn’t intended to become another company built around the person who started it.

GET DUCK’D!! represents something completely new.

A change of direction.

A chance to build something from scratch.

“

A lot of people build a business around themselves. That’s never really interested me. I want people to know GET DUCK’D!!, not me.

”

The brand is the star of the show.

He is happy to stay backstage for now.

That doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t make the occasional appearance, in one way or another, if the time is right.

PERHAPS IT WASN’T SUCH A STRANGE IDEA AFTER ALL

His background probably doesn’t make the story any more predictable.

He worked with the circus in his younger years, spent time working as an entertainer in Magaluf and grew up around the entertainment industry before eventually spending years on the doors of some of Leeds’ best-known bars and nightclubs.

So perhaps creating an alternative rubber duck brand isn’t quite as strange as it sounds.

Unusual is pretty usual.

SO, WHAT’S NEXT?

There is one thing he is prepared to reveal.

Something to watch out for is coming in Spring ’27.

It’s interactive. It’s designed to get people involved. And, with Leeds being home to GET DUCK’D!!, there was really only one place it could happen - Leeds City Centre.

That’s about as much as he’s prepared to say for now.

The rest stays under wraps.

Exactly where GET DUCK’D!! goes from here is anyone’s guess.

But what we do know is, GET DUCK’D!! is just getting started.