Steiff is a German toy company founded by Margarete Steiff in 1880, originally creating felt pincushion elephants that children began to cherish as toys. The company's nephew, Richard Steiff, designed the first jointed teddy bear, "Bear 55 PB," in 1902, which led to the company's international fame and the global "teddy bear craze". Today, Steiff is a renowned manufacturer of high-quality stuffed toys, known for its "Button in Ear" trademark, introduced in 1904 to signify authenticity.