Austin Murphy's Vision for the Magic Industry

In 2025, Austin Murphy became CEO of Murphy's Magic.

Murphy's Magic is the largest wholesaler in the magic market. If you've ever bought magic online or at a local shop, it's very likely some of it came from, or passed through, Murphy's.

This is a strange setup for an industry. Having a single wholesaler means they control so many steps of production and sales: what to stock, what to produce, quantities, pricing, promotion, and more.

Murphy's Magic has a unique influence over the direction the magic market will take. Now that their CEO has changed, we wanted to find out what Austin’s vision for magic is.

So we spoke with him.

We first reached out to Austin Murphy for our story on tariffs' impact on the magic industry. At the time, he had also shared with us how the company functions:

"Sometimes, creators sell directly to the public, but more often than not, we are involved and help distribute their product worldwide. They share their product with us, we assess how we think our customers will respond, and place our order for a quantity we believe will move in a reasonable period of time. The product is then shipped and stored in our warehouse. Then, product leaves our warehouse in one of two ways: either a retailer stocks up on a specific product so that they can have it on their shelves/ready to fulfil orders, or an end consumer places an order on their favorite retailer's website, and in that instant the retailer will buy that product (and others) from us on demand. We then pack up the units and ship them out to the retailer, who in return ships them to the end consumer."

When we reached out again, we first asked Murphy what his goal is as the leader of Murphy's Magic. He told us that he wants to invest in product quality and community.

He explained that the latter means "becoming a more community-oriented company in every sense." On one hand, investing more in original content, social media, conventions, creator collaborations, and community events; on the other hand, investing in Murphy's team and their quality of life.

Talking of products, Murphy had several interesting points to share.

He said people are now looking for practical magic. He described this as "a shift back toward quality over novelty." Austin believes potential customers now need magic that will actually stay in their repertoire.

He argues:

"I think discretionary spending plays a role in that as well. When people are being more selective about where they spend their money, the question becomes less 'What's the newest thing?' and more 'What am I actually going to use?'"

The magic market is saturated with tricks. We often say this at One Ahead, and it's clear from the fact that some of the biggest magic companies are slowing their releases or exploring different product lines.

Murphy’s push to invest in products that last is probably a way to explore new spaces instead of the usual fight over the latest shiny gimmick. Will these products reach a big enough customer base? It will be interesting to see if the strategy pays off.

We first noticed this strategy in action when Murphy's started releasing classic tricks such as Silk-to-Egg, Snowstorm, Mouth Coils, and others. It's not something that the company used to do at such a large scale, and with this type of production quality — that caught our attention.

These effects aren't new, but they're being re-released with captivating trailers, updated instructional videos, and a new coordinated packaging line.

Austin Murphy told us:

“Our goal isn't simply to re-release classics. It's to revisit them with better manufacturing, better instruction, stronger presentations, and trailers that remind people why these effects became classics in the first place.”

Magic companies have invested for the last decades in creating new, innovative products; the all-time classics have rarely been updated. It's safe to assume these products cost less to produce than a new, never-before-seen illusion, so the company can make many of them at a decent cost — whether they’ll sell as well as shiny new products is unknown.

In many ways, what Murphy’s is doing reminds us of Amazon creating their Amazon Basics line. Amazon relied on sales data for retailers’ products on its site to decide which products to produce itself. Murphy’s certainly has a lot of data on what sells in magic.

This strategy is not new in magic. Not long ago, Vanishing Inc. launched a line of products for beginners, releasing classic props such as the Svengali Deck and the Bite Coin with different trailers, packaging and instructional videos. Those products launched around the time Vanishing Inc. acquired its first brick-and-mortar magic shops, which may have influenced the decision.