If you want to reuse a function called showMaterial that both are used to show individual teddybears materials but now is going to be used for showing all teddybears materials, creating a custom event and then trigger it is a great way to do it.
var showMaterial = function() {....}; $('.teddybear').on('click.material','button',showMaterial); $('.teddybear').on('show.material', showMeterial); $('.buttonclass'.on('click', function(event){ event.preventDefault(); $('.teddybear').trigger('show.material'); }