Last week, Ivanka Trump announced that she would shut down her signature lifestyle brand, stating as the reason her full-time focus, for the foreseeable future, on her political and advocacy work in Washington D.C. Many analysts noted another likely factor, however, namely that sales of her branded goods had plummeted over the past two years […]
Archive | Celebrity
Licensing Is No Joke
Many of the top-ranking influencers on YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms, as ranked by sheer numbers of followers, specialize in comedic sketches, observations about their daily lives, pranks, and similar content. A few of the social media stars of this sort have fairly broad licensing programs. Jake Paul, represented by Brand Central since 2017, is […]
Tennis Players Ace Off-Court Fashion
Summer in the northern hemisphere is the season for many of the major global tennis tournaments, including the French and U.S. Opens and Wimbledon. It is also a key time for new product announcements involving well-known players, who have long been active in lending their names to fashion lines beyond their on-court endorsement deals. Tennis […]
Western Brands and Wanghong
Chinese social media celebrities—also known as key opinion leaders (KOLs), or wanghong—are increasingly becoming involved in product collaborations. This is especially true of a large and fast-growing group of Chinese fashion and style bloggers, who have been designing limited-edition capsule collections for Western luxury brands. A handful of recent examples: Tao Liang (Mr. Bags) teamed […]
Hard Liquor’s A Gonna Fall
The announcement last week that Bob Dylan was getting into the spirits game with a collection of premium whiskeys is just the latest in a raft of deals pairing musicians with wine, beer, and liquor marketers. More than a half dozen agreements announced this year so far illustrate the wide variety of music genres, business […]
Remixing Fashion for Ravers
DJs from the world of electronic dance music (EDM) have become increasingly active in fashion collaborations over the past five or six years, with both the number of musicians involved and the number of deals being done continuing to rise. Compared to other genres of music, such as country, classic rock, or rap, EDM stars’ […]
Walking in Chefs’ Shoes
Chefs who enter the licensing business typically focus on items closely related to their vocation, such as kitchen gadgets, cook- and bakeware, tableware, and sometimes foods. A category that seems to be outside the scope of traditional chef-based licensing but has been growing rapidly over the past five years: sneakers. While at first glance there […]
Designing and Building a Home Décor Program
Some of the skills architects use to design buildings are also applicable to other sculptural products, from furniture and vases to home décor, handbag clasps, and drinkware. Their sketches and other artwork also make good graphics for plates or bowls. It is no surprise, then, that architects, living and deceased, have lent their names, drawings, […]
Ghosts of Fitness Past
Several of the pioneers of pop-culture fitness oversee licensing programs, joining today’s fitness trainers, such as Tracy Anderson, Tony Horton, and Jen Widerstrom, in inspiring lines of health and wellness-related goods. Three examples: Charles Atlas. This month, Pacific Swell Brands announced that it would be representing the Charles Atlas brand for licensing into core fitness […]
Suiting Up
A trend in celebrity and sports licensing over the past several years has consisted of current and former pro athletes from the four major U.S. sports leagues individually introducing their personal brands into higher-end menswear and underwear programs. Athletes from outside the four major leagues, some active and some retired, are following suit, both globally […]