The specialty fashion tier focusing on teenage girls and young women has been one of the segments hit hardest by the financial woes plaguing all of retail. In the face of this difficult environment—as well as millennials’ increasing resistance to disposable fashion for economic and especially environmental reasons—two of the leading fast fashion chains playing […]
Archive | Licensing
Brands Enter the E-Sports Arena
Last year, Jinx—a company perhaps best known for its Minecraft apparel—announced that it would create clothing and accessories specifically for e-sports players and fans under the Jinx Pro brand, including licensed products tied to teams such as Team Liquid and Echo Fox. It is one of a growing, but still small, group of manufacturers acquiring […]
On Sports and E-Sports
Licensing deals in the e-sports arena remain fairly limited, both in number and in scope. But e-sports—a term that refers to professional competitive video gaming—continues to progress commercially, likely setting the stage for more and bigger licensing agreements down the line. One recent development of note is that traditional pro sports organizations are increasingly supporting […]
Checking the Time
The fashion watch category has been experiencing some significant challenges, thanks in large part to the fact that smartphones have replaced wristwatches as many consumers’ primary tool for keeping track of time. In one illustration of the issues facing the industry, exports of watches from Switzerland—the source of many higher-end, fashion-driven watches—declined 10% in February […]
Heading Home
The International Home and Housewares Show, held in Chicago this month, is always a good time to take stock of licensing deals involving house and home. A sampling of initiatives announced at the show or in the weeks leading up to it illustrate the breadth of licensing in this segment: Gibson Overseas is debuting a […]
Online Properties, Offline Products
By Karen Raugust on March 20, 2017 in Character/Entertainment, Digital, Licensing, Publishing, Toys/Games
Original entertainment series distributed on streaming platforms, rather than on traditional television, have quickly gained traction as viable licensing opportunities. The first licensed products for these sorts of IP, which began to emerge in the world of licensing nearly two years ago, tend to be toys and/or books. Some examples: Jim Henson Productions’ Word Party, […]
Power to the People
A number of licensed products were introduced in 2016 and 2017 with crowdfunding campaigns supporting the launch. The examples below, all offered through Kickstarter, show how this platform is particularly suited to merchandise that appeals (for the most part) to an audience of male teens and young men: Gamebrand debuted a gamer smartwatch featuring classic […]
Tech Tidbits from the Digital Kids Conference
The 2017 Digital Kids Conference, held at Current at Chelsea Piers in New York on February 20, 2017, focused on the intersection of technology and kids’ media, entertainment, and marketing. A few takeaways of potential interest to the licensing community: By a margin of more than two to one, the members of Generation Z (ages […]
Camo Colors New Categories
Recent deals serve as a reminder that camouflage brand licensing does not just encompass apparel and traditional outdoors products such as guns, camping equipment, tactical gear, truck seat covers, and the like. In fact, camo continues to grow as a design trend across a variety of categories, such as: Appliances. Magic Chef announced a deal […]
App Play for the Real World
Some time has passed since hit gaming apps were leading the way as focal points of the licensing business, when licensors and licensees were in search of “the next Angry Birds.” That said, a number of licensors of app-centric games have been able to establish licensing programs keyed to appropriate categories, as recent deals attest: […]