Pickleball participation increased 56% in 2024, according to the National Sporting Goods Association, marking the third year in a row that the sport has seen annual growth of 50% or more. While the number of new pickleball-related licensed product initiatives seems to have died down a bit compared to earlier in the sport’s short lifespan […]
Archive | Sports
Fashion Labels Shoot and Score with Hockey
As is true of almost all property types, sports IPs have increasingly been collaborating with designers and fashion brands. These are collections that are more fashion-forward or otherwise innovative, and typically more premium-priced, than traditional licensed fanwear ranges. Hockey—which is, in North America, currently deep in the first round of the National Hockey League (NHL) […]
Anime Is a Hit at Baseball Games
Major League Baseball and its teams, whose 2025 season began late last month, have been increasingly teaming with a variety of Japanese pop-culture properties for products and promotions. Japanese-origin IPs from the worlds of anime, kawaii, videogames, and VTubers are a good fit with the sport in many ways. The league and its teams, especially […]
Game-Changing Gear for Girls
Women’s professional sports have large contingents of young female fans who look up to the athletes and often aspire to turn pro themselves one day. In fact, part of the mission of women’s sports leagues is typically to bring young girls into the sports community as players and fans, as well as to support and […]
Soccer Clubs Charm Fans with Year of the Snake Designs
As we near the start of this year’s Lunar New Year celebrations on January 29, we take a look at an active area of collaboration tied to the holiday, namely European soccer/football clubs who mark the moment with special jerseys and other apparel designs in partnership with their official jersey licensees or other companies. These […]
Birdies, Bogies, and Brands
By Karen Raugust on December 19, 2024 in Design and content themes, Experiential licensing, Licensing, Sports
Golf has become an increasingly popular theme for experiential initiatives involving licensed properties, both digital and physical. Many of the initiatives are tied to character and entertainment IPs, but they extend into other realms as well: Mattel Adventure Park, the new attraction opening in 2025 as part of Epic Resort Destinations’ VAI Resort in Glendale, […]
Merchandise On A Mission
By Karen Raugust on December 5, 2024 in Demographic groups, Fashion, Licensing, Politics/social movements, Sports
The last several years have given rise to a crop of new mission-driven apparel companies, launched by current and former athletes, that serve as sports licensees. The collaborative merchandise helps spread the word about the shared goals of the partners to support and promote social justice, diversity, equal rights for all, empowerment, and positive change. […]
Sports Licensors Win with Wine
Historically, sports viewership has been much more associated with the consumption of beer than with wine. But that situation has been changing over the past few years as sports leagues, teams, and governing bodies have increasingly paired with wine marketers, opening up a new category for promotions and, in some cases, licensed products: In July […]
Hidden Treasure
A design technique that is currently trending in collaborative apparel collections is to hide meaningful text and graphics in linings, pockets, and collars where they are not visible, except to the owner of the piece. A few examples from the world of sports and sportswear this past summer illustrate: Sportscraft, the long-time creator of the […]
Character-Sports Collaborations for the Win
Just over a year ago, we wrote about how tie-ins bringing together sports organizations and entertainment properties, including musicians and characters, were experiencing a cyclical surge, with collaborations between the NBA, My Hero Academia, and Hyperfly; Major League Soccer, Adidas, and Marvel; and Lacrosse Unlimited and Peanuts among the examples at the time. The trend has […]