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 […]
Archive | Sports
Pace Picks Up on Paralympic Promotions
Now that the Olympic Games have ended, fans are looking forward to the Paralympics, which will begin on August 28 in Paris. Commercial partnerships with Paralympic athletes have been on the rise over the past few years, generally taking the form of endorsements and brand ambassadorships rather than consumer products. Some examples announced this year […]
Court Craze Continues
Summer is peak season for pickleball, and the newly popular sport—which was invented in 1965—continues to gain strength as the fastest-growing participation sport in the U.S. It follows that commercial partnerships centered on the activity remain top of mind as well, from sponsorships and promotions, to logoed paddles, to designer-driven pickleball collections featuring apparel, footwear, […]
Is U.S. Cricket Licensing on a Sticky Wicket?
Cricket is the second most popular sport globally, after football/soccer, with an audience of more than 2.5 billion across 180 countries. It is particularly strong in South Asia (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, and especially India); Australia and New Zealand; England (the birthplace of the sport); the West Indies including Trinidad and Tobago; South […]
Two-Sport Athletic Deals
With the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Finals in progress, WWE, the wrestling entertainment brand, announced last week that it was creating an officially licensed legacy championship belt for the winning team. The belt, like those given to winners of wrestling events, highlights the Stanley Cup in the center, where the WWE logo usually resides, […]
Medaling in Olympic Fashion
When the 2024 Summer Olympic Games open on July 26, national teams from around the world will be more fashion-forward than ever, as befitting the Games’ location in the fashion capital of Paris, France. A large number of fashion brands, from luxury labels to sportswear companies to streetwear brands, are pairing with national Olympic committees […]
Joining the Fight Club
Two toy-industry deals announced this month, for the fighting franchises WWE and UFC, respectively, are the latest of a number of agreements in this space to launch over the last couple of years. In addition to the loyal family audience attracted to the leading properties, fighting-related IPs offer a clear play pattern that makes them […]
Rappers Tee Up Golf Collaborations
In recent years, rappers and their fashion and lifestyle labels have become increasingly involved in licensing and collaboration deals yielding collections of golf-influenced apparel, accessories, and footwear. In fact, in some cases, the artists’ lifestyle brands themselves are golf-related. Some examples from the last 12 months illustrate the accelerating trend: Tyler, the Creator’s Golf Le […]
Pairing Anime and E-sports
By Karen Raugust on March 25, 2024 in Character/Entertainment, Interactive gaming, Licensing, Sports
A popular sub-segment within the e-sports licensing sector consists of cross-licensed apparel collections that bring together e-sports teams and anime properties. The audiences for the two types of IP dovetail nicely, and the anime characters help drive interest and purchase intent for the e-sports brands. This trend has been ongoing since at least 2019 and […]
Playing for Keeps in the Sports Card Sector
Interest in trading cards featuring women’s sports leagues, teams, and athletes is on rise, and so are licensing deals in this space. This month, Upper Deck announced an agreement with University of Iowa basketball player Caitlin Clark, while Panini said it would be creating cards for the new Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), to name […]