Cooking Up Kitchen Collaborations

Most kitchen- and food-related housewares and appliance categories have experienced strong growth over the past year, thanks to consumers’ reenergized interest in cooking during the pandemic. Not surprisingly, a number of new and expanded licensed collections have come to light since the crisis began:

• This month, actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore and Walmart launched a six-piece collection of affordably priced, retro-designed kitchen appliances called Beautiful, including a coffee maker, blender, air fryer–toaster oven, toaster, and electric kettle, all with touchscreens and in a gold-accented green color. This assortment joins Barrymore’s Flower Home brand of furniture and décor, already available at Walmart.
• Country singer and cooking influencer Trisha Yearwood paired with Williams Sonoma, also this month, for a tabletop collection consisting of 20 pieces of dinnerware and serveware, marketed under the name Gwendolyn. The serving pieces, which include a cake plate, are inspired by drawings of cake decorations made by Yearwood’s mother, which are integrated into the pieces as details. This is an expansion of an ongoing partnership between the two parties, which has already produced coffee blends and cocktail mixes.
• After launching a holiday cookie cutter and cookie mix collection, alongside other items like tea towels, with Williams Sonoma for holiday 2020, Dolly Parton launched a kitchenware line at Hobby Lobby in another March release. The assortment encompasses more than 40 items, including plates, bowls, coffee mugs, serving trays, salt and pepper shakers, and platters for chips and dip. Design themes include butterflies and guitars. Parton retained IMG in 2019 to license her name into lifestyle categories.
• Marie Kondo paired with the Container Store in January for a sustainably sourced Container Store x KonMari line of 100 home organization products, including food storage, baskets, bins, hampers, labels, room dividers, desk and drawer organizers, and shoe racks, all made from materials such as bamboo, recycled fiberboard, rattan, ceramic, and wood. The products are displayed in an in-store boutique.
• In December, influencer Chrissy Teigen added several items to her extensive Cravings tabletop and kitchen range at Target, which launched in 2018. The new pieces include a 12-piece cookware set, along with a stock pot with steamer insert, crèpe pan, and gold aluminum cake pan.
• Disney Lucasfilm expanded its Star Wars kitchenware collaboration with Williams Sonoma in November. The assortment includes a Millennium Falcon waffle maker; Death Star and R2D2 toasters; a Death Star platter; spatulas featuring images such as Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and a Stormtrooper; and a range of other items including cakelet pans, Instant Pots, ice and pop molds, etched glasses, and much more.
• Interior designer Jonathan Adler paired with Keurig last September for a K-Mini Basic K-Cup coffee maker, along with complementary mugs, under the Jonathan Adler (Loves) Keurig Collection name. The blue octagon-patterned appliance is one of the items in Keurig’s Brew the Love program, which enlists celebrity fans of Keurig to design special editions of its products.
• Also in September, a culinary collective in the South Bronx called Ghetto Gastro paired with modern kitchen appliance maker Crux and Williams Sonoma for a line of exclusive appliances under the CruxGG brand. Pieces include a coffee maker, bread maker, slice toaster, blender, toaster oven, pressure cooker/air fryer, and rotating double waffle maker, which was the first item introduced.
• Peanuts Worldwide and Wildbrain CPLG partnered with Italian appliance maker Smeg for a numbered, limited edition of 70 refrigerators to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the characters. The line features a 1950s style FAB10 model mini-fridge sporting an illustration of Snoopy and Woodstock from the comic strip.

For more on the housewares industry, see our coverage of the International Housewares Association’s digital Connect SPRING event, held March 16 to March 26, 2021. The focus is on product development trends arising from consumer behavior during the pandemic and beyond.