Each year, mainstream retailers are offering wider collections of Hanukkah merchandise, focused mostly on gifts, entertaining, and traditional items used during the holiday (and some other Jewish celebrations). Over the years, licensed or collaborative products have occasionally been found within these assortments, but the examples have been few and far between and the number of […]
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Where There’s Smoke, There’s a Licensed Product
Barbecue restaurants, celebrity barbecue experts, and barbecue lifestyle brands have been particularly active in collaborations and brand extensions over the past couple of years, jointly creating new menu items, retail sauces and seasonings, and related products: This past August, Memphis barbeque restaurant Rendezvous, a favorite of Elvis Presley, paired with the singer’s estate for an […]
K-pop and Characters Unite
K-pop artists have long created cartoon-style characters as a way to promote their music and brands, with the creations appearing in music videos, marketing materials, and sometimes merchandise. Recently, K-pop soloists and groups alike have been pairing with existing characters — often from the Sanrio family — to create fashion and other products featuring themselves […]
A Pile of Pet Treats
The vast majority of licensing and collaboration agreements in the pet products industry, of which there have been many over the past decade involving all manner of IPs, have been focused on non-foods products such as leashes, apparel, beds, and the like. Pet food deals have been much less common, in large part because of […]
From Wool to Watercolors
Pairings of fashion designers with arts and crafts suppliers have been few and far between, but they do pop up occasionally. Such alliances makes sense, not only because both partners are focused on creative pursuits, but because designers’ sketches of their concepts, prior to any cutting and sewing, are often works of art in and […]
Beauty Can Be Fleeting
Some analysts and observers have been predicting the end of the celebrity beauty trend for several years, as the market has grown saturated with myriad examples of celebrity-owned, licensed, and collaborative brands. While predictions of the demise of the entire sector haven’t come to pass, as Rihanna, Jessica Alba, Serena Williams, Harry Styles, and dozens […]
Every License Has Its Day in Pet Products
Licensing has been a big business within the pet products and services industry for at least a decade, and has had a presence for many years before that. While new deals do not come up as frequently today as they did five or so years ago, IP owners and pet products marketers continue to partner […]
Luxury Labels Wage A Charm Offensive
Bag charms have been a notable accessory in the luxury handbag sector over the last year or so, part of a broader ongoing trend pairing fun with high-end fashion. The craze has also been driven by the industry’s current focus on Y2K-era retro styles. Miu Miu and Balenciaga were among the labels that notably highlighted […]
Retail Results: Hard Times for Home Goods
Four major multi-category retailers that released their 2024 financial results in the last month showed significant declines in sales of home goods. The category often (but not always) lagged behind other segments, according to the companies’ filings and third-party analyses of the results. The numbers illustrate the continued challenges that have been facing this sector […]
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, […]