Between excess inventory management and strained relationships with mass retailers, it’s a hard time for toycos and emerging brands looking to build up momentum in the toy aisle. But that’s just one section of a store—and the apparel, footwear, grocery and beauty departments are ripe for kid-skewing IPs with aspirations to expand their licensing footprints.

Putting things into perspective, the global children’s apparel market alone generated more than US$286 billion in revenue last year and is forecast to grow 2.5% year over year until 2030, according to Germany-based research firm Statista. And that’s just one of many categories kidcos can dive into to help increase their retail presence and engage new demographics.

“Lifestyle is so much more than just products,” says Gabriela Arenas, Sesame Workshop’s SVP of global product licensing. “Our main pillars are toys and publishing, but our brand also appeals to older kids and millennials. Lifestyle collaborations let us do things that are unexpected and unique, which resonates with our multi-generational audience and keeps them engaged with the brand.”

Sesame began to cement this lifestyle strategy in 2018 when it first partnered with New York-based apparel company Bombas to develop a range of limited-edition Sesame Street socks featuring characters like Elmo, Cookie Monster and Big Bird. For every item consumers purchase, Bombas donates an essential clothing item to homeless shelters across the US. The apparel company has donated more than 100 million items to date since it formed in 2013, and has launched five Sesame Street sock collections over the past five years.

“Because we’re a nonprofit, we’re in a very unique position in the entertainment world,” says Arenas. “[Sesame] needs to partner with mission-aligned companies that share its common values. And when that happens, it helps the collaboration feel genuine and impactful to our audience.”

Quality products and meaningful humanitarian aid initiatives led Sesame Workshop to sign several sock licensing deals with Bombas

Another notable collab for Arenas was signing on with Footlocker and Champion for a Blank Slate apparel program in 2021 that allowed local artists to take Sesame’s beloved characters and reimagine them in new styles and artwork on hoodies and shirts. These included character “dissections” of The Count, Bert and Ernie from American artist Jason Freeny, and pop art apparel by Washington’s Naturel (Lawrence Atoigue).

As it does with most of its apparel deals, Sesame launched these ranges with a limited-time window to increase the collectibility of each item. “Each of our limited-edition collaborations typically lasts between six months to one year,” says Arenas. “This allows us to keep things feeling fresh for our audience throughout the year, and gives them enough time to get all the products. It also allows us to work with a wider range of best- in-class partners across different markets, including artists and athletes.”

The Workshop is currently looking to expand its lifestyle strategy beyond the realm of consumer products. Earlier this year, United Airlines tapped Oscar the Grouch to educate travelers about sustainable aviation fuel as its first chief trash officer. And LA-based financial service company NerdWallet has recruited The Count to help soothe the economic anxiety families are feeling from today’s higher cost of living. The nonprofit is also dipping into gaming platforms like Roblox to help kids express their lifestyles online through digital outfits and items for their avatars.

While Sesame Street is able to reach a wide range of demographics with new collaborations, London-based Moonbug Entertainment is focusing all of its lifestyle efforts on the preschool market. The key challenge here isn’t just getting kids to develop an interest in their style and clothing; it’s also to convince parents and guardians that the products are high-quality and worth purchasing, says Joan Grasso, Moonbug’s head of consumer products in the Americas.

“Lifestyle is becoming increasingly important when it comes to building a consumer products program for the preschool market,” says Grasso. “Typically, we’ll start with toys and get them placed, but it’s the apparel that has become a cornerstone for building up brand affinity and engagement with our fanbase, so anywhere we can do that off screen is critical.”

Just as critical is the timing of these products, and Moonbug focuses on extending its brand’s narratives off screen by taking the most popular episodes of its shows—including Blippi and CoComelon—and looking for ways to adapt them into new lifestyle designs, says Grasso.

“Once we secure a toy partner, we are already pitching in other categories,” she explains. “Six months after our toys launch, we hope to have soft-lines out in the market, beginning with apparel and sleepwear. More lifestyle categories like home and footwear will come a year later, which is the standard timings we like to follow.”

Moonbug started rolling out its CP programs in North America and the UK in 2020, and now the company is expanding into the Latin American region, which Grasso also leads. She notes that apparel has just begun to roll out in the region, with retailers ordering more lifestyle products since CoComelon and Blippi launched on Mexican free-to-air channel Canal Cinco in July.

“The core product categories are similar for each new territory we enter, but we have to design the products in a unique way for each one to ensure that we’re covering the trends and designs that are relevant there,” says Grasso. “We have also built a product development team that is studying and observing the global trends they expect will be relevant from 18 months to two years out.”

With some help from product development, the number-one trend on Moonbug’s radar is footwear. The global footwear market generated US$382 billion in revenue last year, according to Statista. The US does the lion’s share of this business at US$88 billion, followed closely by China’s US$83 billion. Meanwhile, Italy and Spain are paving the way for more sustainable materials and production methods in the field, according to the report.

“Footwear is definitely one of the largest categories for us, and we have a few partnerships that we’ve already secured in that space,” says Grasso. “We’ll continue to look for more opportunities in the future, and it’s a good category across the industry as a whole. We are seeing footwear collaboration announcements constantly.”

Meanwhile, footwear was just one piece of Mattel’s strategy to turn its first feature film into a tentpole moment in pop culture this year. The toyco is riding high after the massive box-office success of its Barbie movie, a co-pro with Warner Bros. Discovery. The live-action film earned US$1 billion at the box office in just 17 days, making it the second billion-dollar blockbuster this year after Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Mattel worked with BÉIS to design a hot-pink Barbie luggage
collection so girls can head to their vacation dream house in style

In the lead up to the film’s release, Mattel inked more than 165 licensing deals for Barbie that will continue to roll out into next year through retailers, e-commerce platforms and restaurants. These range from traditional products like a Hot Topic apparel collection and Loungefly backpacks, to far-reaching licensing deals that include a new line of luxury pool floats from LA-based FUNBOY, branded eyelashes and makeup in partnership with NYX Cosmetics, and an exclusive Pink Burger combo from Burger King Brazil.

“From the start, we had a plan to extend the reach of Barbie beyond the movie—our aim was to execute a widespread cultural event for people around the world to take part in,” says Josh Silverman, Mattel’s EVP and chief franchise officer. “[Lifestyle] products provide a way for individuals to experience and express their brand affinity for Barbie outside of traditional doll play.”

All of the movie tie-in licensing deals helped spark a pop-culture movement on social media, where Barbiecore and Barbenheimer hashtags motivated families to paint the town pink on their way to the theater while dressed in their best Barbie- and Ken-inspired outfits, adds Silverman. To date, the Barbiecore movement on TikTok has generated more than 980 million views, helping expose both the brand and movie to new audiences.

While the film has certainly highlighted Barbie’s star power, the doll has been built as a lifestyle icon for girls since her earliest generations. “From Barbie lunchboxes in the 1970s, to a collaboration with Moschino for a ready-to-wear runway collection in 2015, Barbie has an extensive history as a lifestyle brand,” says Silverman.

Hot Wheels and Barney are the next Mattel brands on deck for film adaptations, and while the toyco will aim to execute a similar brand-building strategy as Barbie through lifestyle products deals, the team needs to approach its product mix with a new model for each property, says Silverman.

“The lifestyle product mix is all dependent on who our audience is and how we are trying to connect with them. Our brands aren’t going to necessarily have the same product mix every single time because the fan bases are different. What works for Barbie may not work for Monster High or Thomas, and vice versa. It’s all about making meaningful, authentic connections that provide something special to our fans.”

This story originally appeared in Kidscreen‘s October/November 2023 magazine issue.