And you’re based in the US, are you not?
Yes, but I work very closely with the sales teams in the UK, the US and globally across Funko to drive the brands. There’s a lot of licensed product that we’re now dropping at around the same time. By way of example, both Funko and Loungefly have just launched Goosebumps products in Barnes and Noble. It’s a real arrival; a real collection in there – it’s great.

But – presumably – there are lots of occasions on which that’s not the case? Where Funko wants to do one thing in which Loungefly has less interest? Or vice versa?
Oh, yes – all the time! Because – while we have a lot of crossover between the consumers – there’s still a very different consumer market… Including the price points. For example, our bags are £75 to £85 at retail. That’s very different from a £10 to £15 Pop! Also, our retail structure can be very different in terms of whom we work with from a brand perspective. Some of Loungefly’s retailers are at the specialty and higher end. So we have three fairly strict pillars we try to keep to from a brand perspective.

What are those pillars?
We have pop-culture retailers like HMV, and we deal with a lot of independent retailers. Forbidden Planet comes to mind because I know you know them… There’s another called Get Ready Comics based in Rochester and Kent – they’re a phenomenal retailer for us. Others are online – like TruffleShuffle. We’re also in with fashion retailers: Namshi in the Middle East, which is like ASOS. We also do Zalando in Europe as well. Then there are the bigger destination stores in which we might sit in different departments – for example, Selfridges, Harrods and so on.

And you say you might be there in different departments?
Yes, because we might sit in with the accessories or the gifting department or sometimes even the toy department. We work with Hamleys, for example – and FAO Schwarz as well. Phenomenal toy retailers – but Loungefly fits in very well there.

Perfect, thank you! Now, I should tell readers that we’re meeting in a room FULL of your enormously distracting product! So this could be a very disparate interview because there’s something to talk about everywhere I look! To start, I’m curious as to what those little boxes are, Rich…
Ah! That’s a tray full of our collectable pin badges. We do a few different types. First, these are our regular-sized mystery pins. We do really well with these as a pickup-purchase offering. They retail for around £6 or £7. There’re six in each series; this one is Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. And they’re blind boxes so you don’t know what you’re getting.

These are great! And if they’re blind boxes, am I right to assume people trade them if they get doubles?
People do trade, yes. In fact, I was talking to the owner of Get Ready Comics about his new store… He said he’s going to have an actual section for pin trading in store. That said, we also see people come in and buy a whole tray just to make sure they get one of everything! We also – every now and again – do a Chase version; a rare badge… It might have, say, a glitter enamel on it to make it more exclusive. We even design some of our bags to serve as what we call pin-trader bags…

Pin-trader bags? How so?
The design of the bag incorporates perforated holes. They let you keep the collectable pins on the bag. This Beetlejuice Handbook for the Recently Deceased bag is a pin-trader! So look: you can open this see-through flap… See it’s all perforated? You can put your Beetlejuice pins in there without damaging the bag.

Oh, I just love it. Don’t say the B-word again though, Rich! And what are these? Bigger pins?
Yes, these are three-inch pins. Some of them are limited edition. This Nightmare Before Christmas one, for example, is limited to 1,600 pieces globally. It comes in a beautiful display box, but Jack Skellington moves up and down like he’s going around on the carousel. Another interesting idea is the one you’re holding from the Netflix show, Wednesday. Wednesday’s dresses are magnetic so that you can change what she’s wearing.

Ha! That’s brilliant!
Great, isn’t it?! We did one of these for Barbie last year too so that she could change into different outfits. Also – for the Barbie movie – we worked with AMC Cinemas in the US to do a Barbie-pink rollerblade bag as a crossbody. They really resonated with our fans – they sold out in something like eight minutes. We have a yellow version coming through this year which is like the one in the movie.

Terrific! What else was new for you in 2024?
You might be interested to see these mini-backpack bag charms charms, Deej. We launched them this year… They come as a series as blind-box options, but they’re mini versions of a full-size backpack. The level of detail on them is insane! They have all the little straps so you can wear that on your back.

And what is the license here? Oh! Inside Out…
Inside Out 2, Disney Pixar, yes. But we have a huge collection of these because it’s been a big thing in the US for the last three or four years. That’s now starting to come through more in the UK and Europe. And we have a vast back catalogue, so we’re working hard on them. I think they’re great because we appreciate that not everyone can afford a full-size Loungefly bag right now. So we developed these to let people that love our brand buy into it.

We also launched our first range for McDonald’s with great success last year. We won a licensing award for it! So we’re evolving into different properties and licenses… We had our first-ever collection of Gilmore Girls in 2024, and you can see we’ve got Chainsaw Man on the shelf behind you – because anime is becoming bigger for Loungefly. There are also some really interesting Halloween ideas on those shelves: It and Wednesday. And in terms of the holidays, or Christmas, this Disney Mickey & Friends range lights up…

What? The little fairy lights on the bag?
Yes! There’re two or three dozen Christmas lights on each of those bags – and a little pack in there so that you can recharge them.

That’s AWESOME! See, now I’m looking at my little leather man bag and thinking: I’m just not making any kind of statement with it!
We have bags that smell as well…

Well – my bag smells, Rich… Lost mints and pound coins. It’s not a plus!
Ha! But our bags are meant to smell! This Stitch mini-backpack smells of gingerbread…

Oh, my days! It really does! Ha! Amazing!
Another example that comes to mind was from Toy Story 3: the Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear… Lotso for short. If you remember, Lotso was a teddy bear that smelled of strawberries. When we created a Lotso bag, we added a strawberry smell to it. We also did a Willy Wonka bag that smelled of chocolate. For fans, that extra detail is a delight – so we’ll look to do that if it’s right for the brand.

And where does all this innovation come from, Rich? Is there a Wonka-esque genius striding the corridors of Loungefly making it happen? Or is it a team effort?
It’s a team effort – our creative and product-development teams are phenomenal. Absolutely amazing. They’re such an important part of the success of our brand because the levels of innovation they push is off the scale. They continually push the boundaries with different options and bags and shapes and added features.

Can you offer me any insight as regards where they start with their process? One of the big things – for a licensed product – is that they look at the IP very carefully. They really ask themselves: what is it that makes this property work? What do the fans love about it? What’s the essence? Because they want to do their best to capture that. Our teams are really thinking about who’s buying the product and what they’re using them for. So as well as serving the fandom, we’re offering the practicality that should come with a bag as well.

Which is worth calling attention to, specifically… These are incredibly well-made; it’s all of a fantastic quality.
Yes, phenomenal quality. That’s exactly it. The product has to be of incredible quality, and that then lets you amaze everyone with the design and the innovation. Take a look at this… This is something I think you’ll like from The Nightmare Before Christmas…

What’s this? What’s this?
Ha! So – yes, it’s a Mayor of Halloween Town crossbody bag. You turn here on the bottom – and it twists to change the face.

No?! This is amazing stuff, Rich. You know, I really hope my excitement lifts off the page when people read this, because I think what you’re showing me is phenomenal!
Thanks, Deej. We’re very excited about these products. Of which – from an EMEA perspective – we’re launching Pokemon this year too. We’re really excited for it and truly grateful for the opportunity to bring these products to the EMEA market to align the licenses globally. You might also be interested to hear that we’re looking to do more book licences.

When you say books, that includes literature on a straight journey to Loungefly? It doesn’t – as so often seems to be the case – have to be a book that’s been made into a movie first?
Yes, a straight journey. We’ve seen from our demographic that many people that buy into Loungefly love reading as well. So that’s a market we’d like to explore as a key element for not only Loungefly but also Funko – the whole business. We’re asking ourselves how we can get into certain fandoms, and we see books as a big opportunity.

Fascinating. And sports and music?
We’ve done some sports over the last few years. We’ve done Beatles, we’ve done Queen, we’ve done Jimi Hendrix – but we’ve also got some music coming through now. We have another music star coming out next year. I shouldn’t really talk about that! But we’re moving into these different areas where we see opportunities to look at the fandoms, really.

Brilliant! I’m curious: what did you do before you were at Loungefly, Rich?
I’ve now worked in the accessory industry for 20 years. For my first foray into licensing, I was the southern sales rep for a company called Rawhide Accessories. This is back in the early 2000s. Over the years, I’ve worked with lots of different licenses, from Playboy to Disney. Immediately before Loungefly, I did a couple of years heading up sales for the EMEA part of BioWorld International in the US. That was a great opportunity; it was a fairly new business in the EMEA market. I loved my time there, it was great. But Loungefly came calling – probably the only brand that could’ve pulled me away!

Oh, really? What is it about Loungefly that’s irresistible?
Being in the accessory market, it was a brand I’d known for a few years. You can just see the innovation in what they do and how they offer it. In that way, Loungefly doesn’t just do license collaborations – it’s a brand in its own right. So when they came to me and said they wanted me to come and help launch this brand, I couldn’t resist. That was over six years ago. It’s been phenomenal, not least of all because I’d say we’ve achieved about 80% of what I wanted to do in that time.

Fantastic. Well, thank you, Rich. I can’t remember the last time I had such an eye-opening, head-spinning look round a product room. Loved it! Do come back again.

The post Loungefly’s VP of Global Sales, Rich Smith, discusses the brand’s incredible quality and amazing designs appeared first on Brands Untapped.

Can you speak a little about what goes into creating these products?
Well, Liz DeSilva and Derrick Baca – our SVPs of Creative, Innovation and Vision – are phenomenal at what they do and how they lead our design team. They’re always pushing the boundaries and they’re massive fans themselves. It’s the same with a lot of our design team. They’re into the properties.

Disney is one of our biggest partners and Liz and Derrick are in the Disney parks all the time. I went with them to the parks in November and they look at all the details – stain glass windows, elements of the shops… They take inspiration from all that kind of stuff.

“We’re unique – you can spot a Loungefly bag a mile off!”

It’s also worth noting that some of the artwork that ends up on product is hand drawn ourselves; it’s not taken from a style guide. We work with partners to create our own artwork to go on the bags. We’ve got light-up bags, glow in the dark, bags that smell… We had a FRIENDS Central Perk Mug bag that smelt like coffee. We had a Willy Wonka bag where the zip-pull was a Wonka Bar that smelt like chocolate. They consistently push the boundaries. We’re doing things in categories that no-one else had done before.

I’d imagine in the more traditional bag and wallet space, there are rules around what they can and can’t do. How tough is it to innovate in this category, bearing in mind these products have to perform a function?
Function is a key part of the design process. Everything we do is about the function. We don’t want to design a bag – or any kind of product – that people can’t use. And longevity and newness are key for us as well. We launch 11 collections a year – that’s a lot of new product and practicality is key. As well as our design team being amazing, we have an incredible product development team that works with the factories to innovate while keeping our quality level high. They do a great job.

A great example of how we innovate is our new Crossbuddies bags. It’s like a crossbody bag, but it has another bag strapped to it, so it looks like the bigger bag is hugging the second bag. It works really well with characters and we’ve launched Crossbuddies bags with brands like Stitch, Avatar: The Last Airbender, McDonald’s and WALL-E. It’s a great example of us creating bags that are unlike anything else on the market. Derek and Liz have some weird and wonderful ideas but with the design and product development teams, they bring them to life beautifully.

It looks great. And I’d imagine McDonald’s is an interesting brand to work on.
Yes! We launched our McDonald’s range back in January and February and it’s been one of biggest launches to date. We did things like a Happy Meal Box back-pack and a French Fries crossbody. They’re some of my favourite items.

On that, what does a brand need to work well for Loungefly?
It’s an interesting one because there are so many different brands that could work for Loungefly. We look for brands that will work globally. We have a huge global fanbase and the brand is expanding, so we want brands that will work from a global perspective. That said, even with global brands, some things resonate stronger in certain territories.

We also look at it creatively with regard to what we can and can’t do with a brand. There are some phenomenal global brands that we’ve had conversations with, but not signed, because we wouldn’t have been able to push the boundaries with it. There was one I was very excited to sign, but we’d have been so restricted with what we could do that it wasn’t right for us as a brand. And that’s the thing, Loungefly is a brand in its own right – we have to make sure our brand values and style align with a licence.

What is the key to a successful creative collaboration between Loungefly and a brand owner?
It has to be a partnership. We both want it to be a success and so you have to work together to ensure it’s a success. It’s hugely important, especially when it comes to design-thinking. If that aligns, then it filters down throughout the entire collaborative process. We’ve even had commercially successful launches that we’ve not renewed because behind-the-scenes it hasn’t been much of a partnership. It really is vital, especially when you factor in the amount of time and effort that goes into these products.

“We had a Willy Wonka bag where the zip-pull was a Wonka Bar that smelt like chocolate. We push the boundaries.”

And how about partnerships with retailers?
Our brand is strong in the independent market. We work with big retailers like HMV, Gamestop and House of Fraser, but we also work with indies that might be one shop or a website and their turnover on Loungefly is phenomenal. Look at a store like Get Ready Comics in Rochester – he does incredible with Loungefly. Truffleshuffle is also great at what they do, as is Geekcore. I could name 30 independents that do phenomenally well; they support us and we support them with exclusives. We worked closely with Forbidden Planet on the launch of their new Brighton store – they probably now have the biggest Loungefly section in the world. They’re a great partner – they do Loungefly evenings for fans. That’s what it’s all about; it’s a fanbase, but it’s also a community.

Rich, this has been great. Before we start to wrap up, I wanted to ask you about cult characters. What dictates who Loungefly gives the limelight to, because you have plenty of products centred around sidekicks and cult characters?
We’re fans and we love certain characters; some we feel don’t get enough airtime, so we’ll produce product for that. Sometimes it’s about brands and characters that are underserved in licensing. A few years ago, we did some product for The Fox and the Hound and there hadn’t been much out for that brand. It was a great launch for us.

We have a bag based on Max, the dog from The Little Mermaid. Again, there’s not much Max product out there! We want to tap into those brands and characters with a cult following. We do very well on Up – it’s a great brand for Loungefly. It has a cult following within the Loungefly fan community. We recently did a How to Train Your Dragon bag and the fans went crazy for it. It was one of our fastest-selling bags, which caught me off-guard a little bit. It’s not an IP that’s everywhere now, but it has a core fanbase that love it.

Last question! What helps you have ideas? How do you fuel your creativity?
Well, despite my job title, I’m actually a frustrated designer! It’s not my area but I have loads of ideas! I’ve been in this industry for 20 years and worked with people that have taught me a lot about how to look at the world and have ideas. You see things every day that inspire you – especially when you’re working with people like Derek and Liz and the design and development teams we have here.

Rich, this has been fun. A huge thanks again.

The post “We’re like the Gucci of pop culture!”: Loungefly’s Rich Smith on design, fandom and pushing the boundaries appeared first on Brands Untapped.