Posted in: Collectibles | Tagged: boxlunch, d23, disney

D23: BoxLunch Discuss Their Brand, Female Fandom, and Licneses

During our visit at D23, we were able to speak with BoxLunch about their creativity and future here is what they had to say.

D23 Expo is here, and Bleeding Cool is on the floor and is discussing the future of collecting with BoxLunch. Luckily, we were able to get some interviews with BoxLunch to discuss their massive popularity, collectibles, and the style they are bringing to the market. From a growing line of exclusive bags, jewelry, and apparel, they are making quite the name for themselves, and we got to talk to Rick Vargas, Senior VP GMM of Merchandising & Marketing at BoxLunch. We got to talk about how they stand out from other stores, their rise in female content, and the tricky part about licenses:

What is BoxLunch doing to keep yourself set apart from everybody else who's kind of making its way into this (collectible fandom) industry? 

"Rick: yeah, I think we create a lot of unique products that are exclusive to the BoxLunch brand. A lot of things you see you can't buy anywhere else as we create them internally. We have DTR contracts with a lot of folks, so we have the ability to create products specialized to our customers and those fans. So, you know, that helps keep us differentiated. Obviously, we're gonna do things like Funko, which is everywhere. But for the most part, when you look at the apparel that we do, the bags or the jewelry, that is all us."

How much of a difference have you guys been really starting to cater to bring in more female audiences? How has that really changed from even 10 years ago, when then it was difficult to just get a shirt from Marvel that would properly fit?

"Rick: it definitely has evolved over the last 10 years ever since we started as a brand. You know, we've definitely pushed our vendor-based community to kind of move in the direction of facilitating a female fandom. They've definitely responded to it, once again we thought it was an open white space for us to kind of look into. So that's why we started creating our own product because it wasn't out there. We saw the opportunity for us to once again explore some thing that was not in the marketplace that was unique to our customer in that fence really wanted, they were asking for us for very specific items with very specific licenses."

Are there any specific licenses that you guys would really love to get your hands on? 

"Rick: There are a few, but you know what, for the most part, we've been really lucky and fortunate to work with a lot of licensors. There are a few things out there that we just can't get her hands on. But for the most part, we get everything we think that is important to our fans. There are things out there, I don't know, brands that may be a little sensitive to be around, but you k,now we find ways to work with them and figure out how to get that product. So, for the most part, we have all of our bases covered."

"I think there are a few things, you know like there are some Nintendo properties that are just tough to get because you got a dig really deep in work really closely with Nintendo, and you know it just takes a bit of time. But you know, we've been able to explore some of those opportunities, and they've been able to come to the table with some options. Studio Ghibli, for a long time, was really difficult for folks to find, and we have a great relationship with Studio Ghibli. We were able to showcase that product, and we have a very respectable relationship with them, so we have fresh products all the time. So it might be tough to get but we go out and we try to find it."

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