California Apparel News

Speedy Gonzales, the animated Mexican mouse character from the 1950s, always seemed to be a second banana in the realm of Warner Bros. cartoons. But he might get a second chance at stardom, with a lot of help from a new fashion company and a new licensing strategy from Warner Bros.

Two Door, a three-month-old Los Angeles–based apparel company, will debut a collection of contemporary women’s activewear, featuring new graphics of the animated character, whose cartoons won an Academy Award in 1955. Two Door aims to sell its new Speedy Gonzales collection, dubbed “Loco For Love,” at high-end boutiques patronized by young women who wouldn’t think twice about spending $130 retail for a hooded sweatshirt, said Two Door co-founder Kristeen Van Fossen. “It’s an exclusive line. It’s Speedy at an exclusive price point,” Van Fossen said. Two Door will offer a seven-piece collection composed of garments such as bamboo/cotton hoodies and French terrycloth sweats with graphics of the mouse with tongue-in-cheek taglines such as “Original Gonzales.” Retail price points will range from $55 for a tank top to $130 for a sweatshirt.

Two Door co-founders Van Fossen and Heather McAvoy-Santana believe that their label’s mix of feminine silhouettes and street-savvy graphics has the possibility of getting prime real estate at boutiques that specialize in the latest high-end casual fashions. These boutiques are launching pads to new revenue streams, said Maribeth Towers- Toth, senior vice-president for the New Initiatives department of Warner Bros. Consumer Products Inc., based in Burbank, Calif. “Apparel is not new for licensed merchandise, but all of us are looking for new takes on it,” she said.

Searching the archive

Warner Bros.’ New Initiatives department was formed in early 2006 to find new earning possibilities for beloved cartoon characters that may have fallen off of the public’s radar screens.

Towers-Toth described her department as an incubator to find marketing opportunities for characters such as Speedy Gonzales. Once the character has been profitably re-introduced to the buying public, often in niche markets, the license is put in the care of the main division of Warner Bros. Consumer Products. This section handles mass-market merchandising opportunities for the media’s most high-profile properties, such as Batman.

Warner Bros. also deals with characters from DC Comics and cartoon studio Hanna-Barbera. “It’s endless,” Towers-Toth said of the burgeoning story lines of characters that range from Yogi Bear to superhero Green Lantern.

The merchandising market for entertainment properties, which includes footwear, cereal and Tshirts, is more than $46 billion, said Charles Riotto, president of the New York–based International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association.

The game has become increasingly competitive for more than a decade as entertainment companies transferred their licensing efforts from mere ancillary revenue sources to the economic front burner, Riotto said. “The mass market has been pounded to death,” Riotto said. “Looking at specialty and luxury markets is a way to go for new territory.”

In Italy, iconic fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has designed upscale garments with Warner Bros. characters. For Speedy Gonzales, Warner Bros. chose several fashion companies to produce wholesale luxury clothes with Speedy’s likeness; the other labels are Junk Food, Priorities and Bejeweled.

The Two Door co-founders conceded that there may be an overlap with their product and the other Speedy designs that will be offered to the boutique market. But Two Door will focus on a market for young women who may already be devotees of luxury activewear brands such as Juicy Couture. Two Door’s designs feature razorback tank tops, Henley shirts, and sweatsuits with custom zipper pulls molded in the likeness of Speedy Gonzales.

Van Fossen and McAvoy-Santana recruited street artist Seizer-One to embellish graphics of Speedy with banners and flowers that might look familiar to aficionados of tattoo and graffiti art. Seizer- One also goes by the name Jedrek Speer.

Two Door was formed in August. McAvoy-Santana had worked in the design and the wholesaling of licensed jewelry for companies such as Rocawear, Playboy and Disney Couture. She met Towers-Toth through a mutual friend. The Warner Bros. executive said that she had been impressed by Two Door’s pitch and believed that the label could deliver a compelling product in a short period of time.

First Tweety, now Speedy

Warner Bros. has been down this road before. It licensed its Tweety character in 2005 to be sold at high-end casual wear boutiques Kitson and Scoop. The trend has continued with other companies such as Los Angeles–based Dr. Romanelli, which features top-tier Warner Bros. characters Bugs Bunny and Tweety in irreverent costumes such as surgical garb. The line debuted in October at 181 Martel, Dr. Romanelli’s upscale retail and gallery space in Los Angeles.

In the first quarter of 2006, Speedy Gonzales became a candidate for a new merchandising effort. Warner Bros. market research found, through focus groups and online surveys, that the mouse was the Looney Tunes secondary character that had consistently polled among the highest across all demographic groups, according to Towers-Toth. Warner Bros.’ concerns of offending Latino sensibilities were put to rest through its research and knowledge of a media campaign by a civil rights group. In 2002, civil rights organization League of United Latin American Citizens petitioned the Cartoon Network to broadcast Speedy Gonzales cartoons because it felt that the character represented a fun and a positive portrayal of Mexicans.

Marketing season for Two Door begins in January, when it will exhibit at trade shows such as Miami-based Traffik and Global Project Trade Show. Two Door also will also be offering its novelty T-shirt line Henry Vincent for Two Door at the show. After Speedy, McAvoy said that her label should continue to design stylish activewear. “We’ll probably continue making clothes such as sweats, but we’re open to listening to the market,” she said.