by In September 2014, a half-face Instagram selfie with Karlie Kloss stood tall among a sea of others flooding the internet at the time.
In part, certainly, because it was Kloss – the rise of the model-entrepreneur through the ranks of fashion and soon enough, of technology, was in full swing – but also for the gray crew the photo was served for display, embossed ” Glossier” across the front. in bold, black.
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“We made the jersey for internal [use] and friends of the brand, but when people like Karlie started taking selfies with it, demand started rolling in,” said Glossier chief creative officer Marie Suter.
After only a few months before that selfie was posted, Glossier was already making early promises about the phenomenon that would become of it. In 2019, the brand unveiled its “GlossiWear” collection, which includes permanent offerings such as the signature pink Glossier hoodie and beauty bag, as well as a steady stream of limited edition socks, tote bags, key chains, a recent pepper grinder (because notes peppermint at You Eau de Parfum — of course) and other brand-building addresses.
“Merch is no longer this cherry-on-top marketing tool for us; it is now an important part of our business. People expect it from us,” said Suter, adding that a new arm of the brand’s design team is fully dedicated to coming up with new ideas within the category.
With Glossier occasionally re-opening its merchandise archives to public access — which it did as recently as last week — even before that, limited launches like the G Cookie Cutter and the GPal hair scarf are still serving as hype-builders. effective years after their first start. “It’s just about putting a logo on something bigger for us — that’s the old way of thinking about merch,” Suter said.
In fact, merch is taking on new importance for brands trying to bridge the gap between beauty and lifestyle. Last month, Rhode Hailey Bieber was the latest to dabble in the space, releasing her $35 lip treatment phone case on February 27, which sold out in 25 minutes.
Data from Trendalytics shows that the brand’s owned and operated social media channels grew by 1,068 percent from the brand’s six-month average during the week Rhode first combed the phone case, well beating the average 150 percent to 250 percent engagement increases driven by. Rhode’s other launch campaigns. Spate data also shows that the brand’s TikTok views grew by 112.2 percent month-on-month, thanks to the rollout.
“The case has utility, it has a unique design; It allows you to showcase a product—which Rhode makes beautiful products—and it also fits perfectly with selfie culture as a whole,” said Lauren Bitar, chief innovation and strategy officer at Trendalytics.
Case in point: the first thing beauty creator Kensington Tillo did when she got the situation was to film “Be Ready With Me” for “literally no reason other than… I want to take a mirror selfie ,” she half-joked to her 1.6 million followers in a TikTok video.
The lip case was designed by Sam Sonntag, formerly the senior head of design at Glossier and also the creative force behind several recent creative beauty and personal care efforts, including Tower 28’s latest LipSoftie Balm campaign .
“It’s a billboard for the lip treatment that everyone carries in their hand,” said Michael Appler, chief operating officer and creative director at Cancel Communications, the firm that represents Trendalytics.
Because beauty is such a saturated space, Bitar added, merch can serve as a way for brands to “expand their piece of the pie and reach a completely different set of consumers.”
For Merit Beauty, which offers its Signature Bag free with any first purchase, merch has been a key differentiator from Day One.
“The IS [Signature Bag] It was about creating something you could use for makeup products, yes, but it’s also a concept – something that expanded the brand from beauty to fashion, and designed through that lens. long-term wearability,” said Aila Morin, chief marketing officer at Merit, adding that more than 500,000 of the bags have been distributed since the brand’s launch in 2021.
Merit has since implemented a number of limited edition purchase items, including a gold compact mirror; a lighter case celebrating the brand’s third anniversary, and last fall’s Merit x Proenza Schouler iteration of the Signature Bag, which hit resale platforms like Poshmark and is selling for up to $175 in some cases — air rara for a free gift to buy.
“They drive an incredible level of sales,” Morin said of the giveaways. Although the brand had planned about two months of inventory for the Proenza collaboration, the bag sold out within weeks; ditto the lighter case of January.
Contrary to the popular “cult product” in beauty, Morin reports that no product within the Merit range accounts for more than 20 percent of its total sales – and that’s how the brand likes it.
“We didn’t create a brand about heroes, we created a brand about lifestyle and that’s why merch feels so natural to us; it’s not an add-on, it’s a plan from the beginning,” she said.
Similarly, a pre-established brand “vibe” set the tone for Ami Colé’s recent merchandising debut, a nut-brown leather bucket hat that reads “melanin rich”.
“In Harlem during the ’90s, the bucket hat was a cool-girl staple,” said founder and chief executive officer Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, referring to Kangol Kangol’s iconic signature look and Missy Elliot’s fuzzy Aaliyah.
N’Diaye-Mbaye calls the hat “a ride for people who hate stuff,” saying the goal is to create an offering that “stands on its own” and is also functional, thanks to a satin-lined interior which was meant to preserve the human hair style. and prevent breakage.
Meanwhile, Milk Makeup launched its second sneaker and limited apparel collaboration with Reebok, a company that Milk actually has a history with.
“We’ve been working with Reebok in shooting campaigns and as part of the creative process for years through Milk Studios,” said Milk co-founder Mazdack Rassi, who first introduced Milk Studios in 1996, and has since grown its ecosystem to include seven divisions, adding Milk Makeup in 2016.
“I think of Milk as a creative watering hole,” said Rassi, whose three lines that combine Reebok Milk Makeup partnerships, his Awake NY body care collection and Wu Tang Clan lip color collaboration is his own product, but rather . a collaborative spirit that “keeps you relevant; it keeps you part of the culture.”
The positive reception to Milk’s first collaboration with Reebok last year prompted the brands to go bigger this time, offering a bomber jacket, crop top and sneakers in four of Reebok’s classic styles. Importantly though – branding is in the details, logos don’t have to be overt.
“When we were creating the shoes, I was adamant with the design teams – on our side and on Reebok’s side – that no one was allowed to put logos on the shoe until the very end,” said Rassi, adding with that approach. it helped the collection’s utilitarian, versatile feel as a calling card, rather than either of the brands’ logos filling that role.
Guided by a similar ethos at the Merit Signature Bag, no external branding is banished. Ami Colé’s bucket hat reads “melanin rich” against the brand name itself because the Black and Brown communities are the ones who made N’Diaye-Mbaye’s mission to meet the needs of places where other makeup brands have fallen short – and although the Rhode lip case indeed says Rhode, it could be argued that its color and structural design give the brand away before the logo does.
Simply put – the next generation of beauty products has arrived, and it’s expanding the long-standing parameters that define what is and what can be. As Suter said, “It’s not just Glossier vacationers who are buying our products—it’s the past, and that’s what’s so exciting.”
Added N’Diaye-Mbaye: “It’s less about the product, and more about the person wearing it.”
Here, the latest in beauty merch.
Ami Colé The Bucket Hat
$40 at amicole.com
Merit limited edition lighter case
Free with every $75 order for a limited time
Milk Makeup x Reebok Milk Club C 85 Vegan Shoes
$110 at reebok.com
Rhode lip case
$35 at rhodeskin.com
Glossy G Cookie Cutter
$48 at glossier.com
Address Gallery: All Beauty Merch Senders From Glossier Phone Keychains to Rhode Phone Cases
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