Marvel Comics T-shirt for women
With the growing strength of animated band merch and influences in designs for T-shirts and accessories coming from manga and anime, Marvel comics, creators of comic book superheroes such as Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, and Spider-Man, finally thought creating merch for young females was a good idea.
However the recent press release from Marvel about this “big new move” does come across as pathetically out of touch with today’s female generation: “Since our core customer has always been guys, we need to be very careful when we introduce female product so that we don’t alienate our core,” said Paul Gitter, president of consumer products, North America, for Marvel Entertainment, Inc. to WWD. “What we have found through testing is that we haven’t alienated them, which gives us the OK to move forward with female product.”
Honestly, this sounds like the skateboarding industry in 2005 (until everyone noticed that Vans, Volcom, and Hurley were making a killing from women’s product). Not to be completely condescending here, but having made $5.7 billion on Marvel consumer products for guys, it’s surprising it took them this long. Marvel goes on to explain that their characters, put together in a rock-band type design, such as “I [heart] boys that rock,” is attractive to some young women. (Big surprise.) They’ve also added touches of anime in the graphics to make it more attractive to today’s young female consumer. They “discovered” that characters alone don’t sell as well among young women -they have to be associated with something that’s trendier and have tested their theories in T-shirts in Hot Topic and The Gap.
The good thing about the collection is that it does have a green aesthetic with eco-friendly materials and sayings. It also includes what we call “BFF” accessories such as split heart necklaces that you and your Best Friend Forever can wear to be ensemble.
With more than 5,000 characters to choose from, they’re hoping to roll out an entire collection by 2012.
The Marvel women’s collection can be found at Mighty Fine, Junk Food, and Fortune Fashions.
BFF necklaces from Marvel Comics
More licensed merch, including collectible lip gloss
