Has there been too much Brand Collaborations with the LEGO Group?

[JintaiZ]

Today, LEGO Adidas shoes have officially launched, and now we're looking at all the collaboration with TLG in such a short period!

Do you think there has been too much collaborations with other brands? Do you want them to continue? Let me know in the poll or comment below!

[Fuppylodders]

It all seems just too gimmicky and unnecessary. Feels almost like they're getting close to the point they're forcing lego down our throats. Sure, we don't have to buy it, and I certainly won't be... But I think they're starting to ride on their success of sets and losing focus of their core product. 

What's it going to be next, cereal bowls with studs all around it, with a spoon with studs on the concave part so you can attach your lego block cereal shapes to your spoon or make patterns out of the cereal on the bowl before you put them in the bowl and eat them? Lego dots around your glasses rims? House Light switch surrounds with studs so you can put random dots on it? Transparent light shades so you can make your own stained glass light shades with transparent dots? 

I like lego, but I'd never wear something lego-y, and literally don't understand the point of making storage boxes with a few studs on them. 

[JintaiZ]

11 minutes ago, Fuppylodders said:

It all seems just too gimmicky and unnecessary. Feels almost like they're getting close to the point they're forcing lego down our throats. Sure, we don't have to buy it, and I certainly won't be... But I think they're starting to ride on their success of sets and losing focus of their core product. 



What's it going to be next, cereal bowls with studs all around it, with a spoon with studs on the concave part so you can attach your lego block cereal shapes to your spoon or make patterns out of the cereal on the bowl before you put them in the bowl and eat them? Lego dots around your glasses rims? House Light switch surrounds with studs so you can put random dots on it? Transparent light shades so you can make your own stained glass light shades with transparent dots? 

I like lego, but I'd never wear something lego-y, and literally don't understand the point of making storage boxes with a few studs on them. 

Good point. Also, I think they're real overpriced compared to other Levi/Ikea/Adidas stuff...

I don't mind them continuing, but I'm not crazy about them.

[Vindicare]

3 hours ago, Fuppylodders said:

It all seems just too gimmicky and unnecessary. Feels almost like they're getting close to the point they're forcing lego down our throats. Sure, we don't have to buy it, and I certainly won't be... But I think they're starting to ride on their success of sets and losing focus of their core product. 

What's it going to be next, cereal bowls with studs all around it, with a spoon with studs on the concave part so you can attach your lego block cereal shapes to your spoon or make patterns out of the cereal on the bowl before you put them in the bowl and eat them? Lego dots around your glasses rims? House Light switch surrounds with studs so you can put random dots on it? Transparent light shades so you can make your own stained glass light shades with transparent dots? 

I like lego, but I'd never wear something lego-y, and literally don't understand the point of making storage boxes with a few studs on them. 

This is kinda how I feel. I don’t really care that they’re doing it...but it feels very unnecessary. Maybe Levi’s & Adidias approached TLG...but LEGO having the standing they do, they don’t need the added exposure. I guess you could argue they’re trying to branch out & grab hold of a new sector of fans. Just seems weird if that’s the case. “Here’s some shoes, now take a look at our sets!” Maybe it’s a way to draw in more adults as well. 

[JintaiZ]

3 minutes ago, Vindicare said:

This is kinda how I feel. I don’t really care that they’re doing it...but it feels very unnecessary. Maybe Levi’s & Adidias approached TLG...but LEGO having the standing they do, they don’t need the added exposure. I guess you could argue they’re trying to branch out & grab hold of a new sector of fans. Just seems weird if that’s the case. “Here’s some shoes, now take a look at our sets!” Maybe it’s a way to draw in more adults as well. 

I feel like 18+ sets alone is enough to appeal to adults.

Edited September 25, 2020 by JintaiZ

[Lyichir]

So what partnerships are you thinking of, exactly? Because off the top of my head there's Ikea, Adidas, and Levis. That's three, maybe four if you count the Uniqlo collab from last year. Still, you can count all of those on one hand. I can't comprehend why that would be considered "too much", especially since it's largely other companies paying to license the Lego brand rather than the other way around.

Personally, I'm a fan who used to love wearing a Lego backpack, Bionicle sneakers, and Lego club T-shirts when I was a kid. And then I grew up and... there was pretty much nothing left. It felt like practically a miracle when The Lego Movie came out and suddenly you could actually FIND adult-sized Lego merch (albeit only at Hot Topic, for an extremely limited time). Otherwise, I had to make do with fan-made shirts of varying quality, or things I made myself.

I understand how other people might consider it tacky or unnecessary to wear Lego on their person, but for me, it's both a way to express myself and something my ADHD brain can fidget with during lulls in activity. I did the same with my Lego-backed iPhone case, starting with the third-party BrickCase, then an official Lego-licensed Belkin case, and now a non-Lego case that I've customized with a baseplate my dad helped me cut to size. In general, I've gotten used to these sorts of collaborations popping up, lasting a year or two, and then going away. So with how much I like these sorts of things in general and how easy it is to miss out on them when they do happen, I hardly think these are "too much".

If anything, I wish some of them were bigger. Imagine if the Levi's collab, instead of all sharing a primary-heavy color scheme, came in a variety of more harmonized color schemes like blues or greens so you could better coordinate a variety of outfits around them (and for that matter, if more of them came in women's sizes, an issue I recently saw raised in a Facebook group). Imagine if the Ikea cases actually came in more colors and a wider variety of sizes, allowing you to better tailor their use to other applications or parts of your collection. Right now these collaborations are so limited that they have to draw solely from the most basic aspects of the Lego brand identity, but I don't think AFOLs would be nearly as apathetic about these if the shoes were, say, Classic-Space branded.

Edited September 25, 2020 by Lyichir

[TeriXeri]

Even LEGO's own campaigns seem a bit odd at times.

 

About a year ago LEGO launched the Rebuild the World campaign.

Recently saw the LEGO Rebuild the World video on television here, and LEGO re-uploaded another copy of it to their YouTube Channel again as well to basicly put it back into attention.

 

https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2019/september/rebuild-the-world/

But so far, I wonder what exactly has come out of this campaign.

 

Now, I know Just Imagine... was another similar of such campaigns to promote creativity and that was the slogan at the time.

Well, maybe that one helped me imagine minifigs having the power to fly, having no doors in some vehicles to enter it, or moving through buildings with no ladders or doors as there weren't always doors or ladders in sets.

Even in 2020, City or 3-in-1 scale , sometimes has no stairs,doors,ladders for each room etc, I personally have no issue with that as I just imagine them.

Edited September 25, 2020 by TeriXeri

[deraven]

I think I'm pretty neutral overall.  The IKEA collab kind of makes sense to me and I can see the appeal there, and Lego has made basic storage products themselves for a long time now.  But when it comes to the shoes and Levis clothing items... that has basically zero appeal to me even with as much of a Lego fan as I am so I think what bothers me is the concern about whether anyone will want them in numbers large enough to make it worthwhile and not be seen essentially as hubris and diluting the Lego brand.  But I am not representative of all people, so what do I know?

From another angle, if these (at least the clothing) are more of an artful statement (more akin to the Lego Originals products, but on a larger scale) and maybe tied into the Rebuild the World campaign, then I can understand that.  Looking at it as art or an outreach campaign I'm still not interested in buying any myself, but it seems like a more reasonable thing to do vs these things having an expectation to sell in the kinds of number of other TLG products which I just can't see happening.

If that's the case and several more collabs are announced all with artful, niche, low-volume expectations then it's just a bit of inspiring fun.  If they continue at this rate and promote them as regular products, I'm going to be concerned.

[JintaiZ]

8 minutes ago, deraven said:

I think I'm pretty neutral overall.  The IKEA collab kind of makes sense to me and I can see the appeal there, and Lego has made basic storage products themselves for a long time now.  But when it comes to the shoes and Levis clothing items... that has basically zero appeal to me even with as much of a Lego fan as I am so I think what bothers me is the concern about whether anyone will want them in numbers large enough to make it worthwhile and not be seen essentially as hubris and diluting the Lego brand.  But I am not representative of all people, so what do I know?

From another angle, if these (at least the clothing) are more of an artful statement (more akin to the Lego Originals products, but on a larger scale) and maybe tied into the Rebuild the World campaign, then I can understand that.  Looking at it as art or an outreach campaign I'm still not interested in buying any myself, but it seems like a more reasonable thing to do vs these things having an expectation to sell in the kinds of number of other TLG products which I just can't see happening.

If that's the case and several more collabs are announced all with artful, niche, low-volume expectations then it's just a bit of inspiring fun.  If they continue at this rate and promote them as regular products, I'm going to be concerned.

Sorry, there isn't a neutral option for the first question...

I feel like they're on the right track though, but releasing so much sets like that may not be the best idea...

[Peppermint_M]

They are not sets? They are partnerships with other brands. LEGO are not producing these products, they have licenced their branding and their appearance (or whatever you want to call it) to other companies. So unless there are terrible associations people have with that partner brand, then they just get profit.

Also, it is a little vague about "Collaborations": Right now, LEGO has it's third campaign with Sainsbury's going on. Their Create the World partnership/promotion means if you spend £10 in the Sainsbury's supermarket, you get 4 LEGO cards, these go in a collector album. This year the theme is Live Amazingly, the album is all about healthy eating, food origins and healthy living and there are 140 cards with minifigures and Creator builds on. The campaign is certainly a collaboration between LEGO and the supermarket...

[Lego David]

I am not a fan of those partnerships, and I don't see the point in them continuing. Why partner up with Ikea, Addidas, and Levi's when those companies have pretty much nothing to do with LEGO or toys? I can understand why they would want to partner up with someone like Disney, but Ikea, Addidas, and Levi's just feel kind of pointless and unneeded. 

Edited September 26, 2020 by Lego David

[JintaiZ]

24 minutes ago, Lego David said:

I am not a fan of those partnerships, and I don't see the point in them continuing. Why partner up with Ikea, Addidas, and Levi's when those companies have pretty much nothing to do with LEGO or toys? I can understand why they would want to partner up with someone like Disney, but Ikea, Addidas, and Levi's just feel kind of pointless and unneeded. 

Same here. Also, don't think they'll sell well

[dr_spock]

I see TLG trying different things to extend reach to more and different consumers than their traditional customer base.  There is also revenue from licensing their IP to other companies to use.  For companies with a large IP portfolio, it can be a significant amount of income.  It is up to Ikea, Adidas, Levi to market and sell those licensed products.  Success or failure is on the licensee.

On the LEGO House AFOL Day virtual event the other day, they did talk about this.  The Ikea products are geared towards families living in small apartments and condos. Storage boxes with a building surface for keep bricks "contained" in a small area. They also said they are picky to whom they would license but would be open to other companies approaching them for licensing.  You never know.

 

[JintaiZ]

6 minutes ago, dr_spock said:

I see TLG trying different things to extend reach to more and different consumers than their traditional customer base.  There is also revenue from licensing their IP to other companies to use.  For companies with a large IP portfolio, it can be a significant amount of income.  It is up to Ikea, Adidas, Levi to market and sell those licensed products.  Success or failure is on the licensee.

On the LEGO House AFOL Day virtual event the other day, they did talk about this.  The Ikea products are geared towards families living in small apartments and condos. Storage boxes with a building surface for keep bricks "contained" in a small area. They also said they are picky to whom they would license but would be open to other companies approaching them for licensing.  You never know.

 

Very true. I know TLG wants to appeal to different people but if it doesn't sell well enough then that probably wasn't the best choice.

[Vindicare]

4 hours ago, Lego David said:

I am not a fan of those partnerships, and I don't see the point in them continuing. Why partner up with Ikea, Addidas, and Levi's when those companies have pretty much nothing to do with LEGO or toys? I can understand why they would want to partner up with someone like Disney, but Ikea, Addidas, and Levi's just feel kind of pointless and unneeded. 

I can understand IKEA. While obviously they sell their products just fine to AFOLs, having a shelving unit or storage solution cater to us? That sounds pretty great...so long as the markup isn’t at the SW level. 

Edited September 26, 2020 by Vindicare

[JintaiZ]

52 minutes ago, Vindicare said:

I can understand IKEA. While obviously they sell their products just fine to AFOLs, having a shelving unit or storage solution cater to us? That sounds pretty great...so long as the markup isn’t at the SW level. 

Me too. However non-LEGO fans won't have much use for it, and I don't see many AFOLs buying it...

[Vindicare]

19 minutes ago, JintaiZ said:

Me too. However non-LEGO fans won't have much use for it, and I don't see many AFOLs buying it...

It really depends on what they create. If it’s useful & priced right, people will buy it. I haven’t looked into it to see what they offer. All I’ve seen is those plain white storage boxes that you can build on...which could be a more limited market. Even still, I could see non AFOLs buying that if they’re looking for a box to hold things. It could be a trip down memory lane in addition to what they came into the store for.

[JintaiZ]

15 minutes ago, Vindicare said:

It really depends on what they create. If it’s useful & priced right, people will buy it. I haven’t looked into it to see what they offer. All I’ve seen is those plain white storage boxes that you can build on...which could be a more limited market. Even still, I could see non AFOLs buying that if they’re looking for a box to hold things. It could be a trip down memory lane in addition to what they came into the store for.

I don't see the price being too good...

[MAB]

I'm not interested in them but that doesn't mean they should not exist. Even for regular sets, I don't like most themes that LEGO does. There are more themes that I do not buy sets from than themes I do but sets from. However, I don't think those themes should not exist. Same with these products that other companies are making but with LEGO branding on them. I do have a tee shirt with a LEGO logo print, so why shouldn't someone else have a jacket or shoes if they want them? There are plenty of other in-house or third party products like that - watches, lunch boxes, bottles, torches, clocks, pens and pencils, folders, etc.

2 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

Me too. However non-LEGO fans won't have much use for it, and I don't see many AFOLs buying it...

Yet that still leaves many kids that have Lego and need to store it.

Plus these boxes look great for non-Lego storage if you mosaic the tops. They are highly customizable storage boxes.

7 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

Same here. Also, don't think they'll sell well

Try getting your hands on a pair of the Adidas trainers. They seem to have sold very well.

[Peppermint_M]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

I do have a tee shirt with a LEGO logo print

Primark had those last year right? I love mine. Or, of course, the official brand store/LEGOLAND ones. 

On another note: I also have a number of LEGO Moleskin notebooks, they are fantastic. My Grandad is  was a real fan of the Moleskin books and bought me a LEGO one as a gift. I have since collected quite a few different notebooks with LEGO features. They are an example of an excellent collaboration that has been going for years and years. 

 

[TeriXeri]

I think the IKEA products are nice.

I don't care that much about the studs on Levi's or Adidas using the actual studs on the clothing&shoes, but the shoes don't look bad.

Now, I recently saw this pop up on Brickset, it's listed under Education, so not sure if LEGO will sell it directly, but it would be nice seeing more storage/sorting solutions offered, via IKEA and such in the future

Edited September 26, 2020 by TeriXeri

[JintaiZ]

1 hour ago, Peppermint_M said:

Primark had those last year right? I love mine. Or, of course, the official brand store/LEGOLAND ones. 

On another note: I also have a number of LEGO Moleskin notebooks, they are fantastic. My Grandad is  was a real fan of the Moleskin books and bought me a LEGO one as a gift. I have since collected quite a few different notebooks with LEGO features. They are an example of an excellent collaboration that has been going for years and years. 

 

The notebook is absolutely fantastic, though not sure about the other collaboration projects...

[koalayummies]

Neutral on all questions. I'm sure theres some that find the shoes and whatever else is being discussed desirable just like how some seemingly want to backseat driver everything TLG does on a daily basis.

[MAB]

LEGO is the minor partner in the Adidas collaboration. Adidas are doing 26 collaborations, and L is for LEGO is just one of them:

https://www.adidas.co.uk/a-zx

These are probably more for trainer collectors but combining two subjects where there are die-hard MIB collectors seems to lead to guaranteed success.

[JintaiZ]

7 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Neutral on all questions. I'm sure theres some that find the shoes and whatever else is being discussed desirable just like how some seemingly want to backseat driver everything TLG does on a daily basis.

Shoes are desirable. However, other shoes offers much better value...