Loungefly Discusses Their Partnership with Disney Parks at D23 Expo

Our massive Loungefly coverage continues are we get to talk one on one about the Disney Parks process. Disney Parks collectibles are some of the most sought-after items since the park opened. Loungefly has released plenty of limited edition bags, purses, wallets, and more for the legendary theme park. We had to discuss what is the process behind this partnership and how these collaborated pieces are created. We were able to talk to both Ilana McBride (Director of Marketing & Social) and Derrick Baca (Senior Vice President of Creative Innovation and Vision) for this section. Check out the entire interview below and check out all of what Loungefly has to offer right here.

So when it comes to adapting the various attractions within Disney Parks. How do you go about picking what direction you want to showcase and how to do you go about making a bag, wallet, and accessories part of the design in a subtle way?

Ilana – “So we’re all about storytelling, right? The whole point is to bring these stories you know and love already, these attractions, you know and love everything that you already know so well and put that in a smaller canvas in a bag. So our creative team, who blew me away every day, every time I come into the office, I’m like, what? This is crazy.”

“I will tell you that 2023 is what’s coming in right now, and it is insane. So they’re constantly trying to pinpoint magical moments within Disney that are not super obvious. It’s not always like the very obvious scene from Snow White, but sometimes it’s just that one little moment we have right now. One of our exclusives is Devil Kronk with the Angel Cronk Wallet. That does better than if we just did a regular Cronk cosplay because Disney fans love those niche moments. So when you talk about attractions at the theme parks, sort of the same thing. It’s really how can we take that thing that you know and love, like Big Thunder Mountain, and just find the goat from it? The things that people really admire about the Disney Parks.”

How is it different developing items for the parks as developing them compared to, like, general releases?

Derrick – “Very different. So there are rules of what lives within the parks and what doesn’t. So we have a whole group of different intellectual properties that we can work on in the park. Such things as Orangebird and Figment and anything ride-related. Anything like that only lives within the park, so we get to do more of those special moments, special characters. Whereas outside the parks, we focus more on movie content, and things on Disney+. classic characters, things like that.” 

“Disney Parks has their own merchandising strategy by quarter. So they kind of come to us saying, this is what our vision is. This is the assets, and we get that specific direction from them, and then we produce that for them for their sets. The normal business that we have outside of the parks for our catalogs doesn’t. I kind of set the direction. We decide what we’re going to do, what month and what categories, what movies, that kind of stuff. Then we’ll work with our mom and pops or our retailers and kind of work together with them to bring what they kind of want within our vision as well. I would say with the Disney Park; it’s more driven by them as to what they want based on their color stories and their merchandise.”