celebretail

fame & fortune... & floor space

Author

MacK Seale
January 27, 2025

In partnership with

morninā€™ merry makers šŸŒŸ šŸ“ø šŸŽ¹ šŸ’ƒ šŸ†

today weā€™re chatting about somethings thatā€™s been living rent-free in my head too long.

how celebrities are taking over retail.

while they donā€™t pay rent to my thoughts, they're definitely paying rent ā€” lots of it! ā€” as more become retail moguls. i've been thinking about this so much i named it:

celebretailā„¢

(yes, i'm claiming this term šŸ¤© )

for as long as we've had celebrities, we've had celebrity endorsements. but a fascinating shift happened in the last decade. with social media giving celebs a direct line to their fans, they've realized they don't just have to be the face of a brand.

celebs can BE the brand.

honestly it's a good strategy & even better business.

these celebs already have massive, engaged audiences which means they can basically skip that whole expensive customer acquisition thing that keeps most retail marketers up at night.

plus, we all know that we following people > following brands.

so today iā€™m showing you the stats, stores, & stars of celebretailā„¢

todayā€™s merry menu:
šŸŽ¬ celebretail by the numbers
šŸŽ¤ 14 stores by stars

šŸŽ¬ celebretail by the numbers

before we dive in... let me geek out on some seriously juicy stats from a summer 2023 trend report by jll, a commercial real estate co:

  • 300,000 sq ft of celebretailā„¢ space opened in the us in just the last decade with 60% of it in the last six years.

  • 82% of celeb permanent stores are in apparel, despite beauty getting more buzz & number of brands.

  • 76% of celebretailers are choosing malls (mall kids unite!)

  • actors & musicians are the most popular retail brand owners ~42%

  • la is the most popular first permanent store city, but nyc wins for pop-ups.

  • combined these celeb entrepreneurs have 7 BILLION instagram followers

now let's dish about 14 of the most successful celeb brands that went brick & mortar.

listed in order of brand founding datešŸ‘‡ļø 

ā˜… billionaire boys club

pharrell williams' streetwear empire that helped pave the way for celebretailā„¢

ā˜… beats by dre

the headphone brand that turned audio into fashion (& caught apple's eye!)

ā˜… the row

mary-kate & ashley olsen's ultra-luxe minimalist fashion house.

ā˜… goop

gwyneth paltrow's wellness empire that's either enlightening or eye-rolling (depending who you ask)

ā˜… sjp collection

sarah jessica parker's shoe line that sadly couldn't carrie on šŸ™ƒ 

  • founded: 2014

  • first store: DC

  • current store count: 0

  • not even an online store to shop any more (pour one out šŸ„ŗ)

ā˜… golf wang

tyler the creatorā€™s streetwear brand named after a spoonerism of his musical collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA). if youā€™re wondering, a spoonerism is where the initial sounds of words are switched. so wolf gang became golf wangā€¦

ā˜… october's very own (ovo)

drake's cozy-cool streetwear that started way up in the 6 as the cool cats say

ā˜… fabletics

kate hudson's athleisure empire with the fastest growing footprint that is also the parent company to lizzo's yitty brand!)

ā˜… draper james

reese witherspoon's southern charm in store form that screams sweet home alabama. named after two of reese's biggest influences, her grandparents ā€” dorothea draper & william james witherspoon.

ā˜… good american

khloe kardashian's size-inclusive denim that's actually good (& cofounded by a brit.)

ā˜… uncommon james

kristin cavallari's jewelry, beauty, & lifestyle brand that's named after her brother & daughterā€™s middle name & the fact that james is an uncommon name for girls šŸ«  

ā˜… savage x fenty

rihanna's lingerie line that's making skivvies shine bright like diamonds in all sizes šŸ’Ž 

ā˜… skims

kim kardashian's shapewear thatā€™s broken the internet too many times to count.

ā˜… guest in residence

gigi hadid's cozy cashmere collection where runway meets rest day.

stars sending stores

what's wild is that most of these brands are still in single-digit store counts. but many of their websites are dropping hints about future expansion. (rip sjp collection stores, you're the only one who didn't make it šŸŖ¦)

i think this is just the beginning of celebretailā„¢

in fact when i was prepping this edition, i discovered ever more celebs testing the waters with pop-ups right now. from my december pop up round up, you know what that meansā€¦

permanent stores are on their vision boards.

be sure to tune in next week to discover which 14 a-listor(e)s who popped up.

p.s. if you're loving these retail roundups (& my new celebretailā„¢ term), there are three ways you can help keep this newsie merrymaking:

  1. click on our merry partner links below (seriously, every click helps!)

  2. share this email with your retail & celeb-obsessed friends

  3. consider a "pay what you want" contribution (because your girl's starting to think she needs to build a paywall around all this retail tea ā˜•ļø). rumor has it retail employees can count this as an education expense šŸ˜‰ 

How to tell if your ads will perform before you spend any budget

Instead of crossing your fingers the next time you run ads, what if you would know your ad performance before you even go live?

With Neurons AI, you can.

It gives you quick, actionable recommendations to improve your creatives and maximize your ad impact. Run A/B tests before launch and tweak your visuals for maximum brand impact.

Global brands like Google, Facebook, and Coca-Cola are already using Neurons to boost their campaigns.

We're talking 73% increases in CTR and 20% jumps in brand awareness.