Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 11–14. Save 50% with early-bird passes.
Richard Bussey, vice president of accessories for Fender guitars, could probably fake some enthusiasm for his work—but he doesn’t have to. The man loves six strings and everything to do with them. Bussey spent half a decade as merchandise director at Guitar Center prior to joining Fender. If you head over to his Instagram page, you’ll see Bussey strumming, singing and looking very happy with his limited-edition Fender Parallel Universe.
“I eat, sleep and breathe guitar accessories—it’s my passion,” Bussey told Adweek. “I’m always thinking about new products and innovations.”
So when Bussey found himself in a meeting with the marketing people at Wrangler—the denim brand that’s been putting jeans on cowboys and wanna-be cowboys since 1946—he was at no loss for ideas.
Fender and Wrangler had already issued a co-branded apparel collection in 2022, an assortment of flared jeans, cutoff vests and flannels “built around the defining black and blue lived-in denim uniform worn by guitarists for decades,” as Wrangler’s corporate explained it.
That line had been well received, so the brands decided to do a second one. It, too, would contain plenty of denim jackets, vests and graphic t-shirts.
But “when we figured that we [could] get denim, we’re like, okay—let’s make a [guitar] case wrapped in denim,” Bussey said.
Without quite seeing it as such, the product teams at the two brands were not only about to create a limited-edition product, but they also raised the bar on co-branded merchandise.
New products, old idea
Brands partnering up to release capsule collections is a venerated idea in the marketing bible. Cosmetics brand Bonne Bell, for instance, released a Coca-Cola flavored lip balm back in 1975. Nike’s Air Jordan line has been delivering the goods since Michael Jordan signed on the dotted line in 1984. And Lego struck co-branding gold in 1999 when its first Star Wars themed building set hit store shelves.
But partnerships like these invariably yield products that stay within predicable parameters—usually one brand’s signature product with a dollop of the partner brand’s intellectual property: its name, its colors or just its name recognition.
When Dairy Queen partnered with the Girl Scouts in 2008, for instance, the result was simply a Blizzard shake flavored with Thin Mint cookies. And when Vans got together with Harry Potter in 2019, the special collection consisted of standard Vans sneakers adorned with the colors and crests of the four Hogwarts schools (Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and so on.)