WEBVTT - Loot Crate's Davis on New Partnership With Harry Potter (Audio)

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to taking start with Kathleen and Pim Fox

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<v Speaker 1>on Bloomberg Radio. What kind of event has people talking

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<v Speaker 1>about such characters as a Doom Patrol Shade, the Changing Girl,

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<v Speaker 1>as well as Mother, Panic, X Men, and a variety

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<v Speaker 1>of comic figures well Comic Con New York Comic Con specifically,

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<v Speaker 1>it also includes characters such as Harry Potter and here

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<v Speaker 1>tell us more about the world of Harry Potter and

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<v Speaker 1>business is Chris Davis. He is the chief executive and

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<v Speaker 1>the co founder of lute Crate. They're based in Los Angeles,

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<v Speaker 1>but he joins us here in the studio. Chris, thanks

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<v Speaker 1>very much for being here, Thanks for having me. So,

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<v Speaker 1>how is Comic Con New York? Is that? How's that

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<v Speaker 1>working for you? It's going really well. It's crazy. It's packed.

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<v Speaker 1>There's a hundred thousand people running around in cosplay and

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<v Speaker 1>I was gonna say, and some of the most of

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<v Speaker 1>them are in custom. It's about half in costume half

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<v Speaker 1>and yeah, yeah, what was your did you have a

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<v Speaker 1>cost for lut Crate? I'm just rocking the Luke Crate

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<v Speaker 1>T shirt. I have to keep it a professional. Okay, guys,

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<v Speaker 1>So let's tell our audience. Now, what is luke crate

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<v Speaker 1>Because you're growing very rapidly. You started the twenty five

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<v Speaker 1>thousand dollar investment. UH in your first year you generated

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<v Speaker 1>a hundred seventy five thousand revenue and today you're generating

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<v Speaker 1>a hundred fifty million dollars plus your run, right, So

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<v Speaker 1>what is it that you do? So we package pop

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<v Speaker 1>culture merchandise from the top entertainment, gaming, film and TV

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<v Speaker 1>brands and deliver it to fans all over the world.

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<v Speaker 1>We shipped to thirty five countries and UH have twelve

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<v Speaker 1>different subscription lines. So if I want to get on

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<v Speaker 1>lut crate and get a Spider Man accessory every month,

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<v Speaker 1>I can do so. Yeah. So we our main product

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<v Speaker 1>is literally we curate from the hundreds of hundreds of

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<v Speaker 1>different I p s. We just today announced some specific

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<v Speaker 1>ones Harry Potter, UH and san Rio Hello Kitty, which

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<v Speaker 1>will be are one of our new initiatives of going

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<v Speaker 1>for the super fans of specific brands. We're launching subscription line.

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<v Speaker 1>So Marvel we just announced as well, so for the

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<v Speaker 1>Spider Man fan and you you could get the subscription.

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<v Speaker 1>So who is your customer? So eighteen to thirty four

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<v Speaker 1>is kind of our core demo. Um, but it really is,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, with properties like Star Wars, Marvel and d

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<v Speaker 1>c uh, there's not a demographic that doesn't really consume

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<v Speaker 1>this stuff. And you look at you know, most of

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<v Speaker 1>the top movies from a box office perspective these days

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<v Speaker 1>are all kind of traditional geek brands. Is this described

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<v Speaker 1>as the subscription service, the curated subscription service businesses that

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<v Speaker 1>how do you describe it in the industry? Yeah, so

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<v Speaker 1>it we we curate, So it's not there's you think

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<v Speaker 1>about like Dollar Shape Club and Honest Company, they're doing

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<v Speaker 1>refillable essentially subscriptions. This is across every consumer product category.

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<v Speaker 1>So we do books, apparel, collectible figures, proper replicas from

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<v Speaker 1>most franchises. So it's literally any item can end up

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<v Speaker 1>in a box. Of course, and now you're unvailing the

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<v Speaker 1>official sill crate for fans of J. K. Rowling's Wizarding World.

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<v Speaker 1>And I'm going to tell you there's a lot more

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<v Speaker 1>than you know. Eighteen to thirty five. You get kids,

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<v Speaker 1>you get the parents of the kids who read those

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<v Speaker 1>books to their kids growing up, and those kids are

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<v Speaker 1>not teenagers. I mean, that's a vast universe. Oh, I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>Harry Potter, I think is a lot like Star Wars

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<v Speaker 1>in the sense that everybody is connected in some way,

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<v Speaker 1>and we were doing we were looking into a four

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty million copies of the book sold. That's

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<v Speaker 1>just mind blowing. I we have all of ours that

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<v Speaker 1>we bought over the years as soon as they came out.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm a huge fan. I remember reading those of the family.

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<v Speaker 1>Your business, as Kathleen noted, has skyrocketed hundred and fifty

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty million dollars and we did a hundred

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<v Speaker 1>fifty million sales last year. Is it all relationships? I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>how do you present yourself? How did you make the

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<v Speaker 1>connections to have this? Intellectually it makes a lot of sense,

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<v Speaker 1>but is it really about knowing who to call and

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<v Speaker 1>went to call on how to make the deal? So yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>we say, you know, we curate. We get to work

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<v Speaker 1>with the best brands in the world. So we're putting

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<v Speaker 1>we're fans like our subscribers. We're working with Marvel, the

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<v Speaker 1>big Game companies. But are what we do that's really

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<v Speaker 1>special I think is is build that community and curate

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<v Speaker 1>all that content independent of those brands. So we bring

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<v Speaker 1>together a lot of So we we've been to a

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<v Speaker 1>hundred plus comic con esque shows like the one that's

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<v Speaker 1>going on in in New York today. We travel to the

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<v Speaker 1>Hong Kong Toy Fair, the German Toy Fair. We've have

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<v Speaker 1>four suppliers across the world we've gone and met, and

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<v Speaker 1>we use that pool and our partners on the media

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<v Speaker 1>side to put together these boxes every month. You were

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<v Speaker 1>talking about going to the rest of the world. Then

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<v Speaker 1>how difficult is it to create the box that appeals

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<v Speaker 1>to the kid in China, you know, the kid in

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<v Speaker 1>Rio or are there are there certain aspects of this

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<v Speaker 1>that are so universal? You know? It's it actually really

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<v Speaker 1>is truly global. The more we as we've expanded and

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<v Speaker 1>done a lot of research UM, both on the gaming

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<v Speaker 1>side and on the film and television side. It's most

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<v Speaker 1>of the same franchise of the people love UM in

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<v Speaker 1>most markets. So we've been surprised by how easily things

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<v Speaker 1>transition young men in same as young women. Do you

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<v Speaker 1>needed you want more customers? Do you need to appeal

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<v Speaker 1>to females more? Yeah, there's different genres and different franchises.

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<v Speaker 1>You think kind of like Buffy and a few of

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<v Speaker 1>the and shows like that have a more female centric audience,

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<v Speaker 1>but still a ton of male fans. So we've always

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<v Speaker 1>said about seventy percent male female um and we just

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<v Speaker 1>market to the to the show and you see some

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<v Speaker 1>interesting demographics coming out of that. Well, you've got some

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<v Speaker 1>limited edition crates I note for example south Park Call

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<v Speaker 1>of Duty loot for fan girls. You have a favorite

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<v Speaker 1>crate right now, the Harry Potter one. I'm really excited for.

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<v Speaker 1>The south Park one is going to be So it's

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<v Speaker 1>a one time collector's edition for their anniversary and we

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<v Speaker 1>worked specifically with Matt and Trey and their creative team

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<v Speaker 1>on that, and it's going to be hysterical. What's a

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<v Speaker 1>cost that's gonna be? Okay? Well, Chris Davis, and again,

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<v Speaker 1>what was your background which you study in college economics

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<v Speaker 1>and finance? This is I get to apply it to

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<v Speaker 1>about the most one topic. Again, how come I didn't

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<v Speaker 1>think of starting moot create. That's what's kind of superhero?

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<v Speaker 1>Chris Davis, CEO and co founder of Lucreate based in

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<v Speaker 1>Los Angeles and our New York studio today. You can

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<v Speaker 1>find him at loucrate dot com or follow at luke

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<v Speaker 1>Create on Twitter. Thank you for joining us. Pim Fox,

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<v Speaker 1>Kathleen Hayes, Thanks to our techic director Reggie Basil and

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<v Speaker 1>our wonderful producer Samara Same sam linga people right here.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Bloomberg