story by Kim Souza
ksouza@thecitywire.com
Editor’s note: The Supply Side section of The City Wire focuses on the companies, organizations, issues and individuals engaged in providing products and services to retailers. The Supply Side is managed by The City Wire and sponsored by Propak Logistics.
It’s been a three-year journey but David Bursteen and Ines Brigman, owners of Legends Home Bedding, were recently informed their Elvis Presley bedding collection will be sold in select Wal-Mart Stores this fall.
The Legends duo won the retailer’s Get-On-The-Shelf competition in 2013 after entering just 48 hours before the deadline. Getting the Elvis inspired bedding into Wal-Mart’s physical stores has always been a goal of this team who first pitched their products to Wal-Mart in a letter addressed to Dear Buyer back in 2012.
Bursteen said the in-store launch to 200 Wal-Mart’s will run through November and December and represents the commitment awarded from Wal-Mart for Legends winning the 2013 product search competition run by Walmart.com. He said Walmart Stores will feature prominent displays of the Elvis Presley Home Bedding Collection in several designs including one in Wal-Mart’s signature blue.
“We look forward to creating a successful venture this fall with Wal-Mart and have plans to expand our brand by introducing additional legends to our bedding line in the future,” he said. “Everyone we have worked with in this process has been incredibly helpful.”
He said the next logical legend would likely be Marilyn Monroe and her licensing is handled by New York-based Authentic Brands, which also handles the Elvis licensing, which Legends has renewed for three more years.
He told The City Wire in 2014 that the product involves a new category in bedding, which has somewhat complicated its going direct to brick and mortar stores. He said there is no licensed adult bedding category to speak of as most of this business has gravitated toward children’s bedding.
Bursteen told The City Wire that Wal-Mart seemed to understand there is
demand for the product and built in fan bases with American legends such as Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe. When Legends notified the Elvis Presley Foundation while in the competition, the fan support was instant.
“When our bedding popped up on their Facebook page it got 68,000 likes and 4,500 comments in 24 hours,” Bursteen said. “Fans are already asking us on Facebook in which stores the bedding will be available.”
The company has continued to use social media sites to engage Elvis fans and to test new design ideas.
He and Brigman met with Wal-Mart bedding buyers in Bentonville in April 2014 and have kept working with them over the past 13 months to come up with the products and price terms that work for both parties.
The Legends bedding has been a favored item on Walmart.com and also is sold on Amazon and online at Bed, Bath & Beyond and roughly 70 online retailers. While the partners are grateful for their online sales they believe getting the merchandise into physical Wal-Mart Stores will help to cross merchandise the bedding with his music and hopefully bring Elvis impersonators in stores if the retailer will allow.
To that point, Wal-Mart CEOs Doug McMillon and Greg Foran have each talked about their plans to bring “retailtainment” back into supercenters.
“Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves to make sure this is real. We are about to get our product in Wal-Mart Stores and that’s pretty cool,” Bursteen said.
One of the longest delays in the entire process was to find a Wal-Mart authorized manufacturer.
“They didn’t give us a list, we had to find them on our own. We attended a trade show in New York, but didn’t find the right fit. We eventually found a certified plant in China. We had to establish a relationship with this new manufacturer which took several months. Then our consumer lab testing took time, which is a different requirement at Wal-Mart Stores than we had followed elsewhere,” Bursteen said.
The new bedding line for Walmart Stores is in production. Bursteen said the partners will travel to China in a few weeks to inspect the final product.
Brigman said in addition to the contest-winning Elvis Bedding Collection, the stores will feature an exclusive “Silver Edition” collection to Walmart and Walmart.com at a promotional price of around $72 for the holidays.
Bursteen has spent his entire career working for, or dabbling with, startups and said this time the magic is working. He’s been a collector of Elvis memorabilia for years and it took him all of five minutes to get the home bedding license from Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2012. He told them then he would do his best to get the home bedding products inside Wal-Mart Stores, because outside of music, the retailer has not carried any licensed Elvis merchandise.
Brigman and Bursteen believe the Elvis inspired bedding is a good fit with Wal-Mart given that there has to be substantial overlap between Wal-Mart shoppers and Elvis’ fan base.
“Nervous? Of course we are. We are standing on Wal-Mart’s front porch about to go inside. What startup supplier wouldn’t be,” Bursteen said.