For years, Claire’s was a ceremony of passage for mall-going millennials who wished to purchase glittery equipment and butterfly hair clips, and likewise get their ears pierced.
Now the long-lasting style equipment and jewellery retailer for tweens and youths is about to develop nicely past the mall.
Earlier this week, Ames Watson and Centric Manufacturers introduced a licensing partnership that may convey Claire’s to greater than 7,000 new retail places throughout North America. At the moment, Claire’s operates greater than 900 places, a lot of that are in malls.
Centric Manufacturers will help grow Claire’s presence into new classes and throughout main retail companions, together with CVS, Kohl’s, and Walmart.
“By increasing our presence past our personal shops, we’re in a position to meet shoppers wherever they store, whereas persevering with to spend money on the in-store experiences that outline the model, like ear piercing,” Lawrence Berger, a cofounder and accomplice at Ames Watson, mentioned in an announcement.
A fast have a look at Claire’s previous
Between 2017 and 2018, Claire’s shuttered 189 stores, together with some places of its sister model, Icing. The retailer filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety in March 2018.
The style and equipment firm filed for chapter a second time in August 2025. Later that month, Claire’s was acquired by personal fairness agency Ames Watson for $140 million. Chapter data listed 234 Claire’s stores and 56 Icing stores that had been set to shut.
Unique new gadgets coming to retailer cabinets
Centric Manufacturers and Claire’s will develop an unique assortment of trend-driven merchandise. The brand new gadgets will span throughout a number of classes, together with:
- Cosmetics
- Jewellery
- Hair equipment
- Stationery
- Baggage
- Novelty gadgets
Centric Manufacturers will even develop Claire’s style footprint into extra retailers and discover new product classes, like attire, equipment, residence, and sleepwear.
The licensing partnership may result in co-branded merchandise being offered via shop-in-shop experiences, leveraging Centric Manufacturers’ relationship with “leisure studios and different IP holders.”
“The partnership displays a shared dedication between Centric Manufacturers and Ames Watson to scale Claire’s as a multichannel model via expanded distribution, strategic licensing partnerships, and constant model storytelling throughout each client touchpoint,” a information assertion learn.
Claire’s isn’t new to retail partnerships
Retail partnerships are nothing new for Claire’s, however the scale of this enlargement is.
In 2018, Claire’s started promoting its merchandise at choose Walmart places in the USA and Canada. And it partnered with Kohl’s beginning in 2023.
This newest transfer is a part of an even bigger development amongst brick-and-mortar retailers which have found out methods to strategically coexist. Workplace provides chain Staples, for instance, just lately introduced that it could sell merchandise from Get together Metropolis, a celebration provides retailer that additionally filed for chapter a number of instances.
