Dressed for Success: Mark Von Ohlen – Head of Licensed Product at Rubies – talks licensed costumes

Mark, thank you so much for making time! Who are you, and what’s your role at Rubies?
My name is Mark Von Ohlen. I’m the Head of Licensed Product at Rubies. That means I oversee the portfolio of licenses, which include NBC Universal, Disney, Sony, Warner Bros. – you name it! We’re probably best known for doing Halloween costumes and accessories as well as other wearables and decor items – but we have a large range of products.

Fabulous! Thank you. And how did Rubies come about, Mark?
We’ve been around for decades! Rubies was founded by Rubin and Tillie Beige in Woodhaven, Queens, back in 1951. But it wasn’t a costume company! It was a candy store; Rubie’s Candy Store.

No way?! And presumably Rubie’s is a portmanteau of Ruben and Tillie’s?
Exactly right! Later, their son – Marc Beige – joined the business. The candy store became a costume shop and that individual store became a company… They picked up licenses and started manufacturing costumes, eventually becoming a global powerhouse.

Wow! I had no idea!
Right? You might not really know about it because Rubies is like an ingredient… When people shop for costumes, they’re like, ‘Oh, I want a Batman costume!’ or ‘I want a Superman costume…’ They don’t necessarily think, ‘I want a Rubies costume!’ – but we’re the leader in the design and manufacture of costumes worldwide. We have offices across the globe.

And recently acquired?
Yes, we’ve been acquired by Joel Weinshanker who founded NECA. So we’re now part of the Ad Populum collection of companies… That includes NECA, Kidrobot, JEI – which is Chia Pet – and Christie’s and Smiffys, which are international costume companies. Then the big news, which was revealed at New York Toy Fair, is that we bought Party City about about two months ago so Party City will soon be back, which is very exciting.

And for those that aren’t familiar with it, what is Party City?
Party City is a retail juggernaut that was around for decades! They specialized in party goods, costumes and all sorts of pop culture. So if you were having a birthday party, this is where you’d go for balloons, helium, napkins, plates… All that kind of stuff. We didn’t buy the stores or inventory, but we bought the IP. We have the name and the website. There’s some more news coming that I can’t share quite yet, but it’s very exciting!

Well, congratulations! And I trust you’ll update us with your news when the time’s right. Do you know roughly how many licenses you hold, Mark?
We have about 50 licenses. I oversee them, but obviously there’s a team under me on the licensing side that works with each of the different studios and content creators in terms of product development. Then, of course, we have designers and everyone else across the company.

I’m really curious, then: what makes an IP right for Rubies?
When it comes to licenses, I think the thing I look for is a pop-culture connection with the fans. So for example, everyone knows who Batman is. Everyone knows who Superman is! They’re top-selling Halloween costumes every year. And actually, while Halloween is very much a chance for people to dress up, have fun and embody the characters they love, it’s also sort of a pop-culture moment… I always think of Halloween as a snapshot of what’s going on in the world at that moment.

Oh! I’ve never thought of that… You mean the costumes people wear on Halloween reflect what people are thinking? What they’re feeling?
I think so, yes – you can really see what’s in people’s psyche. So Halloween comes in these waves of – say – is it more horror based? Is it sexier? Is it creepier? Is it funnier? And oftentimes, when times are tough, Halloween is kind of a bigger party. So we always joke about recession pop… Lady Gaga is making recession pop right now with that album Mayhem…

So Halloween might really have a spike this year because people are feeling all sorts of anxieties around what’s going on in the world. I think there’s a lot more to it than people walking into a store and picking a costume. A lot of times, that costume is an expression of whom they aspire to be – at least for that one night. The fun they want to have and how they want to express themselves feed into their being able to find a license that really resonates – and we have several.

What a fascinating insight. It makes absolute sense, then, that Superman and Batman are often big sellers… What else sells well at Halloween?
Our NBC portfolio includes some ‘titans of horror’… Michael Myers, Chucky, M3GAN. We also have Wednesday – the next season of which comes out later this summer. That’s very current pop culture, but we also have Elvira – a partner of ours forever! So there’s a great range of things to choose from.

I’m fascinated that you have Elvira – a very old IP – right through to Wednesday, which is very new. How do you stay current?
Ha! Well, I’m a big pop-culture nerd. One of the things I tell people all the time is that some of my homework – in air quotes – is that I go home and watch a lot of YouTube and television. I have to stay on top of what’s going on in pop culture. Ahead of time, I investigate all the licenses we sign, obviously! But I’ll also watch new and different content to keep up…

Can you give me an example of something new along those lines?
I’ve used this example a few times, but Unicorn Academy is a new cartoon. It’s a show for girls ages six to 12 airing on Netflix; it’s about a girl named Sofia who loves horses. She ends up at a magical school with horses that turn into unicorns. And as you can imagine, she meets a group of friends and they learn friendship and teamwork and fight evil… There are unicorns, magic, rainbows and all that fun stuff.

Sounds like a Brands Untapped catch up…
Ha! There’re multiple chapters and seasons and I’ve watched the first several episodes, so far… Which, actually, is kind of messing with my Netflix algorithm! Ha! But I keep up with all that because even though those costumes aren’t made for me, they’re made for people that are very much part of our consumer base.

In addition, I’d say one of our most recent acquisitions is Skibidi Toilet – a YouTube sensation that the Gen Alpha kids really love. It’s a series of shorts that are totally out there! But when I started doing some research, all the kids knew it – it has billions of views. We took a swing on that: we sold it into the costume store Spirit Halloween last year and it was a huge hit! Now we’re also getting placement in Walmart.

But – just so I understand – the costume here would be toilet shaped?! What kind of design challenges does your team face in that respect?
Well, I’ll tell you the major challenge with every license: it’s staying true to the source material while making the costume practical. With a live-action person like Wednesday, played by Jennifer Ortega, that’s not such a challenge. It’s a person who wears real clothing – a school uniform. Easy breezy! Superman is a little more stylized because he’s in a suit that feels very comic booky. Right?

Right. But still a 3D humanoid! And then you have cartoons?
Cartoons are a little harder… I have the license for Family Guy, for example. So there we’re taking 2D animation and transforming it into a 3D costume. So we’d do flat masks and very simple printed shirts. Similarly, we do The Jetsons! The Jetsons costumes have black outlines to look like animation lines.

Ha! Lovely!
But to your question… Skibidi is highly stylized. One of the most important things we do is figure out how to embody the source material – but not necessarily be a replica because it still needs to be something that kids can wear. Getting good assets from the licensor helps because kids’ imaginations can take them further than the costume itself… Once they put on the costume and it mostly looks like the thing, it is – to them – full on perfect.

So there’s always some give and take on what we can achieve, and the Skibidi toilet’s a good example of that because it should really be maybe 30 or 40% larger in scale than the costume we made. But at some point you have to say, “Well, it has to fit on the shelf!” And it has to hit a realistic price point and be wearable when you attend a party…

You’ve got to get through the door!
Right! We do a lot of inflatable costumes, and they’re all very oversized. But again, you do – at some point – need to play with the proportions… It has to fit on a human body! So we did that with Skibidi and we’ve done that with Godzilla in the past. Godzilla’s been around for seventy years, so everyone knows who is and he’s relatively true to form. But it’s obviously scaled down because a person needs to be inside it!

Fascinating. I hadn’t thought about any of this. And presumably that’s something the licensor understands when you look for sign off?
Well, yes. It’s usually the studio that has final sign off but, for the most part, they understand those limitations. Let’s use Beetlejuice as an example… If the reference says the black and white stripes need to be a certain distance apart and go this far down the arm, say, then that may change slightly. We’ll explain how we need to execute it for manufacturing. And Warner Bros. would be very agreeable to that because they’ve been working with us for many years. They understand how we need to interpret IP for a Halloween costume.

I’m never going to look at Halloween costumes the same way again! Now… We’ve mentioned Superman a couple of times – the new movie comes out in July… What have you got on the slate for that?
We’re doing a whole range with Superman and a bunch of new characters that people don’t really know. Mister Terrific is going to make his theatrical debut in the upcoming movie. Hawkgirl is known in the comics and in the TV series, but this is the first time she’s really been in a movie in a big way.

And Green Lantern?
The Green Lantern in this movie looks and feels very different from prior Green Lanterns. We did have to align on what these three characters’ costumes are going to look like. How is the execution of a key clothing item – a motorcycle jacket – going to work on all three of them? What are the accent colors? How do they hit? How do their symbols look? All of those types of things needed to be discussed, aligned and presented to Warner Bros. for sign off.

And those costumes are out when?
We just revealed them! You couldn’t have timed this conversation much better; we publicly revealed the costumes on April 18th – and they’ll be on shelves in time for Halloween.

Presumably you have pretty decent notice on what the film costumes are going to look like?
We got access to that information pretty early with the Superman movie and the upcoming Supergirl movie. Confidentiality, of course! We got a little bit of story overview too… I’m not a storytelling license, though; I’m strictly product so I don’t need to worry about the plot beats. I usually don’t know a lot about the story from most of the movies and TV shows. I just need to know who the main characters are and what they look like…

Action figures are the same way; we follow the same sort of structure and time frame when it comes to manufacturing, production and development. But yes… We get a look at assets early, usually photography. We always get color targets and sometimes a pantone, which is great. Then, while we’re in production, things sometimes get revised.

Well, we need to start wrapping this up, Mark, but one of the questions I’m keen to ask is, I think, something you must get asked a lot… When you dress up in costume, as whom do you like to dress?!
Oh, boy! Well, I’m actually really deeply into Star Wars; my love of it is both deep and all encompassing… To the extent that I actually run a show every Monday night on a YouTube channel, I’m the head of their programming. I’m also part of a Facebook group called The Virtual Cantina Network. If you follow me on Instagram – and I highly recommend that everyone does! Ha! – if you follow me on Instagram, I’m DarthVonOhlen.

DarthVonOhlen. Of course you are! I’ll put a link to your YouTube channel at the bottom of the page if you like.
Thank you! And my Facebook group is called Star Wars celebration Los Angeles 2027. It has over 85,000 members currently! So your question about my costume is an easy and hard one because I dress up all year round! You’ll often find me in some type of costume at some point because I also go to a lot of conventions.

And Star Wars is often in the mix?
Right. In fact, we have the license for high-end Star Wars costumes – like, replica level! So I have an imperial officer costume that’s gorgeous; it’s made of a real twill-wool fabric. I’m trying to think what else I’ve worn recently…

One of my friends helped make an Ezra costume for me because I love Star Wars Rebels. That’s not something we sell. Last summer, I also dressed up as various iterations of Barbie’s partner, Ken… I’m a big beach rat, so I dressed as beach Ken, workout Ken and skating Ken! Also, when it comes to our own licenses, I like to take costume parts and and put them together with clothes…

Mix and match costumes with regular clothes, do you mean?
Yes. I have the the Nevermore jacket from Wednesday, for example, and I paired that with some black dress pants. I’m just like a student at the Nevermore Academy! Ha! No, I’m joking; I’m old enough to be the dean! I also love a superhero, so I’ll often try things on in the office and run amok. But this year I’m excited to be either Superman or Green Lantern, I think.

On that, I love the motorcycle jacket look of the Green Lantern costume we’re doing. I’ll start building a list of things I need to dress up as for October. I might do Fry from Futurama because that’s one of our new ones, and I love Futurama. I also love Ninja Turtles! My turtle is Donatello, so I dressed up as him last year. Then, on the horror front, I’ll do things that are only recognizable if you look closer… I’ll just wear the Beetlejuice jacket on its own, day, or the Freddy Krueger sweater. So if you know, you know!

Oh my days, Mark! You’d be wasted in another industry! You and Rubies are a match made in heaven.
Ha! Thank you. It is fortuitous… I actually studied economics and business and was planning on going into public policy. Given the state of the world right now, I’m glad I didn’t.

Well, I’ve enjoyed every second of this. Is there anything I should’ve asked you today that I didn’t?
Great question… You could’ve asked me what’s coming next!

Well, it’s only a great question if it elicits a great question… And yours is a great question! What IS coming next?
We have an upcoming sale on our high-end Star Wars range… That’s called Denuo Novo; the sale starts on April 29th and runs through until May 4th – Star Wars Day.

Denuo Novo? Tell me more about that…
So that’s our high-end Star Wars costumes and collectibles range. We do replica-level helmets and various costume pieces. If you’re familiar with the company, Anovos, they had the license up until about 2020 when they exited. We picked up the license at that time and rebuilt their entire catalogue. We also filled all the back orders that were left behind… We also created some new items. One of our newest launches is the Captain Enoch helmet from the Ahsoka season one TV show, which is very cool.

Describe that for me!
That one is a white stormtrooper with gold cracks. It looks amazing; very cool.

That’s up on preorder right now. Then we have about another 50 items in stock… A lovely big catalogue of items that goes across the whole saga: from classic trilogy and prequel items to the TV series. The new trilogy is well represented on the site. We have a First Order stormtrooper kit that you can build along with various helmets. There’s a buildable kit for the classic stormtrooper.

I can build my own stormtrooper helmet?
You can! And we have a whole bunch of different costume pieces, including the imperial officers I mentioned earlier. We have jumpsuits coming for the rebel pilots and TIE fighter pilots. Those are on preorder right now as well. But yes, we’ll be starting our May sale on April 29th, and the sale will be 10% off and free shipping if you’re in the US; 50% off international shipping. We also have a loyalty-reward program that just launched a few months ago…

If you spent money with us, you’ve earned points to use even during the sale. And if you make any new purchases during our sale, you’ll start earning points, so you can earn rewards on a go forward. So, yeah, there’s a lot going on with Denuo Novo right now. And shall I give you our socials for people to follow, Deej?

Please Do!
If you want to keep up with all the news on Rubies, Instagram is our best channel. It’s Rubies Costume Company. We’re also on Instagram for Denuo Novo – that’s where all of the high-end costumes and helmets for Star Wars live. And then if you wanna just keep up with me and my various costume changes, I am – as I said earlier – DarthVonOhlen.

Brilliant. What a great insight into your corner of the industry. Thanks, Mark.