{"id":238932,"date":"2026-01-15T06:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/238932\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:48:09","slug":"how-bobby-kim-became-disneys-first-ever-creative-director-for-merch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/238932\/","title":{"rendered":"How Bobby Kim Became Disney\u2019s First-Ever Creative Director for Merch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disney Consumer Products works with hundreds of licensees worldwide, a scale that could easily flatten creativity. Kim sees it differently. \u201cAt The Hundreds, we did 30 or 40 collaborations and thought of ourselves as masters of relationships. Here, it\u2019s hundreds of relationships and friendships. If there was ever a king of collaboration, it\u2019s Disney.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim is drawn not just to Disney\u2019s bestselling blockbuster franchises, but to what he calls its \u201cB characters\u201d\u2014 the obscure, emotionally resonant figures that thrive in subculture. Asia, he notes, has long understood and loved them. Walk through a Disney Store in Tokyo or Shanghai and you\u2019ll find characters like Bianca, the mouse from 1977\u2019s The Rescuers, or Lucifer, the cat from Cinderella, elevated into entire product universes, untethered from their original narratives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about looking under the rock and finding these universes no one else has thought about,\u201d Kim says. \u201cBeing the first to share them, to proselytize them \u2014 that\u2019s always been my mindset.\u201d This applies to his outlook for his design teams, too. \u201cWe cannot only be inspired by the trends. We have the opportunity and the ability to drive trends because of the weight of this company and because of the weight of these brands,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Key collaborators<\/p>\n

Making Disney product archives more accessible to fans and designers is also part of the plan. \u201cVintage Disney is a universe in itself \u2014 the collectibles market, not just in terms of T-shirts, but watches and all types of product that people\u2019s entire identities are built around,\u201d he tells me. \u201cThere are key figures within the community. So much of that feels very familiar and native to me from a streetwear point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Mickey not just to be an icon, but to be a friend \u2014 and maybe even a guide. Someone who helps you navigate uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

An outsider approach also informs how Kim thinks about Disney\u2019s biggest icon as the company approaches Mickey Mouse\u2019s 2028 centennial. Mickey is a squeaky-clean universal logo. But younger consumers gravitate toward characters who feel imperfect, emotional, even a little angsty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the old cartoons, Mickey would scream, he\u2019d get mad, he\u2019d express emotion,\u201d Kim says. \u201cThat\u2019s how people want to feel today. I want Mickey not just to be an icon, but to be a friend \u2014 and maybe even a guide. Someone who helps you navigate uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fashion and beauty, at every level, will be a key tool in reframing Disney stories and characters. Kim will be involved in all Disney\u2019s high-end collaborations, but he\u2019s quick to reject the idea that luxury is the only cultural driver. \u201cA Walmart is no less important than a Coperni,\u201d he says. \u201cThey play equal roles in the ecosystem. Disney\u2019s about meeting people where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Coperni Spring 2025 Ready-to-wear.<\/p>\n

Photo: Victor Virgile\/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney Consumer Products works with hundreds of licensees worldwide, a scale that could easily flatten creativity. Kim sees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46,5345],"class_list":["post-238932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-latest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}