Interview With Beth Taylor
Location: New York Comic Con 2023
Interview Date: 10/13/2023
Anime Herald: You designed the Samurai Champloo sweatshirt. What went into the process for the design?
Stephanie Benjamin: I really wanted to create something that would look good with detailed callbacks to the show. I redrew the weapons. We have Mugen’s, Fuu’s, and Jin’s weapons redrawn in a vector line art style. I added the sunflowers to pay homage to Fuu’s dad (Seizo Kasumi).
For Cowboy Bebop, we have Ed’s hacker emojis.
Anime Herald: Is Ein in there?
Stephanie Benjamin: Yes. Here’s Ein.
Anime Herald: What’s the focus of the booth this year?
Beth Taylor: The booth this year is focused on the classics. The classics always sell. Naruto, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Jojo’s [Bizarre Adventure], Samurai Champloo, and One Piece.
You’re a Bebop fan?
Anime Herald: Very much so.
Beth Taylor: This is all very insider for Bebop. Stephanie Benjamin is the expert. She’s been with the company for ten years. I’ve been with it for eleven. Stephanie has helped me grow the business. One of the ways we grew the anime business was by listening to the fanbase. I’m not an expert by any means. What I’m an expert in is investing in and making something big.
Back in 2015, 2016, we really started seeing Japanese pop culture become more relevant. We’ve been a Nintendo and Pokémon licensee for a very long time. All of these brands became more relevant. Every brand in this booth is what I call my “hit list” to get. We have the joggers and hoodie sets. We call them “hook-up” sets.
Stephanie Benjamin: We also have tactical fleece sets. Tactical because they have the cargo pockets, and because they coordinate together. Most of the hoodies match the joggers with the color variations. All of the crew pieces have a piece of artwork or color that coordinates with the hoodies.
Beth Taylor: It’s very well thought out. It comes from a fan perspective. That’s what Bioworld offers over our competitors. We have all people who are fans of the fandom. They are creating things that they want to wear. Our designer is here and excited about it.
Here, we have One Piece. One Piece has been one of our biggest collections. It’s one of the biggest things out there in the classic space, that’s so pop culture relevant. It’s a very deep collection. Our original launch was three Comic Cons ago. We broke all kinds of records. This kind of detailing, you’re not going to find out there. If you’re a huge One Piece fan, you’re going to come here and buy it. This stuff is nowhere. It’s exclusive to Atsuko.
All of the fans come here. We see what’s working. We adapt what’s working and we take it to the retailers. Bioworld probably has the biggest direct-to-consumer engagement model. You’re seeing firsthand how we engage.
We’ll acquire the property because we believe in it and we get it directly to the fans. Then, we’ll build it for retailers. We take the data from the sales results here and then we design it for the retailers.
Anime Herald: You mentioned that you got involved with Cowboy Bebop close to a decade ago.
Beth Taylor: Yes.
Anime Herald: How did that initially start?
Beth Taylor: At the time, it was Funimation. Now it’s Crunchyroll. Like Bioworld, Funimation was based in Texas. We met with them and gave them a proposal. They gave us the license rights to design, manufacture, and distribute, both to retailers and directly to consumers. We like to have that direct-to-consumer engagement, so we can understand “what’s next.”
Anime Herald: It’s nice that you were able to have a face-to-face meeting.
Beth Taylor: I know. Thank god.
Anime Herald: Did you ever get passed over on a deal? The fish that got away?
Beth Taylor: It all ends up working out at some point. We don’t take no for an answer. If the fans want it… Bioworld is not successful if we can’t get it to the fans. We don’t take no for an answer, because the fans don’t take no for an answer. The fans deserve better.
Anime Herald: What are the things the fans are clamoring for that you want to bring to them over the next year?
Beth Taylor: To me, it’s still the classics. Dragon Ball Z just had some major announcements yesterday. Naruto. I’ll be going to a One Piece panel. The classics are what we think people are focused on. We’ll still support the new anime coming out, but we see the classic growth going on now in a big way. A lot of these anime brands, they’re making Pokémon status.
For a Dragon Ball, without Bioworld, when we made that investment, we helped Toei Animation become big. Between Toei Animation working on Dragon Ball, and Bioworld, and Crunchyroll, it’s because of us that anime is so big. Because really, when you look at the business, you have to get the apparel out there first, to see what the fan base wants. It’s really because you can move the fastest on a tee shirt versus a product with a longer lead time. The fact that it’s so mainstream now… before I started over ten years ago, when no one was really interested in licensing Japanese pop culture. It goes back to a question you asked me earlier: “Did you ever get passed over on a deal?”
We were very early on this. They were excited to have someone coming to them who wanted to work on their merchandise. We knew it was right because we had a whole fan base. When I first started ten years ago, I had maybe three or four people I could talk to about what anime brands to go after. But now, everyone knows.
What’s happened in the past ten years, and what Bioworld has done for this fanbase, is what we’ll always continue to do. That’s why, we don’t just have anime. We have Heroes & Villains, and Dumbgood. Anything that comes out, we are investing in, because every fandom deserves the absolute best.
Anime Herald: Let’s go back eleven years. How did Bioworld convince you to join them?
Beth Taylor: I’ve known the owner, Raj Malik, and the VP of licensing, Jennifer Staley. They’re friends of mine. I formerly worked at Spencers. When I was there, I loved working with Bioworld. They always thought out of the box. They asked, “Would you be interested?”
To me, it was a no-brainer. We have fun. I’m around fans all day. It keeps you young because you have to be in the know. They really harness my skill set. They didn’t have to convince me. I didn’t have to convince them. It was natural because I was working with them as a retailer. I was able to bring that retail knowledge to this side of the business. I already understood the licensing pop culture fanbase when I worked at Spencer’s. We had to keep that customer base happy too. It was a natural evolution of our partnership.
Anime Herald: It sounds like New York Comic Con is a trade show for you.
Beth Taylor: To me, this is my favorite part. I can walk around here and see Bioworld products everywhere. I’m a fan of fandom. I’m actually a sports fan. I have my Eagles hat on. I’m a fan of fandom, so I get excited when I see fans buying our products. I’ll be back for Anime NYC. I was at Anime Expo. I was at San Diego Comic-Con. This is where I get my intel. I get it from the people I work with, but are they wearing it? It’s not just about shipping product.
Anime Herald: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Beth Taylor: The only other thing I’d like to say about our direct-to-consumer engagement model is that we’re working on over 120 different product types, with over 250 brands. We keep evolving that based on the business demand. We’ll go wherever the business is going.
