Bleacher Creatures, which markets a range of sports- and entertainment-licensed plush figures, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Philadelphia.

In addition to blaming the “current challenging retail environment,” and the burden of making good on minimum guarantees, the Pennsylvania-based company cited another specific factor in its filing. “At the same time, certain of the debtor’s licensors recently prohibited [Bleacher Creatures] from selling their licensed products on Amazon.com, which had historically proven to be a lucrative sales platform for the [company]. These pressures have caused the [company] to experience significant liquidity constraints for well over a year.” Without access to Amazon for products related to those licensors, and given the overall challenging retail landscape, Bleacher Creatures struggled at retail for more than a year, the company said.

The company said it didn’t renew licenses with Marvel Entertainment and National Football League this past March because it “lacked sufficient capital to pay the approximately $200,000 in advance payments due on renewal.”

Bleacher Creatures’ top unsecured creditor is supplier Animal Magic Asia ($377,889). Licensors on the list include Major League Baseball Properties ($332,624), Warner Bros. ($111,784); NBA Properties ($75,079); Major League Baseball Players’ Association ($56,831); National Hockey League Players’ Association ($46,145); Soccer United Marketing ($16,638); NHL Enterprises ($14,344); Marvel ($11,929) and NFL Players Inc. ($10,409).

Contact:

Matthew Hoffman, CEO, mhoffman@bleachercreatures.com