Retailers are locking up orders up 1-2 months ahead of previous years for what they expect to be a robust Halloween 2022, as a hedge against continued shipping issues, while at the same time leaving extra room for unanticipated hits as the year goes on.

With development cycles for costumes that can stretch 10-12 months, it increasingly becomes a guesstimate about a property’s staying power, especially when it comes to those primarily viewed on streaming platforms.

For example, Party City has a DTR planned for this year’s breakout hit Squid Game for 2022, but is working with designs from this past fall’s first season, since neither images nor a release date is available yet for a second season, says Rick Goralnick, Director of Licensing at Party City, whose chain relies heavily on DTRs for costumes. Similarly, Party City is readying a DTR line for The Mandalorian, using assets from previous two seasons as a release date hasn’t been set for the third.

Risk factor
“We are taking a risk that the uniforms for Squid Game from the first season will still resonate next year. There are no guarantees because they can’t give us anything [assets-wise] because they don’t have anything yet,” says Goralnick. “We really just have to wait. We can put pencil to paper and take a shot in making it look like last year’s uniform, but it may have to be completely changed when the show comes out. We don’t have a choice.”

While it’s too early to say what Halloween 2022’s new hit property might be, companies appear to be banking on another season of strong sales, and trying new things. Party City, which typically relies on more family-friendly fare for costumes, plans to make its Halloween City pop-ups “edgier” with the addition of anime and some horror properties in 2022, says Goralnick.

Slime Lickers
Vendor Rasta Imposta, meanwhile, is testing the waters with Captain Obvious (of Hotels.com fame) and Candy Dynamics’ Toxic Waste Slime Licker candy. “Slime Lickers have been all the rage the past six months, but will they be a year from now?” says Rasta Imposta CEO Robert Berman.  “That remains to be seen.”

Party City, which will start briefing its buyers in January on the 2023 film, streaming and TV show release slates, is bringing in some inventory in June and will start placing it in stores in July – about a month earlier than normal, says Goralnick. It also plans to double the number of Halloween City pop-up stores to about 200 in 2022, which is down from 250 at its peak, but up from the 95 it operated this year.

A handful of retailers are placing deeper orders than they did for Halloween 2021, when buyers were more cautious and quickly sold through inventory, including some from 2020, says Tara Hefter, President and General Manager of Jakks Pacific’s Disguise Division, which will launch costumes in 2022 tied to children’s animated streaming series “CoComelon.”

“Many retailers realized they underbought this year, which should be corrected in 2022,” says Hefter. “Retailers are working earlier than normal this year because of that, and also the freight challenges are not likely to go away any time soon. Retailers also are more open to streaming properties every year, but the way content works from the studios, it makes it really challenging to get product out day and date for something that is organically successful like Squid Game.”

In addition to the scramble for new and evergreen IP – Party City and Spirit are both licensed for different versions of Dr. Seuss characters – the Halloween industry also will sort through a further re-shuffling of the competition in 2022. Jazwares’ Costume Play division which was formed earlier this year and is headed by former Disguise and Rubie’s executive Stephen Stanley, will come to market with its first lines including licenses from Marvel, Spider-Man, Star Wars, as well as from its own Squishmallows. The Marvel licenses shifts to Costume Play from Rubie’s, whose long-time agreement ends in 2022.